Chapter 5
five
“Iwas expecting you many hours ago, Drāhēn?.” Atlas stands in the darkness of the hall outside of my room. His short hair seems ruffled, as if he’s ran his fingers through multiple times. He leans against the wall, blocking my path.
“I forget, am I supposed to tell you of my location at all moments? I don’t remember this being something we’ve ever discussed.
I certainly don’t care what you are doing while you are not needed for ruling Antalis.
” I snap, the happiness that had filled my heart just moments ago leeching away.
Every day since we met, I’ve visited the shop so that I could visit Thesix.
At first, it was just once in the morning, but now I have found myself outside of it more times than not, when I’m not needed in the throne room.
Tonight, Thesix finally asked me for dinner, and we enjoyed a bounty prepared by him.
“Who is stealing your time so often these days?” Atlas’ pushes away from the wall. “You have often not been found swimming nor roaming the halls of our castle.”
His attitude, something that has slowly soured in the days of recent, seems off more than normal. Even his gait as he walks towards me reminds me of the one I try often not to think of.
“What I do, Atlas, or who I am with, is not your concern. I do not report to you.” I push away from him, and his hand snakes around my wrist, keeping me rooted.
“We are the rulers of Antalis. Both of us. We are equal, and I don’t understand why you fight this union so much. You are mine.”
Water slips from my fingers, tightening coils wrap around his wrist until he is forced to remove it.
“Do not forget where you came from. While you were elected to the Tinge position, I was the one who created you. Now, go to your chambers.” I sniff.
Sure enough, the smell of alcohol wafts off of him. “And sober up.”
I walk away from him and quickly enter my room, slamming the door behind me.
“Can I show you something?” Thesix asks. His long legs stretched out in front of him on the towel that is draped across the sand. His shirt was thrown aside as soon as we reached the beach. I wanted to bring him here, to show him where I am the most happy.
“Of course.” I take a bite of the sticky bun he brought for me.
He takes his hand out and slowly traces my forearm. There, beneath his fingertips, a delicate lattice of frost forms.
“It’s beautiful.” I whisper, transfixed by the beautiful pattern he’s creating.
Thesix smiles, “Thank you. It’s not a gift I see many with, I thought you might enjoy it.”
I extend my fingers towards the crystalline formation, feeling the familiar pull of water responding to my essence. The ice doesn’t melt at my touch but shifts, flowing like liquid silver.
“I always get excited to see the new things that have come about for my people.” Every lunar year the power changes.
Some have more of the earth magic from my brother Wodthos, such as those in the newly created area called Midaeliea.
“Many of you here in Antalis have my water magic, but this seems to be a blend of perhaps water and air. It’s very interesting. ”
Thesix remains quiet for a while, his fingers still trailing along my arm. The frost patterns shimmer in the sunlight, catching rainbow prisms that dance across my skin. Each touch sends a ripple of awareness through me, like the gentlest tide against the shore.
“Is that what I am to you, Drāhēn??” His voice drops, lower and intimate. “Just a person of Antalis?”
The question catches me unprepared, like the sudden undertow that pulls me unbidden off balance.
My heart pounds against my ribs. We’ve spent so many days together now — mornings at the bakery, afternoons walking the streets of my kingdom, evenings like this watching the taoho. I know exactly who he is to me.
But the fear of speaking it aloud lodges in my throat like a stone.
He could still reject the twin bond between us.
After eons of waiting, of creating an entire world where I might find the love that he could give me, the possibility that he might turn me away terrifies me more than anything else I’ve faced since Tiyo created me.
“I’m unsure what you mean.” I bite my lip, pushing a strand of cerulean hair behind my ear, choosing to look back out over the waters that have always been my solace. The waves rise and fall slowly, unlike the unsteady breath in my chest.
His hand finds mine as it falls from my ear, his fingers intertwining with my own. The warmth of his skin against mine sends a current through my body, like the meeting of two different waters.
“I think you know exactly what I mean, Hēn?.” The shortening of my name on his lips feels more intimate than any touch.
I turn toward him, drawn by something deeper than choice. His light blue eyes bounce between my eyes and lips, a question in them that needs no words. The frost on my arm begins to melt, droplets of water beading like tiny crystals.
“Thesix–” my voice comes out breathy, his name more a plea than a word.
He leans in, his hand releasing mine to cup my cheek. His palm is cool against my skin, but his breath is warm as it touches my cheeks.
“I want to kiss you, Drāhēn?,” he whispers, so close I can feel the words touch my lips.
My breath hitches in my throat. After millennia of waiting, my twin drop is finally here, asking for permission to cross the final distance between us.
I give the slightest nod, unable to form words. I feel something unusual, like a fluttering in my stomach. Is this what the mortals feel?
His lips meet mine, gentle as morning mist on water.
The moment they touch, something extraordinary happens.
A silver ripple of light, like liquid moonlight, emerges from my chest, circling us to reach towards his, one of his own reaching towards mine.
I watch as they touch, twining together, pulsing with shared rhythm.
I gasp against his mouth, my fingers instinctively reaching up to touch his face. The twin drop bond — the physical manifestation of what I designed into the very fabric of this world.
