Chapter Thirty three
“They haven’t suspected a thing then?” Darce asked, helping me up as we climbed one of the great mountains in Eallarim. It was the first day of my week here, and he apparently had a surprise for me.
“No. Uri hasn’t warded the library or done anything out of the ordinary. Nell even inquired about wanting to study a few pages of the book to help with the blessing rituals, and he agreed.”
“You’re mighty seer, tricked by a Noxlin,” Darce huffed, lifting me up onto the ledge he was standing on. “We have to keep really still and quiet,” he whispered, wrapping his arms around my waist from behind. “Bathin can be a little shy with creatures he doesn’t know.”
“Bathin?” I questioned as the loud beating of wings sounded in the distance. The mist around the mountain made it difficult to see, but as an enormous shadow of two feathered wings came into view, I backed a step closer into Darce’s chest.
A giant bird, the colour of the darkest midnight, ruffled its feathers before tucking its wings away. Then it turned its head to bow at us.
“Hello old friend.” Darce greeted it, moving me behind him before slowly walking over to the creature to stroke its back.
“You have nothing to fear. This is Alora. The one I was searching for.” The bird looked towards me as if he knew what Darce was saying.
“Bathin is a shadow raven. They were believed to be used by my kind in The Battle of False Promise. These creatures are very rare. I stumbled upon him two thousand years ago, when I got lost veil hopping. He had injured his wing and I fixed him up. He’s been visiting me here every century since. ”
“He’s beautiful.” I had never seen such a graceful creature. My mouth fell open as I watched Darce mount the great bird, offering his hand out for me to join him. “Are you insane? What if he doesn’t want me on his back?”
“You’ll be fine. Come on. He doesn’t peck.
” Trusting him fully, I allowed Darce to lift me onto the bird’s back, sitting me in front of him as he wrapped his arms around my waist to hold me in place.
“You might want to hold on.” I didn’t trust the tone in his voice, so I grabbed a handful of Bathin’s large feathers the moment it began to take flight.
The rush of its wings beat on either side of me, lifting us off the ground. With a few more beats we had cleared the mountain and were soaring up into the twilight sky.
“Holy shit! Some warning would be nice,” I panted, feeling Darce’s arms wrap tighter around me.
“Sorry, I wanted to surprise you.” We had cleared the cloud cover, and that all lay before us was the beautiful haze of the twilight sky. This high up, I could make out the light of Dallethas on the horizon. The night sky was slowly taking over with the blanket of star-speckled darkness above us.
“Darce...” I had no words. “This is...breathtaking.” Spreading my arms out wide, I reached up towards the night sky, wondering...if I reached high enough would I be able to touch the stars?
“I wish our lives could always be this way.” I knew precisely what he meant. Up here, looking at Afterlight below us, everything felt so simple.
“Are you trying to make one last wish?” I teased. I looked behind me, noticing that the bird’s long tail left a trail of silver shadow as he soared through the air.
“It’s funny you should say that. By saving Bathin, I was granted a single wish from his kind.”
“They’re that magical?”
“Can’t you feel it?” Stroking Bathin’s feathers, I felt a charge of pure, ancient power humming beneath.
“What did you wish for?”
“I haven’t used it yet.” What was he waiting for?
“Could you use it to help us?”
“I’m not sure.” He sighed against my ear, pulling me closer against his chest.
The night sky had come to life above us.
The number of stars was staggering, each of them shining with a lifeforce I hadn’t noticed before.
The contrast of light and dark wrapped around them.
The darkness made the stars glow brighter.
I could almost feel the charge of Darce’s and my bloodlines.
“It’s so beautiful,” I gasped, mesmerized.
“There is so much I want to show you. Different veils, lands with simple races. There are places that your mind wouldn’t even be able to comprehend.”
“We have time,” I sighed, stroking his arms with my fingertips. My silver hair was blowing in his face, but Darce didn’t seem to care.
We soared higher into the night sky, chasing our two moons as they began to rise.
****
“WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL me about Bathin sooner?” We were in the safety of his bathroom, but the adrenaline was still coursing through my body.
“They are ancient and rare. You’re the only one I’ve taken to meet him.”
“You trusted me with that secret?”
“Of course. The few shadow ravens that are left, migrate through time and space.”
“How are they able to do that?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Can’t you ask him?” Darce let out a loud snort. “What?”
“I don’t talk shadow raven.”
