Fantasy #3
“We should want books to pressure check what my father says. He is a careful creature,” Declan answered, but there was not the cutting tone that he had used before when mentioning his father’s dislike of clear answers.
“He knows whatever he says will be picked apart. Even if he only says what he means, a million other meanings could be attached to it. So he says… little.”
“Except for that song?” Aquilan pointed out.
“Yeah, Last Light,” Declan nodded. “It felt so fresh and raw. When he was singing about what happened to Lysanthir, I wanted to go after my grandfather, but then I realized that Vex would have already paid that evil back in spades.”
“His father was the first person he killed, remember?” Aquilan reminded Declan of what they had heard outside the Dawn.
“Yeah, you’re right. He said that.” Declan scrubbed a hand through his hair.
Aquilan stared at the moonlight reflected in those dark locks. Declan looked beautiful as always, but he had seen that starlight hair last night on the balcony. He wondered if he would only ever see it in private. That seemed so wrong.
He was tucking himself closer to Declan’s side when his eye caught something sparkling off in a copse of trees. In fact, the whole center of the copse looked to be dancing with hundreds of wisps.
“Do you see that, Declan? I wonder what is happening there!” Aquilan quickened his step. “We should check it out.”
Declan grunted his assent. Aquilan saw the Niri blade was in Declan’s hand. He lifted an eyebrow, but Declan just shrugged.
“I do not sense anything adverse, do you?” Aquilan asked as they neared the copse’s edge.
“No, but I don’t like to pre-judge,” Declan said, easily moving the Niri blade from one hand to the other.
That was wise though it hurt Aquilan to think that Declan had learned just how precarious life was. But he should be just as careful. A golden light suffused both of them.
“A shield,”Aquilan explained. “Another layer of protection. Defense as well as offense.”
Another nod from Declan.
The light from the center of the glade was bright, but it did not hurt his eyes.
It was as if the stars had come down from the sky to bob and weave among the blades of grass.
As they stepped through the final line of trees, it became clearer what was there and it was more than dancing wisps.
There was a bed covered in pure white bedding.
A comforter that overflowed with feathers and pillows so plump as to appear like ripe fruit.
There was a silver ice bucket with a clear glass container inside and two glasses beside it.
On top of that comforter was a single sheet of paper with incredibly lovely handwriting.
Sweeping letters that ended with a swoosh of a signature.
Declan picked it up. He tilted his head back and sighed.
Aquilan gently took the letter from Declan’s willing fingers and read it out loud, “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. Your loving father.”
Aquilan’s cheeks blazed with heat even as his cock jerked in his pants. But then his gaze skipped to the bed and then to Declan who was staring at the stars well above their heads even as the wisps continued to dance around the glade. He touched Declan’s elbow.
“My Shadow, is this… what ails you?” Aquilan asked, even as he hoped it was not the idea of lovemaking with Aquilan, but just that his father was involved and–
“Forgive me, King Aquilan.” Declan was suddenly on his knees in front of Aquilan who was rapidly blinking. “My father can see my desires and he… he thought this was helping things along. But I know that this is most–most–inappropriate.”
“Why?”
“What?” Declan’s head lifted for a moment, but then quickly dropped. “Because… because we have hardly… because this is my fantasy and… to have this thrust upon you is not–what are you doing?”
Aquilan had thrown himself onto the bed on his back and spread his arms and legs. “Mmmmmm, comfortable. It is softer than it looks.”
“Aquilan?” Declan stared at him through his lashes.
Aquilan tilted his head to meet Declan’s burning gaze. “I think your father knows my fantasy, too, my Shadow. For I was just thinking about how I wanted to love you under the moon and stars in your true form and out here–under the Night King’s watchful magic–we can do just that.”
Declan’s eyes flickered to Tyrael in the far distance. “I wouldn’t put it past him to send Vesslan out here to see what’s going on. A Night Elf and the Sun King in a… a…” Here, his head and voice lowered, “a lover’s embrace. He will out me and you.”
“He could do that to be sure,” Aquilan agreed.
And maybe Vex thought this would be the only way that Declan would reveal his true nature and his heritage.
But he didn’t think so. At least, not yet.
There was still plenty of time for them to come to a conclusion that the Night King wanted.
“But… I’m willing to risk it. If you are. ”
Declan remained still for a long moment, but then he was there. On top of Aquilan. A single light leap and he was straddling Aquilan on the bed. And the glamour was gone. The Adiva was loose in Declan’s fingers while he dropped his own glamour.
Red eyes.
Starlight hair.
Pointed ears.
Pointed canines.
A Kindreth.
The Night Prince.
His Shadow.