Chapter 22 Lexa
LEXA
A week later, we were back in Scalvaris.
The door to Nyx's quarters was carved from a single piece of obsidian, polished smooth as glass. My fingers traced the edges as he worked the mechanism, feeling the grooves worn into the stone by decades of use.
Home.
The word sat strange in my mind. I'd had quarters in Scalvaris for months now, a small room near the other unmated humans. But this was different. This was his space, and he'd brought me here instead of taking me back to my own bed.
The door swung inward.
Heat hit me first, dry and intense but not uncomfortable. The air tasted different here, mineral-rich and faintly sulfurous. Volcanic. My boots scraped against smooth stone as I stepped inside, and Nyx's hand found the small of my back.
His quarters were massive.
The main chamber stretched out before me, all carved rock and natural formations shaped into something functional.
The floor was black stone worn smooth by countless footsteps, the surface almost reflective.
Along one wall, weapons hung in careful arrangement.
Blades of different lengths, a few pieces of armor, all maintained with the kind of care that spoke to a warrior's discipline.
"This is yours?" The question came out quieter than I'd intended.
Nyx moved past me, deeper into the space. His tail brushed my leg as he went, casual contact that sent heat curling through my stomach. "Ours."
No elaborate explanation. Just simple confirmation.
I walked farther in, taking it all in. There was a low platform against the far wall, maybe two feet off the ground.
The surface was obsidian like everything else, but this piece had been shaped and smoothed until it gleamed.
His bed. No mattress, no blankets, just stone that would hold the heat of his body.
My throat went dry.
Near the bed sat a trunk, the wood dark and scarred with age. Personal belongings, probably. Things he valued enough to keep close while he slept.
The space was sparse. Functional. Everything here served a purpose, nothing wasted on decoration or comfort. It was exactly what I would have expected from him.
And it made my chest ache with something I couldn't quite name.
"We should rest," Nyx said. His voice was rough with exhaustion.
The journey back from the human settlement had taken a week, most of it spent flying through the worst heat of the day to avoid detection.
We'd snuck into Scalvaris through one of the lesser-used entrances, avoiding the main gates and the inevitable questions that would follow.
The Council could wait until morning. Right now, I just wanted to be alone with him.
"Yeah." I turned to face him, found him watching me with that intense focus that always made my pulse kick up. "We probably should."
He didn't move toward the bed. Just stood there, wings partially extended, his whole body radiating tension that had nothing to do with fatigue.
The air between us felt charged.
I'd been thinking about this for days. Every night on the journey back, lying under the stars with his wings wrapped around me for warmth, I'd felt the pull. The need. But we'd been too exposed, too vulnerable to risk it.
Now, we were here. Safe. Alone.
I crossed the distance between us.
My hands found his chest, fingers spreading over the scales there. They were warm under my palms, smooth and hard and utterly alien. Beautiful.
Nyx went very still. His breathing changed, became deeper. More controlled.
His hands came up to frame my face. Careful as always, mindful of the claws that could tear through flesh if he wasn't paying attention. His thumb brushed over my cheekbone, the touch so gentle it made my breath catch.
He kissed me.
Not gentle. Not tentative. This was claiming, pure and simple. His mouth covered mine with bruising intensity, his tongue sliding past my lips to taste me. I opened for him, met him stroke for stroke, my hands fisting in the leather straps of his armor.
Heat flooded through me, pooling low in my belly. My whole body came alive, every nerve ending firing at once.
Nyx's tail coiled around my waist, pulled me flush against him. I could feel every inch of him, the hard planes of his body, the way his scales caught on the fabric of my clothes. The ridge of his cock pressed against my stomach, already hard and ready.
I pulled back just enough to breathe. "Too many clothes."
His laugh was low and dark. "Agreed."
We stripped each other with fumbling urgency. My shirt hit the floor first, followed by his own.
Skin met scales. The contrast made me shiver.
Nyx's hands slid up my sides, thumbs brushing the underside of my breasts. I arched into the touch, wanting more, needing more. His head dipped, mouth finding the curve of my neck. He bit down gently, fangs scraping over sensitive skin without breaking it.
