Chapter 16 It’s Raining Gods #2
Sheba gazed up at Ki’Remi, leaning into the hand Idan now placed on the small of her back.
His palm was a steady anchor, his thumb tracing a slow, reassuring line against her spine. ‘Sante, Remi,’ she managed a wry smile. ‘Eden II works for us. Damn, I’ve never felt such relief at seeing your ugly mug.’
Ki’Remi’s eyes drifted to the man beside her.
He arched a brow, taking in the long sable mane and the impossible heft and size of him.
Along with the corded muscles of his torso and thighs, and the glowing glyphs that pulsed over his skin.
‘It seems to be raining Sacrans from the heavens today,’ Ki’Remi noted, eyes gleaming. ‘Which one are you?’
Sheba turned to her man with a soft smile. ‘Idan, meet Ki’Remi Sable, one of the infamous Riders and a good friend. Hell, he’s family.’
As she spoke, a stunningly beautiful blonde-haired woman, Issa, stepped in alongside him.
She froze as her gaze snapped to the pair in the bay and locked onto Idan.
Trepidation, respect, and recognition all mingled in her expression as she scrambled down the last set of steps, taking her to the lower deck.
‘That eager for company, my love?’ her husband called out with a grin.
‘Do you have any idea who graces our presence?’ she hissed at Ki’Remi.
Before her man could process her utterance, Issa dropped to one knee in front of the duo, her head bowed in total submission.
‘This hull is unworthy of the shadow you cast upon it, Commander Simi’Ren Idan Caliostheles.’
Idan’s hand stiffened against Sheba’s spine, and the air in the bay thickened.
‘Void-Forged Scion of the Crimson Eclipse,’ Issa continued, her voice a reverent whisper. ‘General of the Seven-Fold Legion, Harbinger of the Divine Reckoning, Breaker of the Unyielding Bastion, and Sentinel of the Silent Grave. We offer our sanctuary and our lives to your cause.’
Idan let out a breath that was part exasperation, and semi-surrender as the resonance of those titles hit Sheba with a jolt.
She swiveled to stare at the farmer who delivered lambs. The lover she held in the dark of a mountain hut, yet now also, a legend of the highest heavens.
Her head spun with the dissonance.
While she’d suspected he was Sacran and a high-born warrior of some kind, she’d never imagined he was a freakin’ Commander or General.
Idan locked his gaze with her, his silver-gold eyes searching hers in a silent plea that begged her not to change her view of him.
He squeezed her waist again, turning to the woman prostrate before him.
‘Rise, Issandra Elaris Astraeus D’Leqan, Flameborne Daughter of Healing Twilight. Warrior of the Burning Horizon, Healer of the Sullied and the Skybound, Soulbearer of the Last Light,’ Idan rasped.
His accent, too, seemed different to Sheba, less that of a humble farmer, regaining the resonance of the throne rooms he had long abandoned.
Issa stood, head bowed, eyes still to the ground in honor.
Reality fractured for Sheba as a cold realization hit hard; if a goddess militant like Issa trembled at his feet, then Idan was no mere mercenary with extraordinary power; he was a Sacran of devastating renown.
Ki’Remi followed his wife down the stairs, inclining his head before Idan.
‘My apologies, Commander. I was not aware of who indulged our presence.’
Idan reached out a hand and gripped Ki’Remi’s own in a firm, warrior’s shake.
‘De nada, friend, my Sacran past does not define me. Sante for the extraction.’
‘If I may, how did you two meet?’ Issa asked, her eyes blinking in awed curiosity as she flicked her gaze from Sheba to Idan.
Sheba took an inhale. ‘Remember I told you on a holo call that my skiff crashed on my entry to Tansinia? Well, Idan saved me. He got me to the medical centre, and later, he also helped guard us from the local mining magnate’s attacks.
When the medical ship evacuated, he took me in.
We encountered the same industrialist lord and his attack dogs on the mountain today, and Idan tore them apart.
Then Sulfiqar showed up, and you know the rest.’
Issa nodded. ‘Quite the ordeal, you must be -.’
‘Exhausted, bone weary, pissed at meddling deities and narcissistic barons, naam all of that,’ Sheba murmured.
Ki’Remi glanced at their mud and gore-stained clothes, then gestured toward the aft corridor.
‘Issa and I can’t wait to hear the details of your story, but you probably want to freshen up first. Guest quarters are through that corridor; follow the illuminated floor panels. Rest, recover, then please join us for a meal in the galley.’
‘I can’t thank you enough. You don’t know how much this means to us,’ Sheba told him, with a wan smile.
Ki’Remi and Issa nodded as Sheba moved in a daze, Idan’s arm a heavy band around her waist, steering her through the ship as they tracked the lit path.
It led them to a suite that was neat, compact, yet luxurious.
Sheba sighed in relief as the door hissed shut, sealing them inside.
The shock of Idan’s former greatness persisted, with questions racing through Sheba’s mind.
Well aware this was not the time to pursue such a loaded discussion, she hid her wariness from Idan as they stripped off their clothes.
Mud and blood-soaked leather and fabric hit the floor in a heap.
‘Shower?’ Idan growled.
Sheba nodded as he led her into the stall, circling her from behind as he turned on the taps.
A cascade of hot water jetted over them, scalding her trembling limbs.
Steam swallowed their frames as Sheba pressed her forehead against the tiles, as the revelation of her lover’s titles still spun in her mind.
Idan, as always sensing her mood, found soap and a cleaning towel and began to lather the last few hours from her skin, his touch gentle.
While shampooing her hair, he massaged her scalp to release her tension.
He twisted her around, his eyes dark with a scorching intensity.
He took her face in his hands and kissed her, a long, sweet claim of his genuine desire to make her forget their tribulations.
His touch glided over her curves, mapping her body with a slow heat that ignited her yearning.
His knee came between hers, and he hoisted her up, sliding his cock into her and fokkin’ her with such scorching ardor she shattered into ecstasy.
As she came down from the ecstatic high only he could give her, her tears tracked through the water cascading down her cheeks.
She buried her face in the hollow of his neck, his heartbeat a steady drum against her own.
He held her close, anchoring her to himself, until the tremors subsided and the only sound was the rhythmic thrum of The Alatyr streaking through the dark.