“I knew it.” Thesix whispers against my lips, his eyes wide with wonder as he stares at the shimmering silver ripple between us. He smiles against my jaw, where his lips softly place kisses.
I take his hand in mine, as I stand up quickly, pulling him to the ocean’s edge, our feet touching the edges.
“Trust me.” I murmur against his ear, as the world shifts around us.
His arms tighten around me, surprise flickering in his features.
The beach dissolves as I draw a water-mirror taking us through it until we are standing in my chamber’s bathing area.
I keep the tub filled with water to allow for traveling, because it was soon learned that you can travel through the sources of our power.
Thesix looks down and laughs, “Don’t think I’ve ever tried that.”
“Mirrors, I call it. It’s a quick way to get somewhere else.” I lead him out of the tub and bathing room.
We walk into my bedroom, the setting sun casting oranges through the tall windows across the marbled floors that reflect white and blue.
Thesix looks around at the high ceilings. “Your room.” He says, his voice husky.
“Yes.” My heart thunders in my chest.
His fingers trace the curve of my cheek, down my neck. “The twin drop bond,” he says. “I’ve seen so many find theirs, but I never …” His voice trails off.
“Never thought it would happen to you?” I finish for him, stepping closer until we share the same air.
“Well, I mean, I thought maybe someone, but never did I think it would happen with the goddess who created it.” His smile is crooked, disbelieving. “Is this real?”
“Yes.” I guide him toward my bed. “I’ve waited so long,” I confess, my fingers working at the fastenings of his clothes. “So many lunar cycles watching others, searching for you.”
His mouth captures mine again, swallowing my words. The kiss deepens, no longer tentative but hungry and desperate. My hands push his shirt from his shoulders, revealing more of his skin, perfect in the moonlight.
“Hēn?,” he breathes against my mouth. His hands find the ties of my dress, working them loose with trembling fingers. The fabric falls away, pooling at my feet.
The silver ripple between us forms again, brighter now, pulsing with each beat of our hearts. I can feel his desire as if it were my own, as he leans down kissing the freckle on the side of my neck.
His hands explore my body with reverence, each touch sending pulses of pleasure across my skin. “I’ve dreamed of this,” he confesses, his voice breaking as he guides me onto the bed. “Since the first day I saw you.”
I pull him down to me, our bodies fitting together as if designed for each other — because they were. “Show me.” I whisper against his ear, “What it is to be loved by one with ice.”
His smile is stunning as frost forms at his fingertips, trailing cool patterns across my heated skin. I arch into his touch, the contrast of cold against warmth sending shudders through me.
I respond in kind, drawing on my power so that delicate beads of water roll across his skin, following the contours of his body. He gasps as they trace lower, his eyes darkening with desire.
He grips my thighs, fingers digging into my soft flesh like he’s claiming me. “Drāhēn?,” he groans as our bodies join, the silver ripple between us flaring, and casting our shadows against the walls.
I gasp at the sensation of completeness that floods through me. “Thesix,” I whisper, fingers tracing the contours of his back.
His lips find the sensitive spot where my neck meets my shoulder, and I arch beneath him. “Can you feel it?” he asks, his voice rough with desire. “Can you feel what you do to me?”
“Yes,” I breathe.
The rhythm of our bodies matches the eternal push and pull of the tides outside the balcony. Slow, deliberate movements build like the gathering of a wave, then crash with increasing urgency. His hands explore my body, leaving trails of delicate frost patterns.
“I never knew,” he gasps against my neck, his movements becoming more urgent, “that it would feel like this.”
I cup his face between my palms, bringing his eyes to meet mine. “I’m yours now … just as you are mine.” I roll my hips to meet his.
Water responds to my heightened emotions, tiny droplets forming in the air like suspended rain. They catch the light of our ripple casting a thousand tiny rainbows that dance across our skin. His frost meets my water, creating delicate ice flowers that bloom mid-air.
“You’re magnificent,” he whispers, his breath cool against my ear. His fingers tangle in my cobalt and silver hair, spreading frost that glitters like stars caught in an ocean. “You’re so beautiful a man would happily drown in your light.”
I wrap my legs around his waist, drawing him deeper. His hands slide beneath me, lifting my hips closer.
“Is this what you imagined when you created the twin drop bond?” He asks between kisses against my collarbone, down my breast and back to the hollow of my throat.
I shake my head, overwhelmed. “No … this is–” words fail me as he shifts, changing the angle of our connection.
The water droplets around us swirl in response to my building orgasm, creating a gentle vortex as his frost patterns grow more intricate, spreading across my skin.
“I can feel you,” he groans, his rhythm faltering as he gets closer to his own peak. “Tightening around me … Let go, my goddess.”
My hands grip his shoulders. “Thesix,” I gasp, “Don’t stop.”
He captures my mouth with his, swallowing my pleas as his thrusts grow more intense.
When the pleasure crests, it's like nothing I've experienced in all my long existence, a tidal wave that crashes through both of us simultaneously.
The bond between us pulses so brightly it's almost blinding, illuminating every corner of the chamber.
I cry out his name as ecstasy washes through me in waves, each one more powerful than the last.
The droplets of water suspended around us freeze in place, capturing the moment in perfect crystalline clarity. Time itself seems to pause as we cling to each other, our bodies trembling with shared release.