Chapter Eighty-Four
KAEL
Tvira takes us to the bathing pools—humid air from the warm, bubbling pools creates a chorus of drips from the cavern’s ceiling that sounds melodic, relaxing. The pools are empty, still and serene.
Elyssara whimpers at the sight of them, and I don’t blame her. We’ve been on the road for several days, and the thought of submerging myself in warm crystalline waters is enough to make me shuck off my clothes without thought for who’s around.
“A change of clothes,” Tvira says sharply, gesturing to a neat pile of folded clothes sitting on a carved ridge in the cavern wall.
“Robes to dry off,” she says in her typical clipped tone, pointing to linen robes the color of wheat that she’s flung on the stone floor.
“Javi will take you to your resting place later,” Tvira spins on her heel with efficiency, leaving the hot pools with no further explanation.
I guess we’ll meet whoever Javi is later.
My leather vest is thrown to the floor already, so I pull off my tunic. Elyssara’s eyes land on my chest, and her breath hitches as if she’s mesmerized.
She closes the distance between us and runs her hand along the constellations marking my chest. They illuminate under her touch, recognizing her as home.
“El,” I whisper, “I know I didn’t tell you about the sighing winds, but—-”
“I know why,” she says fervently, cutting me off. “You chose me—over the Stars, over fate, over your people,” her eyes are glassy, and her throat bobs with emotion.
“And I would choose you again, every single time. I fucking refuse to be bound by what the Stars decide to write. We can write new stories for ourselves, Duskae,” I tilt up her chin and brush a kiss to her lips—she tastes like starlight incarnate.
She kisses me back with hunger, opening her mouth for me in a tangle of tongues, and every brush of her fingers feels like a constellation waking beneath my skin.
She pulls back, looking up at me with wild hair and those untamed eyes, “Are you ever going to tell me what that even means?” A smile dances on her lips, but sensuous hunger laces her gaze. “Duskae, I mean. I used to think it was an insult,” she admits.
I exhale, brushing a wild strand from her face and cupping her cheek. “In old Zerynthian lore, Duskae is the Goddess of the Unfated. A beacon of free will. Of choice,” I say tenderly, pulling her in closer.
“That sounds unlike any of the other gods and goddesses,” she says softly, eyes twinkling with curiosity.
“It is. They hated her for it. They erased her from the myths because she threatened their hold on fate. She was the one thing they couldn’t predict. Couldn’t control. Never saw coming. So they destroyed her,” I hold her gaze, tightening my hold on her.
Her breathing is ragged, shaky, but her gaze is reverent.
“She is the Goddess of Choice, Elyssara. Old lore says she left a shard of herself in the world, a spark that would one day awaken when the world was again on the edge of collapse,” my voice is low, intent.
“You’re the one they never saw coming—the one who commands The Sky. You’re the spark, El.”
Her breathing deepens, but her eyes never leave mine. Her gaze bores into me—wide, wild, shining—and tears begin to well. “Then we should choose each other,” she pants. “In defiance of it all. For ourselves,” the words come out like a prayer. A promise. “Remove your clothes,” she whispers, urgent.
We undress in silence, the only noise the steady melody of the dripping ceilings.
She’s bare and breathtaking—soft in all the places I crave. Every inch of her calls to something primal in me—want, yes, but reverence too. Like touching her wrong might shatter something holy.
Her skin glimmers, the pool's reflection casting rippling shapes across her skin. The Eye of Lireal illuminates under my gaze, and I take my eyes lower to her soft breasts, rising and falling with her breath.
I drag my gaze down the curve of her hips, drinking her in like a man starving—until I land at the apex of her thighs.
She slips her hand between her thighs, drawing a finger through her center.
She stalks towards me with a primal hunger that threatens to buckle my knees.
She wipes the finger across my chest, the glistening evidence of her arousal painted across my Sky marking.
“I’m so wet for you, Kael,” she whispers, and grabs my hand.
