26. Tobin
Tobin
The rain is a cold, persistent annoyance, but I let myself get wet to focus my power. It’s a razor-thin line directed at the cobblestones beneath our feet. The courtyard isn’t just a space between buildings; it’s a topographical map of a violent arrival.
I can feel the resonance. It hums through my bones, a jagged, discordant frequency that doesn’t belong to SilverGate’s natural rhythm. It’s the phantom ache of a god hitting the stone.
“Here,” I say, stopping abruptly.
The spot looks like any other patch of wet stone near the Bell Tower, but my magic tells a different story. Silver light bleeds from my fingertips, seeking the fractures in the academy’s reality. It finds them. The ground doesn’t just hold a memory; it’s a bruised piece of the veil.
“This is the anchor,” I murmur, crouched low to press my palms against the freezing stone.
Asha stands over me, her presence a heavy, impatient weight. Hale and Leith flank her, their magic acting as a secondary perimeter against the prying eyes of the admin building.
“Okay, so we know exactly where,” Asha says, looking up. “But not how to open it. We need that exile spell.” She looks at me. “Do you remember it?”
“Okay, firstly, it wasn’t a spell. It was a horrendous experience I do not wish to relive—although I accept it has to happen in reverse—and secondly, no. Not right now on the spot.”
“That’s fair. But we can dig it out of your memory? You remember everything from your goddess life, yes?”
She nods.
“Right, then if we can put you into a meditative state, hypnosis, if you will, maybe you can pull it all together.”
“Maybe,” she mutters, suddenly sounding unsure of herself. “How do we do that?”
“Back to your room,” I state. “We need you relaxed and your mind open.”
“So after sex?” Hale asks, then grins when she shoots him a death stare.
“Actually, that’s not a bad idea,” I say. “Many rituals are tied to sex.”
She rolls her eyes. “Right. Okay. So a fuckfest and then a mindfuck. This is my life now.” She heaves a sigh and trudges back towards the residence tower.
I watch the way Asha’s shoulders set as she climbs the stairs.
The rain drips from her clothes, leaving a trail on the stone.
Hale follows, his fire a low hum that keeps the chill from my spine.
We reach the landing, and I shove the door open.
The room feels small now, crowded by the weight of what we have to do.
“The ritual needs more than just friction,” I say, closing the door and locking it with a flick of my fingers. “I need to navigate the layers of your memory while your guard is down. The pleasure acts as a distraction for your subconscious.”
Asha turns, her eyes burning with that gold and purple fire. She strips off her wet jacket and drops it. “Then distract me, Tobin.”
Leith shuts the curtains. The darkness in the room becomes a tool.
I step toward her, my silver magic reaching out to brush against the raw edge of her power.
We have three days, but the pressure in my head says we have much less.
I need the specific sequence of the exile.
I need the exact moment her divinity fractured.
Hale moves to her other side.
I pull Asha toward the bed with a firm grip on her arm. She follows without resistance. The bond pulses between us as I guide her down onto the mattress. Hale strips off his shirt and joins on her left. Leith settles on her right, his hands already working at the buttons of her shirt.
I kneel at the foot of the bed and send silver threads into her mind. They slide past her defences with careful precision. Pleasure builds fast under my magic. She arches once, a sharp gasp escaping her lips.
Hale moves lower. His mouth finds the skin below her navel. Leith’s fingers trace the line of her throat. Asha’s hips lift. The pleasure spikes. I drive the magic deeper. The full spell assembles in my head.
She comes with a low cry. The bond flares white-hot.
Hale moves aside, and I fall into the place he vacated.
I need to be inside her to get into her mind, to make the connection and hold onto it.
I strip off my clothes, my cock aching to be inside her.
I push into her with one steady thrust, burying myself to the hilt as her walls grip me tight.
Her back arches off the mattress. Silver threads from my magic pulse deeper into her mind, seeking the jagged edges of that exile moment.
Asha moans my name. Her hips rock up to meet every drive of mine. Hale tugs her nipples, while Leith’s fingers stroke her clit in time with my rhythm. The bond flares hotter, feeding the connection. Pleasure builds fast and brutal. I thrust harder, burying myself deeper into her pussy and her mind.
Her climax hits with a ragged cry, and I groan as she clenches tightly around my cock. The bond snaps tight as her walls milk me through the final pulses. I drive deeper, silver threads filtering through her mind for the information we need. She is still too closed off.
“Leith, take her as well. She isn’t distracted enough.”
“Back passage,” Asha pants as we manoeuvre her so she is still impaled on my cock. She straddles me as I lie back and Leith moves in behind her to prep her arse for entry.
