Chapter 34
W e swam through sparkling turquoise waters, rising toward the Above World. My heart kicked in my chest. I could almost smell the ocean breeze and feel the energy of the world above us. It had been too long since I’d been up here. I didn’t want another natural disaster to be the only reason for a visit.
But the bigger question was…
What was Draevyn up to?
As if sensing my probing question, his head twisted back with a smile—the light from above reflecting off his bluish-green scales. “ Relax, Princess. We’re almost there. ” He twined his hand in mine. The light grew with each flick of our feet. The sun’s rays wobbled across the ocean’s surface, causing them to dance to and fro. I couldn’t stop myself from smiling if I tried.
The ocean floor began to rise, and Draevyn slowed his pace.
“ We’ll have to approach slowly and check for people. Otherwise, the scales will give them a bit of a shock. ” A devilish grin emerged. “ Of course, we could always arrive naked. ”
“ Heading to a nudist beach, are we? ”
Although I couldn’t hear his chuckle, his shoulders shook with laughter.
The outline of tall, bright green trees rising just beyond a cream-colored sandy beach came into view. When our heads slowly breached the water, I immediately recognized the small island. It was part of the tiny slivers of land scattered all over The Keys—islands that were too remote to live on but provided a tropical backdrop to a thriving island living feel.
Draevyn slowly twirled around, his dark hair floating on the surface as he scanned the area. My gaze swept around, doubly ensuring no boats floated near the tiny island.
“Quickly. This way.”
We trotted up the beach, my toes sifting through the coarse grains of sand. A trail leading into the trees came into view, the branches and overgrown bushes invading the space an indication that there hadn’t been anyone here in some time. “Where are we?”
Draevyn's face radiated delight, the excitement emanating so strongly that it could be felt from a mile away. “My secret hideaway in the Above World,” he said as he easily pushed aside the overgrown bushes, guiding us up the path. “I’ve had it for a while.”
My brows dipped. “Are you allowed to have a secret hideaway?”
“No. It’s forbidden to come to the Above World without the express permission of the council or the guard.”
I pushed aside a wayward branch, the sun’s rays barely penetrating the canopy of trees high above us. “Well, consider your secret safe with me.”
“I sure hope so,” he said as we reached the end of the trail—his face lit with pure mischief. “Because you’re the only one who knows about this.”
“And what is this exactly?” I asked right before a gasp left me.
We emerged in a shallow clearing. One massive tree with branches reaching high into the air held a small wooden structure—its weathered wood hidden in the shadows. A rope ladder hung from the opening, dropping to the patchy grass below. I could just make out an opening at the top, the window cutouts visible beyond the entrance. “It’s a tree house.” I glanced at him with wide eyes. “You have a tree house in the Above World.”
He chuckled. “Your face is priceless.”
I strolled toward the structure, placing my hand across my brow to block out a wayward ray of light. “How did this survive the hurricane?”
“It’s protected with the same magic as your home.” His muscular shoulder lifted in a shrug. “And I may have checked on it while we were here last time.”
“Is it safe to go up?” I asked as I continued gaping at the tiny structure nestled in the trees at least three stories high.
Draevyn’s hand met the small of my back. “There’s only one way to find out. I’ll go first, just in case,” he said in a child-like tone I’d never heard from him before. His excitement was infectious. Draevyn gave the rope ladder a sharp tug before ascending. I couldn’t help but admire the firm curves of his ass through his scales on full display for my enjoyment. When he was halfway up, he turned, and a dark brow lifted. “Are you coming up?”
“Hhmm, I don’t know. The view is rather nice from down here.”
His gaze turned heated as he let out a groan. “Come, you little vixen. I have plans for you.”
I bit my lip and obeyed. The rope gritted against my palm, my abs and thighs burning with the effort to pull myself to the top. With each rung, my breathing labored. Draevyn knelt with anticipatory glee at the little doorway. When I finally reached the top, his hands came under my arms, lifting me through the opening. The little tree house was large enough for us to stand, but not much more than that. Five paces in either direction would take us to the other side. I approached one of the window cutouts, and what I saw took my breath away.
Above the treetops, the shoreline of The Keys emerged, revealing its beautiful sandy beaches and bright green palms swaying in the wind. The scene resembled a breathtaking watercolor painting, one I knew all too well. A pang of longing hit my heart. “It's my surf spot,” the very same one I visited every morning.
I turned and found Draevyn rummaging through a large wooden chest on the other side of the treehouse, pulling out a large, red flannel blanket. “That it is,” he said as he shook it out, the dust motes catching in the light as he placed it on the weathered, wooden floorboards.
I returned my gaze to the one spot that held so many beautiful memories. “How long has this been here, Draevyn?”
His arms coiled around my waist, pulling me to him. “A couple of decades.”