I gasped. My nails dug into his shoulders, holding on as sensation rolled through me.
"Bed," I managed. "Now."
He lifted me like I weighed nothing. My legs wrapped around his waist automatically, and then we were moving. He crossed the chamber in a few strides, lowered me onto that smooth obsidian surface.
The stone was warm. Not uncomfortable, but solid and unyielding beneath me. I barely had time to register it before Nyx was there, covering my body with his, his weight pressing me down into the heat.
His wings spread wide, creating a canopy over us. Blocking out everything except the two of us, this moment, this need.
I reached between us, found the hard length of his cock. The scales at the base were softer than the rest of him, giving way to heated flesh. I stroked up, felt the way the tip flexed and moved independently, seeking.
Nyx groaned against my throat. His hips jerked forward, pushing into my grip.
"Kyvara." The endearment came out strangled. "You will kill me."
"Not yet." I guided him to my entrance, felt the blunt pressure as he began to push inside. "I have plans for you first."
He sank into me slowly. Too slowly. Every inch was exquisite torture, stretching me, filling me, making me forget how to breathe. The fleshy tip of his cock moved inside me, exploring, finding the spots that made my vision blur.
I dug my heels into his lower back, urging him deeper.
Nyx complied. He bottomed out with a thrust that made me cry out, the sound echoing off stone walls. For a moment, he just held there, buried completely, his forehead pressed to mine.
"Mine." The word was barely human, more growl than speech.
"Yours," I agreed. My hands found his face, pulled him down for a kiss that was all teeth and desperation. "Move."
He did.
The rhythm he set was brutal and perfect, each thrust driving me up the obsidian slab. His tail found my clit, the tip stroking in counterpoint to his cock. Pleasure built in layers, stacking higher with each movement until I couldn't tell where one sensation ended and another began.
I was drowning in it. In him. In the feel of his scales against my skin, the heat of his breath on my neck, the way he filled every empty space inside me.
His fangs found my shoulder. Bit down just hard enough to leave marks that would last for days. Claiming me in a way that went beyond the physical.
The orgasm hit like a shockwave. My whole body seized, muscles locking as pleasure tore through me. I heard myself scream his name, heard the way it bounced off walls and came back to us.
Nyx followed seconds later. His roar shook the chamber as he spilled inside me, his cock pulsing with each wave. His wings mantled higher, his tail tightened around my leg, every part of him reaching for me.
We collapsed together.
The aftershocks rolled through me in smaller waves, little tremors that made my legs shake. Nyx's weight was crushing and perfect, pinning me to the warm stone. I could feel his heart hammering against my ribs, could feel the way his breath came in ragged gasps.
Eventually he shifted. Rolled us so I was sprawled across his chest instead of trapped beneath him. His wings folded down to drape over us like a blanket, and his tail remained coiled around my thigh.
Possessive even in the aftermath.
I traced idle patterns on his chest, following the lines where different shades of gray met. My body felt heavy, sated, like every bone had turned to liquid.
"I love you."
The words fell out before I could stop them. Quiet and certain and terrifying.
Nyx went very still beneath me.
Fuck. Maybe I shouldn't have said it. Maybe it was too soon, too much, too human. Maybe Drakarn didn't do declarations like that.
His hand came up to tilt my chin, forcing me to look at him. His expression was open in a way I'd never seen before, all the warrior discipline stripped away to show something raw underneath.
"Say it again."
Not a command. A plea.
"I love you," I repeated. Stronger this time, more certain. "I choose you. Choose this. Choose Scalvaris."
His eyes closed. When they opened again, they were bright with something that might have been tears if Drakarn could cry.
"Zhara te kyvara." The words were formal, almost ritualistic. "My heart, my flame. You are everything I did not know I needed."
I didn't have the Drakarn words to respond properly. So I kissed him, tried to pour everything I felt into the press of my lips against his.
We lay there in the quiet, wrapped around each other. The heat from the stone seeped into my muscles, easing aches I hadn't realized I was carrying. Nyx's breathing evened out beneath me, his hand stroking lazy patterns down my spine.