Leith’s fingers slide into her, stretching her open, making my cock twitch inside her pussy. Asha gasps, her back arching as I ride her gently through it. Her cunt clenches around me, and I grit my teeth, fighting the urge to come too soon.
“Fuck,” she breathes, her voice rough. “That’s—gods, that’s good.”
Leith doesn’t answer. He just works her slowly, his magic curling around her in dark tendrils, coaxing her body into submission. Hale watches, his fire flickering under his skin, his gaze locked on the way Asha’s breath hitches with every movement.
I pull out slightly, then thrust back in, deep and slow. Asha moans, her nails digging into my chest. “More.”
Leith presses the head of his cock against her rear hole, and pushes in, inch by inch.
Asha’s breath comes in sharp, ragged pants, her body trembling between us.
The bond flares again, hotter this time.
The echo of her pleasure, the way it twists through me like a live wire, is enough to make my cock jerk wildly inside her.
“Fuck, you’re tight,” Leith murmurs, his voice strained.
“Fuck,” she breathes. “Move.”
Leith pulls back slightly, then thrusts forward again, slow and deliberate. Asha’s back arches, her body stretching to take us both.
I groan, my hips jerking involuntarily.
Hale moves closer, his fire flickering under his skin as he watches us. His hand slides between Asha’s legs, his fingers finding her clit. She gasps when he pinches it and tugs slightly.
“More,” she demands.
I obey, thrusting up into her as Leith matches my rhythm. The bond flares white-hot, the pleasure so intense it borders on pain. Silver threads from my magic pulse deeper into her mind, hunting for the sharp, broken pieces of the ritual that tore her from her throne.
“I’m inside,” I groan.
“No shit,” she giggles.
I snort in amusement. “I mean your mind. Don’t ruin it.”
I jerk in response to the gore, violence and absolute authority that I’m seeing through her eyes. “Fucking hell,” I grunt and shoot my load deep into her. “Vicious little goddess.”
Leith slams into her hard and his body jerks as he dumps his cum in her arse.
“Hale,” she rasps. “I need you.”
He strips off the rest of his clothes, his cock already hard and ready. I pull out of her, my cum dripping from her pussy as she moans in protest. Leith withdraws as well, leaving her empty for a moment before Hale grips her hips, slams her to her back and drives into her with one brutal thrust.
Asha cries out, her back arching off the bed.
Hale fucks her, his hips slamming into hers with a force that makes the bed frame groan as he claims her with a ferocity that borders on violence.
I kneel beside them, my silver magic still tangled in Asha’s mind.
The exile ritual unfolds in fragments—blood, screaming, the cold press of a blade against her throat.
The coordinates sharpen into focus, a jagged constellation of power that will tear her from this place and hurl her back to StormGate.
Asha’s breath comes in ragged gasps, her body trembling as Hale drives her toward another climax.
“Fuck her harder, make her thoughts drift,” I murmur.
Hale’s hands grip her hips so hard I expect bruises. His fire licks along her skin, leaving faint, glowing trails where his fingers press. Asha screams his name as he slams into her with a force that shakes the bed.
I keep my magic coiled around her mind, silver threads weaving through the uneven edges of her memories. The exile ritual unfolds in fragments—blood, screaming, the sensation of her flesh ripping from her bones.
“Fuck,” Asha gasps, her nails gouging bloody lines down Hale’s arms. “Harder.”
Hale gives it to her, his thrusts turning even more brutal, faster, deeper, each one driving her closer to the edge.
Asha’s body quivers violently, her nipples tightening as Hale makes her climax hard. I linger in her mind, not probing too deeply but marking the space in her mind where the exile lies. She will need it in a few minutes when I ask her to relive the pain and humiliation.
I pull my magic back, leaving the silver threads in her mind. The fragments of the ritual sit clear in my head now, a splintered pattern of power.
Hale pulls out of her with a grunt. Leith rolls onto his back beside her, one arm draped over his eyes.
I sit up, my mind racing. The exile spell is a violent subtraction, a ritual designed to strip divinity and shatter identity. Reversing it means flipping the intent, turning the subtraction into an addition.
Asha props herself up on one elbow, her hair a wild mess around her face. “Did it work?”
I nod. “I have left a marker for you. Stay calm and close your eyes. You will find it.”
She closes her eyes instantly as Hale’s finger circles her clit lazily, keeping her on the edge. I nod once, letting him know to keep it up.
“I see the silver threads,” she murmurs.
“You need to relate the actions and the words, if you can,” I murmur, keeping my voice low and soothing.