She tugs my hand, pulling me toward the steps into the hot pools. She leads the way, her ass and hips swaying like a fucking goddess before my eyes. My cock is already hard, and it pulses at the sight of her.
She walks down a few steps of the hot pools before turning back to me, “Sit down, my prince,” she purrs seductively.
I swallow thickly, bewitched by the woman before me. Her power, her confidence, her raw sensuality that has me in a fucking chokehold.
Elyssara’s gaze is locked on mine—unwavering and commanding. She sinks to her knees on the step, water lapping against her lower back. She leans forward, still not breaking my gaze, breasts hanging in the pool.
“I choose you, too,” is all she says before taking my cock in her hand. She grabs me by the base, and takes the tip in her mouth, swirling her tongue around it.
I drop my head back in pure ecstasy, the feeling of her mouth on my cock has Stars in my vision.
She slides her mouth down my cock, almost reaching the base. I reach the back of her throat and she moans.
The sound of her moaning with her mouth around me has my release already building. “Fuck,” I grit out.
She lifts her head, lips swollen from sucking me, “I want to worship you, Kael.”
“You don’t need to, El,” I manage. “You don’t have to do this.”
“I want to do this,” she says quickly, no hesitation in her tone. “Let me,” she says, and pushes me back so my elbows rest on the step behind me.
She wraps her hand and mouth around my cock again, pumping her hand and sliding her mouth up and down.
“I fucking love seeing your mouth on my cock, El,” I say, voice gritty and raw.
She moans at my words, and I look further down—her breasts bob under the water, illuminating them, and I can’t take it anymore.
“I need to fuck you, El,” I groan.
She lifts her head, eyes full of lust and heat, but she says nothing. Simply pulls her body from the water and straddles me.
She grabs my cock, placing it at her entrance, eyes glazed from arousal.
“You’re so fucking beautiful, Elyssara,” I say the words like a promise. My Starbound.
She lowers herself onto me, and a small gasp escapes her.
“Are you okay?” I ask, concerned.
“I’m more than okay,” she whimpers. “I love how you fill me, Kael,” she says softly, and the words threaten to undo me right there.
She begins to rock back and forth, grinding her clit on my body while she takes me deeper. “You take me so well, El,” I say, voice thick and low. “You’re taking all of me like such a good girl,” I encourage, watching her ride me all the way to my base.
Her breath picks up, ragged and shallow. Her pussy clenches around me, and I can feel her climax building. She grinds harder, the lines of her stomach rippling with her, the pools reflecting off her in a way that makes her look like a fucking goddess atop me.
I reach my hand forward, placing gentle pressure on her clit, and she cries out in pleasure.
Her eyes fling open, locking with mine, “I love you, too,” she says, her words breathy and carnal, and I almost come at the sound of them.
I love you, too.
Her words reverberate through the cavern walls. She chooses me, too.
Something gold flickers in the water, just beneath the surface. Not reflection. Not light. Us.
Golden threads emerge from the water, unfurling around us, through us, within us.
The threads pulse brighter—gold light spilling from her skin to mine, from mine to hers.
But she doesn’t stop. Her body moves rhythmically, erotically, and her hands trail up her body, cupping her breasts, massaging them while she rides me. She’s lost to passion, to lust, to love.
The golden light pulses from her chest to mine, plunging beneath her skin, and embedding it in mine, too.
Her moans become more intense, more breathy, and I can feel her climax, as her pussy pulses and contracts around me.
“I love you,” she breathes again, and I’m undone. I spill into her, shuddering as we come together.
“I love you,” I repeat back to her, my words tumbling out in a groan, and the golden light erupts in a spattering of shimmering flecks in the cavern. They look like Stars. I bracket her hips with my hands as she goes languid atop me, her climax wrung from her body.
I lift my gaze to the cavern around us, “Whatever this is between us, El,” I say, staring at the golden specks illuminating the dark cavern. “It’s more than prophecy,” I murmur.
Her eyes stare in awe at the space around us. “We’re Starbound,” she breathes, and I think it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard.