Chapter 25
Ihear him before I see him, Kyor’s boots pounding in the corridor, and I’m not sure if I’m ready to face him. Wiping my tears away, I check myself in the mirror and attempt to smooth my hair so it doesn’t look as mussed as it is. Llin wouldn’t have allowed me to go out looking like this.
‘Thorn?’ My breath jolts as he crashes through the door. ‘What is it? What’s wrong?’
‘Oh…’ I let out a long breath and realise I don’t even know what to say. ‘Well, I didn’t complete it.’ And suddenly the tears are back, spilling out of me as uncontrollably as my magic.
Kyor rushes to my side, holding me close in an instant. ‘It was only your first time though,’ he soothes. ‘What did you have to do? Was Oel there again?’
‘No.’ I shake my head as I swallow down a sob and attempt to get control of myself.
I need to tell him. The truth. All of it.
As difficult as it is to speak of it, and even though every instinct urges me to keep this from him, to shield him from the pain of it, after baring his soul to me the other night, he deserves nothing less than my truth in return.
I pull away from him and look up into his eyes. ‘I was back in Wrohelm. Really back. In the past. Caz says that the third stage is all about learning some big lesson, but I only got through two of the doors.’
‘Doors?’ he questions.
‘Doors that lead to visions. Memories, really. Bad memories.’ I shake my head. I can’t do this. ‘Can we talk about it tomorrow?’ I ask him. ‘Maybe on the way to training? I think I just need to sleep.’
‘Whatever you need, Thorn.’ Kyor carries me to the bed and curls up beside me as I fall into a nightmare that peppers me with Rottings and my mother and the queen’s screams.
The next morning, after essentially no sleep and an even worse attempt at slurping down riverweed, we head back upstairs to get ready to go to the temple.
Just like the first day, we find Stefan waiting outside our door.
He’s talking to Benny and a prickle of unease extends up my spine.
Ruben talks to everyone. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to find him here, chatting away, learning about everything from Stefan’s favourite childhood hobbies to his preferred fighting form.
But Benny is not Ruben, and there’s something about the way the pair separate when they see us that causes my stomach muscles to clench.
‘All good?’ Benny questions with forced cheer.
‘All good. Just need to get dressed for training. We can meet you at the temple,’ I add to Stefan.
‘I’d much rather walk you there.’
‘And I’d much rather you remember that Rose is the fucking princess here, and you waiting outside our bedroom door is more than a little fucking creepy,’ Kyor fires back.
The Issen blanches. ‘The temple it is,’ he says. He glances back at Benny and offers a swift nod before striding away.
For the first time, Kyor joins me at the altar to Oel.
‘I think I need some order in my life,’ he says, kneeling beside me, his eyes forward. ‘Besides, this place is owed an apology – restitution – and my father sure as fuck isn’t going to be the one to give it.’
I squeeze his hands briefly before saying my own prayers to Oel. This time, it’s not hard to work out where to begin. After gratitude for Kyor’s continued – healthy – presence at my side, I offer a prayer for Kay and William, then follow with the group and my old friends in the slums.
Prayers done, I head out of the temple, yawning widely. Stefan looks at me with concern.
‘Are you okay? You look tired. Not overdoing it, are you?’
A growl rattles from Kyor’s throat, and I realise Stefan has placed his hand on my arm.
‘Rose is well rested and wants to train, so are you going to train her or not?’
The slightest smile lifts my lips. Stefan deserved that.
‘I hear there was an incident in the river, the entire thing frozen over for miles in either direction. Know anything about that?’ Stefan asks me pointedly.
I grimace. ‘There was a lot going on yesterday,’ I reply.
His nostrils flare. ‘Well, then we’ll need to go even further away from the city to be safe.
If there hadn’t been people close by, we could have lost the entire riverweed harvest, and then I guess we’d have to go further south for food.
’ From the smirk on his lips, it’s clear Stefan would have loved it if I had inadvertently killed the harvest and given him and Ranveeg all the excuse they needed to head down to Morathka and risk even more lives in their deluded quest for more.