My whole life.
He’d had a secret hideaway within spitting distance of my home my whole life. How many times had we been close to each other?
We stood in each other’s arms, watching the sun glisten across the water—the warm, humid wind whipping around my face, causing the loose strands of hair to tickle my cheek. My home was but a spec in the distance. “I miss it.”
“Miss living up here?” he asked, his breath tickling the tip of my ear.
“I think…I think I was so invested in getting out of here and seeing what the other coast had to offer that I forgot just how beautiful it was. I took it for granted.”
His full lips peppered soft kisses down my neck. A long sigh left me, and I relaxed into his hold. “How could you have known what was to come?” he murmured against my skin. The lids of my eyes descended as his tongue snaked out between his lips, licking a sensual path all the way to my ear. A moan escaped me as his hand spread across my stomach. “Drop your scales, Asherah.” I obeyed, revealing myself to him—my scales slowly retreating as his fingers glided to the apex of my thighs. When he parted my folds, the most delicious groan vibrated against my back as Draevyn found me wet and wanting. His finger wasted no time and moved in tantalizing circles around my swelling nub. I gently gripped his arm to steady myself.
“I’m going to tell you a little story, Asherah.” His other hand brushed my hair over my shoulder. “It’s a story of how this treehouse came to be.” When my breath came in tiny pants, his fingers slowed their movement. “Once upon a time, a girl was born in the Above World on a warm day in April.” He nibbled on my earlobe and slowly dipped two fingers into my center—his palm creating a tantalizing friction that had me slowly riding his hand. “On that day, a Fae male felt his chest pulse with awareness,” he continued as I desperately tried to focus on his words. “It was unlike anything he’d ever felt before—a magical call from the Above World, a world he’d rarely been to and had no inclination to see.” He reached for my breast, gently cupping it in his hand. He teased my tight nipple between his thumb and middle finger to the point of pleasure. “He decided to answer the call. So in the dead of night, he followed that pulse to a tiny canal littered with boats of all shapes and sizes.” I froze, realization beginning to dawn. “The Fae male quietly pulled himself up on a dock at the back of a charming two-story beach house.” My hand snapped out, stopping his movement. I turned to face him, my eyes wide, my breathing ragged. “He kept to the shadows as he climbed to the second story,” he whispered, his fingers lightly brushing against my hips, “where he was sure to find the answer to his call. What he discovered would change his life forever.” His intense eyes searched mine. “In the arms of his Fae Queen was a tiny faeling, one the entire realm of Atlantis knew nothing about. One the goddess herself had led him to.”
“Draevyn,” I breathed in astonishment.
His palms came up to cup my face. “He watched as her parents cloaked her in a veil of human skin, intent to raise her in the Above World, intent to raise her where he could not protect her. But that did not stop the male from trying, for he knew this was what he was called to do.”
My vision blurred, and my throat closed up. I could scarcely believe what I was hearing. I didn’t dare speak as a tear escaped down my cheek and onto his hands. “So, he swam around her little island and back to Atlantis so often that his family began to worry something was amiss—that he had gone mad. They weren’t wrong. His worry for the veiled heir’s safety drove him from all his goals and responsibilities. They hardly mattered anymore. It was then that he decided to find a little island of his own to seek refuge in so he could remain close and check in on her.
“And when she grew into the most beautiful woman—stunning even in her human veil—something other than his need to protect her started to develop, something he didn’t want to admit to himself. For this female he’d guarded in secret his entire life caused him to feel things he’d never felt before.
“He would seek her out every morning just to watch her take to the waves with such incredible skill that he was unable to take his eyes off her. He wondered if she would ever grace the gates of Atlantis, wondered just how long it would take for the Queen of Atlantis to tell the realm. But he was willing to wait until she did.
“Then, one evening, word came to the Guardians of a security breach in the Above World. The Queen had been attacked, and the Fae male’s heart seized. The guilt consumed him because his first thought hadn’t been whether his Queen lived; it had been about the young female the Guardian had been protecting in secret his whole life. But the answer came through the gates of Atlantis that night, and in that moment, he knew he would never part from her.”
The tears from his admission continued to flow. “You’ve known about me this whole time.”
“I’ve known about you since the day you were born, Asherah. That is how I know unequivocally that you are mine just as much as I am yours. I don’t care how many bonding ceremonies I’ve attended, or how many lovers you or I have had in the past. None of that fucking matters. There is no one else—no one in Atlantis or the other realms or the Above World—who will ever capture my heart the way you have. The call of the bond says so. Can you deny your own call, nanichi ? The call to me? Your lifelong call to be in the ocean with the marine life? Embracing your true nature, yes, but answering a call of your own that burns in your chest?”