"We need to tell the Council," I said eventually. "About the settlement. About the thousands of humans."
Nyx rumbled agreement. "Tomorrow. Darrokar will want a full report."
"Karyseth is going to lose her shit."
That earned me a huff of laughter. "The high priestess loses her composure over far less. This will send her into apoplexy."
The thought made me grin. I had no love for the woman who'd tried to have Orla executed, who viewed all humans as corruption incarnate. Watching her face when she learned there were thousands more of us would almost be worth the inevitable political nightmare.
"What do you think will happen?" I asked. "When they find out?"
Nyx was quiet for a moment, considering. His tail tightened fractionally around my leg. "The Council will debate. Some will see opportunity for alliance. Others will see only threat. But Darrokar is pragmatic. He will recognize the value in cooperation."
"And the humans? Runa's people?"
"That is for you to divine. The ways of humans are a mystery to me."
I ran my fingers down his chest in warning, like I was the one with claws. "Think they'll let me bring Kira out to see Larissa?"
"I do not see why not. The captain agreed to allow visitors." Nyx shifted beneath me, adjusting his wing so it draped more comfortably over my back. "Your friend deserves to know her sister lives."
Kira had been slowly unraveling for weeks, the not-knowing eating at her. She'd thrown herself into her work, anything to avoid thinking about Larissa's fate. Having answers, even difficult ones, would be better than the uncertainty.
I made a mental note to talk to her first thing in the morning. Before the Council meeting, before the political fallout, before everything got complicated.
Just two friends, sharing impossible news.
My eyes were getting heavy. The combination of exhaustion, post-orgasmic bliss, and Nyx's warmth was dragging me toward sleep. I fought it, wanting to stay in this moment a little longer.
"Sleep, kyvara." Nyx's voice was a low rumble beneath my ear. "We are safe here."
Safe. In the heart of a Drakarn city, wrapped in the wings of a warrior who'd claimed me as his mate. Six months ago, the idea would have been laughable. Insane.
Now it was just true.
I let my eyes close. Let myself drift in that space between waking and sleep where everything felt soft and distant. Nyx's heartbeat was a steady rhythm beneath my cheek, his breathing deep and even.
This was home.
Not Earth, not the Nostos, not even the human settlement in the Broken Plains. This. Him. The warmth of his body and the safety of his wings and the certainty that he would tear apart anyone who tried to hurt me.
I'd never had that before. Never let myself want it.
Now I couldn't imagine living without it.
I’d been asleep for some time when the knock came.
Sharp and urgent, the sound of knuckles against obsidian echoing through the chamber.
Nyx tensed beneath me. His wings snapped up, no longer draped in relaxation but raised in alert. I felt his whole body shift from rest to readiness in the space of a heartbeat.
"Nyx?" A male voice, muffled through the door. Young, breathless. "Nyx, are you there?"
A runner. Had to be. No one else would dare disturb a Blade Council member in his private quarters unless it was urgent. Apparently, we hadn’t snuck in as quietly as we’d thought.
Nyx carefully extracted himself from our tangle of limbs. His movements were fluid despite the interruption, years of warrior training making the transition from lover to soldier seamless. He grabbed a pair of pants from somewhere, pulled them on as he crossed to the door.
I sat up, suddenly very aware of my nakedness. The stone was still warm beneath me, but the absence of Nyx's body made the air feel cold. I grabbed my shirt from where it had landed on the floor, pulled it on.
The door opened.
A young Drakarn stood in the corridor, his scales a pale green. His chest heaved like he'd been running, and his eyes were wide with something that looked like fear.
He spoke rapidly in Drakarn, the words tumbling over each other too fast for my translator to keep up. But I caught enough. Disappearance. Search. Kira's name.
Nyx's posture changed. Every line of his body went rigid, his tail lashing once before going still.
"What?" I was on my feet, crossing to them.
The runner looked at me, then back to Nyx. Uncertain whether he should answer.
"Tell her," Nyx ordered.
The young warrior swallowed. "Kira is missing. She was last seen leaving the human quarters three days ago. No one has seen her since."