Maybe I should do the opposite and make sure the harvest doesn’t fail – make sure it never fails. The instant the thought enters my head, I know that’s exactly what I’m going to do.
‘Come, today we’ll focus on testing your control,’ Stefan says before striding away, leaving Kyor and me on our own.
‘You know,’ I begin, reminded of something similar that Kyor said, ‘you never did show me what you meant by testing my control…’
Kyor looks at me and I can’t help but smile at the predatory glint in his gaze. ‘Oh, I can test your control, Thorn. Let’s start small, shall we?’
I feel heat rise in my cheeks despite the snow. ‘Maybe we should stay small,’ I suggest. ‘And later, you can show me some big things that I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on…’
‘I think I could get behind that. Or in front. Depends which way you want it.’
I shift closer, whispering in his ear, ‘Every way, as long as you’re inside me.’
A groan rattles from his throat. ‘I think that can be arranged.’
From the hard swell that I can feel pressing against me, I know he means every word. If only we weren’t outside, on our way to a training session.
Desperately, I move my lips towards his, but before I can kiss him, he pulls away, his hand finding mine. ‘I still want to know more about these little sparks you think I should be using my power for,’ he says.
‘Obviously I don’t mean now,’ I say. ‘Later.’
‘You sure?’ Kyor murmurs, mischief glinting in his eyes.
‘Yes. I’m focused now. You couldn’t distract me if you tried.’
I am fully aware, even as I say them, that my words are a red rag to a bull, and I find myself poised, my body tense in anticipation of what he might do.
The sensation soon hits me at the top of my thigh. It’s tiny – barely perceptible – remarkably familiar and undeniably pleasurable.
My eyes fly to Kyor, but he looks at me blankly. I’m sure if he was responsible for the feeling there would at least be a smirk on his face, but there’s nothing.
A moment later, there’s no mistaking the skitter across my clit that makes me instantly stumble.
‘You okay there, Thorn?’
There it is. That look in Kyor’s eyes. He knows exactly what he just did.
‘Kyor Knavin! What the fuck are you doing? Stefan—’
‘Stefan’s way ahead of us and too absorbed by his own ego to worry about us right now. Besides, it’s what we agreed. In fact, I think you’ll recall it’s what you asked for. Testing your control.’
‘I didn’t mean out here!’ I pant breathlessly, trying to keep my voice down, wildly aware that sound carries well on settled snow, particularly when the air is as still and crisp as it is today.
‘It’s too good an opportunity to pass up.’ He tilts his head lazily. ‘Of course, if you want me to stop…’
Another ripple of static spreads between my thighs, this time causing my head to fall back as pleasure surges through me.
‘Unbelievable. You’re a fucking nightmare,’ I tell him.
He grins unrepentantly. ‘Oh, undoubtedly, but I’m your fucking nightmare. And you’re mine. Say it, Thorn. Say you’re mine.’
I swallow. ‘I’m yours.’
He groans appreciatively.
This time it’s a cascade of sparks upwards, right across my thigh. My breath catches. ‘Kyor … my magic … if I come—’
‘Then you’re just going to have to control it, aren’t you, Thorn?’ His lips curl upwards slightly. ‘I don’t think Stefan’s teaching you shit. But I can teach you control, Thorn. So do you think you can do that? Can you control yourself for me?’
‘I…’ I honestly don’t know. I’m already dripping, and when he does finally bring me to climax, it’s going to be immense. But I don’t want him to stop either.
His eyes are locked on me in intense focus, his body gaining so much pleasure from mine… I need this. And so does he. ‘Yes, yes.’
‘Good. You are being so good for me, Thorn. Now, you need to start walking.’
‘Walking?’ I can barely cope with standing.
‘We don’t want anything to look suspicious, do we?
’ He smiles, gesturing ahead to where Stefan is little more than the height of my hand in the distance.