The words wouldn’t form on my tongue. I knew the calling he spoke of. Growing up, I’d felt it every time I was out in the ocean. And now, I felt it every time we were together. I’d become more enthralled by it as time passed. “No,” I rasped. “I can’t deny it.”
The relief in his eyes was palpable. “Come to the bonding ceremony with me, Asherah Delmar. Say you’ll present yourself before the goddess as my bondmate so that we can finally honor that call. Say you’ll be mine.”
I gently gripped his wrists—a smirk lifting the corner of my lips. “I mean, are you asking or telling?”
Draevyn chuckled lightly. “You can’t make this easy, can you?” He rested his forehead against mine—the tiny specks of blue amongst the green visible in his eyes. “Asherah, will you present yourself before the goddess as my bondmate?”
I brought my lips within an inch of his. “Yes.”
Suddenly, my breath caught. The familiar pull at the center of my chest grew into something different, into something so fierce it brought my widened gaze to Draevyn’s. His jaw slacked.
“Thank fuck.”
His mouth crashed to mine with all-consuming need. I moaned into his mouth when I felt his scales dropping and the press of his erection into my belly. Love, passion, and desire all fused in his scintillating kiss. When he fell to one knee, placing my foot on the thigh of his bent leg, exposing the liquid heat between my thighs to him—my breath left me entirely. His hungry gaze remained fixed on me as his tongue licked through my soaking wet slit. I gripped his hair between my fingers as he swirled around the sensitive nub, his firm, powerful hands squeezing my ass and pulling me tighter to him. All thoughts left my mind as my hips rocked back and forth with desperate need. He hummed against my clit like a man who’d gone days without water and greedily sated his thirst. My release unraveled as I called out his name—pure ecstasy coursing through my body.
But Draevyn Eliron wasn’t done.
He rose from the floor, his fingers digging into my thighs and lifting me until my legs were wrapped around him. When he slammed me up against the wall, the wood creaked at my back. With one hand, he held me up as he guided himself to my entrance. He took me in one quick thrust. The groan that left his lips nearly caused me to come again. His enormous cock stretched me impossibly wide. I could hardly breathe.
Draevyn licked a trail across my bottom lip. “You are meant for me, nanichi .” He slowly pulled out to the tip and slammed back into me, my head hitting the wall behind me. “Every inch of you calls to me.” He thrust hard into me again. “Consumes me.” He brought his mouth to my ear. “Let me show you just how much I love you.”
And then, Draevyn showed me. His hips pistoned into me harder and harder with each delicious thrust, another release building on the tail end of the other. I was a prisoner to his body, and I prayed to the goddess he’d never let me go.
“Goddess divine. You look so beautiful when your tight pussy squeezes my cock,” he rasped in his timbre tone, eliciting the most sensual moan from my lips. “I want to feel you come again.” His hand slipped to my clit, rubbing the tight bud feverishly. “Come for me, my mate.”
Stars began to cloud my vision. I closed my eyes and threw my head back, my nerve endings firing as I came around him. Draevyn let out a thunderous grunt, bucking his hips into my heat as he slammed my body hard against the wall—his cock beginning to throb within me.
He thrust forward one final time with a primal roar of pure lust as his forehead, slick with sweat, came to rest in the crook of my neck. We were a pile of liquid limbs desperate to hold on to one another, his thighs shaking. Draevyn pulled his head back and gazed at me with wonder, the most delectable smile emerging on his face.
Without warning, the wall behind me gave way—the loud snapping of the wood was not likely something I’d ever forget. I toppled back, my legs dislodging from him in instinct to save him from falling over with me.
My arms flailed behind my head as my feet lifted from the treehouse floor.
Draevyn’s eyes widened in panic. “Asherah!”
It dawned on me then. There was nothing to break my fall. Being this high up in the trees, this fall would be at my peril.
But midway to the ground, a massive gust of wind came at my back, holding me up mid-air. I chanced a look around, certain that an Air Fae must be nearby.
But we were alone on an island with no Fae or human around.
My brows knitted together in complete puzzlement. It couldn’t be.
The wind was coming from…
On instinct, I steadied myself, determined to will the wind to lift me higher. When I began rising in the air, my wide eyes slid back to Draevyn—one single solitary word left his lips.
“Hekiti.”
My toes gently scraped across the boards of the wooden treehouse floor, the wind at my back holding me steady as I reached for Draevyn’s outstretched hand. I carefully placed my hand in his, afraid that if I even breathed the wrong way, the wind at my back would disappear, and I’d fall to my death. Dust and fallen leaves swirled around the tiny tree house, causing a whirlwind around us as my feet finally landed firmly on the floor.
The wind died then.
Draevyn stared at me with wide eyes gleaming with something akin to fascination or awe. I couldn’t tell. I could barely breathe. Slowly, ever so slowly, Draevyn brushed his palms up and down my upper arms, his gaze traveling over me, checking for any cuts. “Are you alright?”