“He seemed to understand what you were telling him about me.”
“That wasn’t what he understood. He was reading your soul, checking to see if you were safe. Most of his kind were killed by Dylin. He could sense you were no threat to him.”
“My kind killed those beautiful creatures?”
“Don’t torture yourself anymore than you have already. These last few months, you’ve had a lot to take in.” With a flick of his fingers, his bath began to fill and the comforting scent of apple and cinnamon filled his bathroom. “Come on. Let’s bathe.”
Allowing Darce to rub and wash my shoulders, I looked out at Eallarim. “I can’t overthrow my father until I come into my power. What are we going to do?”
“We bide our time.”
“What did Nisha tell you the last time we saw her?”
“Alora, you know I can’t give you that information. The future is a fragile thing.”
“I’m not going to let you sacrifice yourself for me.” It was easier to admit these feelings when I wasn’t facing him.
“What makes you think I’m going to sacrifice myself?” Darce began to wipe over my back with a cloth.
“It’s the sort of selfless thing you would do.” I could hear the smile in his soft chuckle. “Promise me you’ll never sacrifice yourself in my place?”
“Where is all this coming from?” He moved in front of me, the water in the bath spilling over into the sheer drop of the waterfall below. “We will find a way. Isn’t that what we’ve been trying to work out all along?”
“Be honest with me. How doomed are we?” Darce shook his head, laughing at me in disbelief. Unfortunately, it didn’t reach his eyes. He was hiding something. “Darce, I have a right to know.”
“We are well and truly doomed.” His face went serious.
I was hanging on his every word. Was he about to finally confess?
“I forgot to mention that my mother is hosting a ball in two days for my birthday. You’re going to have to properly meet her as my date.
” With a pout, I slapped his chest, annoyed that this was no confession at all.
I had met his mother briefly plenty of times. Wait! His birthday?
“You celebrate birthdays? You never told me that!”
“It’s not everyday that you reach a new century. I’ll be three thousand seven hundred this year.”
“Well, I’m two thousand, two hundred and six. I have a bit of catching up to do.”
“Hmm...” Darce’s eyes darkened, gazing down at my breasts. “Well, I may be quite a bit older than you, but I’ve taught you so much that you act my age.”
“Mmm,” I purred, wrapping my arms around his neck. “That is true. Thanks to you, I have the heart and body of a warrior.” Darce gripped me by my ass, pulling me against his hard cock.
“What else have I taught you?” he questioned, moving to kiss down my neck.
“To gut fish,” I teased, giggling as he bit my skin playfully.
“What else?”
“Patience...because you can be really fucking annoying.” That got a chuckle against my skin.
“Anything else?” His lips were moving across my collarbone now.
“You taught me that I can use fuck or fucking anywhere in a sentence. Fuck, was that a fucking lesson. It’s becoming more difficult to hide my foul mouth in Dallethas. Noor tells me off for my foul language most days.”
“You’re getting side-tracked. What else have I taught you?” He rocked his hips against my sex suggestively.
“Hmm...I’m not sure I can think of anything else that important.”
“You wicked creature,” he purred, moving back up my neck. “Perhaps I need to remind you.” Capturing my lips with his, he wrapped one hand around my neck, backing me against the edge of the bath. My legs wrapped around his waist as he lifted me out of the water.
“You’ve brought my dirtiest fantasies to life,” I moaned against his mouth. “Nothing feels as good as your mouth and fingers on me, apart from your glorious hard cock inside me.” Darce gasped and desire flooded his eyes at the sound of my explicit mouth. I had no issue expressing myself these days.
His hands moved to my sex and began to frantically rub. His mouth licked and nipped down my neck towards my breasts. My body was a slave to his touch, and I fell in a matter of minutes to the power of his talented fingers.
The moment I began to shudder, he thrust his cock inside me and began to fuck me, moving me up and down on his length at a maddening pace.
“You are my ultimate fantasy, Alora,” he panted between thrusts. “Fuck! That’s right, clench around my cock.”
All sense of time evaporated. All I could see and feel was him moving in and out of me. My body succumbed to his, and I was lost as we both fell in unison.
****
“HAVE YOU EVEN SLEPT?” Nyx questioned while we were eating lunch. Darce was on a patrol with General Nox and Mrak. Well, that was what he told me, but I suspected he was up to something. “How many times did you and Darce fuck last night?”
“It’s his birthday. We started the fucking a little early.”