We could catch up with him if we truly wanted, but I’m soaked, dripping in a way I’ve not been for days, and suddenly I’m not so eager to do so. I start walking, but my steps are slow.
Even though I know this isn’t the right place for us to play like this, I can see just how hard this is making Kyor. The front of his trousers is bulging, the fabric straining over his cock, and it’s enough to make me even wetter and bring me even closer to the edge.
I twist my body away, hoping some distance will give me a modicum of control or at least lessen the effects of his power. But as the static hits my swollen clit again, I realise how stupid the idea was. He can bring lightning down from the damn sky. A few feet isn’t going to stop him.
I gulp down a breath and reach for my magic instead of fighting it, trying to force the wild swell of power into something contained. Something I can hold.
If my magic goes haywire here… Isthyr’s in the distance behind us now, but that doesn’t mean I can’t still do some damage to the outskirts. I froze the river for miles in either direction yesterday.
Not wanting to cause any chaos is enough to make me quicken my steps, but Kyor skitters more sparks over me, and this time they’re once again over my clit, crashing into the heat of my belly and hitting every nerve that desires his touch.
I’m so fired up that I’m all but panting with the effort of holding my orgasm back.
‘This is not a good idea. I could hurt you,’ I say, my voice shaking.
‘No, you won’t, Thorn. You won’t come until I say you can, will you?’
‘I … I…’ It’s nearly impossible to form a coherent thought, but the hunger in his eyes pulls the word from my throat. ‘No.’
‘Say it. Say I decide when.’
‘You decide wh— Fuck!’
The sensation goes so deep I don’t know how I’m still on my feet, and a flurry of snow erupts from my hands upwards. As the flakes drift down onto us, Kyor turns to look at me.
‘Now, focus.’
The sparks that hit me are enough to make my knees buckle, and this time it’s a flare of ice spears that shoot out from the ground around us, yet Kyor doesn’t so much as flinch.
‘Control this, Thorn. You’ve got this.’
I don’t think I have it at all. I’m breathless and on the very edge of unravelling, my underwear sodden. But he’s not going to quit until every fibre of my being is in tatters.
‘Kyor, I can’t… My magic…’
‘But you can, Thorn. I’m helping you focus on your magic in even the most adverse conditions. Next time you try to create a flurry, it’ll be the easiest fucking thing without me trying to make you drip onto the snow.’
I groan. ‘Fuck me.’
‘I’d like to,’ he admits, his voice gravelly with desire, ‘so fucking much. It’s been too long since I’ve been buried to the hilt in you, but we’ll rectify that later. For now, it’s time for your reward.’
My eyes slide closed in relief. I need this.
‘Eyes on me, Thorn.’
I pull them open with effort, fixing them on his gorgeous icy-blue eyes, which I could happily drown in.
‘Perfect. Now, ask nicely, Princess.’
I don’t need to ask for clarification. ‘Please. Please let me come.’
He smiles. ‘Since you asked so nicely. Come for me, Thorn.’ And he hits me with a spark over each nipple and then three more sparks right where I need them.
‘Fuck!’ The word rips from me as my muscles lose any pretence of control, and my entire body drops into the snow as magic and pleasure surge through me, as indistinguishable and violent as one another.
I don’t know if the white blindness that follows is from my orgasm or from the fields of frozen snow all around me.
Waves of pleasure continue to wash through me, buffeting my body in the most delicious way, and the snow rises up in swirling torrents around me.
Panic begins to claw at my chest, but this time I don’t let the magic drag me under with it.
I seize hold of it instead, forcing the swirling snow back down before it can become something worse.
I don’t know how far the magic went, but a blustering snowstorm is a far better outcome than I expected.
‘You did it,’ he purrs at me. ‘No dangerous magic while coming. I’d say that’s definite progress.’
As I allow him to pull me up, a voice breaks through the pounding of blood behind my ears.
‘Rose?’ Stefan hollers back to us. ‘Was that snow you? Did you make that?’
The smirk on Kyor’s face grows into a grin as he calls back, ‘Just having a little practice session of our own back here.’