“I think so,” I answered, but my shaking hands indicated otherwise.
Draevyn rushed to the blanket that the wind had swept away and now lay in a pile against the far wall. “Come sit down,” he said, placing the blanket on the ground before us. He rushed by my side and guided me on shaky legs to sit in his lap. He cradled me in his arms, trying to calm my nerves. “Breathe, nanichi . Just breathe.”
I inhaled, filling my lungs, and exhaled slowly through my mouth. With each pass, the thumps against my chest became less of a pound and more of a steady rhythm. Draevyn rubbed slow circles on my back as I asked, “What just happened?”
I’d never seen Draevyn smile the way he did then. “You’re a marvelous, wonderous female. Something so special. That’s what happened.” He surveyed the gaping opening of the treehouse. “The Hekiti. This is remarkable. Two elements.”
My forehead creased. “And you’re sure there aren’t others who have more than one, right?”
He lifted my head with a gentle grasp on my chin. “No, Asherah. It’s unheard of. There is only one who has been prophesized, one who the goddess herself will choose.” His hand slid to the back of my neck. “If you are who I believe you to be, you are extraordinary, a gift to Fae and humans alike. You remember what the Hekiti is?”
I nodded. “The one who can find all the objects.”
“No, Asherah. It is so much more than the objects. It’s an honor, the highest there has ever been and ever will be. It means you are the bringer of peace to the realms. It means the goddess has blessed you with an immense power—the power of all four elements. Someone like Queen Sessi would kill leagues of humans with that kind of power, but the goddess chose well. The goddess has chosen you .”
I didn’t know what to say, the words failing me. I cleared my throat. “What if there’s an Air Fae on the island we didn’t see? They could have conjured it.”
Draevyn looked at me in stark disbelief. “Not even you believe that lie. And you know it.” He sighed but froze, his gaze fixed on my wrist. His hand snapped out and held it up to my face. “Do you see this?” He pointed at the circle. “I believe we have an answer, Asherah. I believe it’s been in front of us all along. The Hekiti. The circle that makes your mark different from the other Queens. You need to face the facts and not leap headfirst into denial. There’s no time for it. The next ice age is upon us.”
I shook my head. “It’s not denial that I’m feeling.” I went quiet for a long moment, the confession building on the tip of my tongue.
“What is it, nanichi ?”
My hands began fidgeting. “It’s just that…it’s a lot. The pressure. The chance of failure. It’s all just…so much. I was just finding my place in Atlantis as its future Queen. Now, I’m expected to bring peace to the realms? It’s too much. It’s way too much.”
He placed his hands on mine, stilling them. “You are not alone. I’m here by your side. Your father, Dax, Myles, and even Aurelio and Reneah when you need to escape and let loose. Have a little fun.” I dipped my chin to hide the small smile that emerged. His fingers came to my chin, lifting it to meet his beautiful aqua eyes, full of love and courage. “We’ll all be here to help you, to guide you. And if you ever find yourself in a situation where you are alone, helpless,” he placed his palm at the center of my chest, “I’m always here. We’re in this together. Do not be afraid. The goddess gives her most important missions to the Fae who can bear the weight of them.” He leaned forward, bringing his full lips to mine in a chaste kiss. “My beautiful warrior Queen,” he whispered. He brought my wrist to his lips, kissing my elemental mark with a reverence that moved me. “We need to visit the Bohiti.”
“Will she know more?”
He nodded. “She has tomes of her own that might confirm our theories.” His gaze turned fierce. “You mustn’t tell anyone what happened here. Not even your father. Not yet, at least. The Bohiti will let us know what we should do. Until then, not a soul can know. If anyone were to find out, your life would be in immediate danger.”
“I promise I won’t tell anyone.”
He gave me one final lingering kiss. When I leaned back, I surveyed the damage our tryst left behind. “I’m sorry about your treehouse.”
Draevyn laughed. “No need to apologize, nanichi . It was all worth it.” He kissed my shoulder. “I’m not likely to forget it.”
“It will be a great story to tell the grandkids.”
He brushed the back of his hand across my cheek, his gaze heavy with a love that made my heart swell. “That it will.” He sighed heavily. “But for now, we need to visit the temple.”
When we rose from the floor, something caught my eye just out of the gaping hole in the treehouse. “Draevyn, look.”
I’d seen a million sunsets just like the one before us, the dying light of the sun casting its final rays upon the islands. My vision blurred. I’d taken moments like this for granted. Hell, I’d taken the sun for granted. The dome light provided something similar, but nothing could beat the actual thing—the orange hues in various shades reflecting off fluffy clouds. I leaned back into Draevyn’s chest, the both of us admiring the beauty before us in blissful silence until the sun dipped beneath the horizon.