Chapter 20
~Zayn~
Vax was really riding my ass.
And not in the fun way.
Not in the way that got my dick hard just even picturing it and taking that phrasing literally. Mmm. Like shoved down on the bed with his big, hard body pinning mine as his scaled-up cock rearranged my insides, where Evira and Winter would then—wow.
I blinked. That had escalated quickly.
So, yeah, the tension here was a lot. Sexually speaking. Obviously.
Holding off on going there with Win as a foursome again hadn’t exactly panned out the way we’d figured.
It’d gotten more complicated when Vax had come home and told Evira and me about what Sylas had revealed of Win’s conversation with him in the Veil.
It had brought up this whole new worry that wasn’t only about making sure he was ready and feeling safe and everything again. That worry was that Win might bring that new aggression and rage into our fucking, and react badly to wanting it that way now, like feel shame, if it came out.
I mean, I was here for every bit of it. It wasn’t exactly a secret that I liked a bit of rough. Evira and Vax were even more intensely into that with their primal natures.
But we’d held off, thinking giving it a bit more time would help. And hopefully, that Win would even bring it up, so we could put it out there and discuss it.
He hadn’t.
In fact, he’d been acting like nothing had happened.
Except for asking to visit those necromancer allies of his.
Well, his new friends as he’d been calling them.
Vax and Evira had convinced him to give it some time before he went to see them, as they were also trying to settle back into life topside in those Guardian Movement safehouse apartment thingies. And, yeah, Win had needed some separation from all of that.
Some.
Not… what this had become now.
Because with all the holding off on the fucking, Win had ended up becoming really gun-shy about it.
It was a whole clusterfuck.
Anyhow, now here I was studying my cute little ass off, thanks to Vax being in academic-drill-sergeant mode.
I finished scrawling the last line of my report for Apex Magic Theory and Practical Application—the theory aspect of it, not the fun exercises.
Not that we could be part of that again right now anyway, seeing as though we were here studying remotely.
It was something Cassius, being a highly-respected professor at another Academy—Wraeven—had arranged for us until things settled.
We were almost there now, and Win had already mentioned wanting to go back to Loxley and attend classes again on the actual campus.
“Yes!” I exclaimed, slapping the completed assignment down on the coffee table, then snatching up the papers for the next thing I needed to get to.
An awfully dense report I had to write for my Governance Through Crisis: Treaties, Turmoil & Adaptability class.
It was basically the senior, fourth-year version of the first-year class that Evira and Vax were taking called Principal Governance & Supernatural Institutions.
Win had been exempted because of his connections to The Shadowed, an organization that was referenced a lot in the class, which obviously was a conflict of interest given his ties to it.
“Very nice.”
I jolted on the snowy white couch at the sound of Win’s voice.
He was sitting opposite me on the brown leather one. He hadn’t said a word for over an hour. He’d been so immersed in catching up on all the work he’d missed.
“I know, right?” I said, smiling out at him, as he sat with a levitating tray over his lap that had a bunch of textbooks on it, a notebook open, a stack of papers, and even one of his grimoires. Yeah, he’d really been going for it and throwing himself into it. “Almost there.”
“You are there,” he countered.
I frowned. “Still got this report to get through.”
“Nope.”
He swept a wave of his amber magic over the papers he’d been scrawling on for the last twenty minutes. Then he levitated them over to me, and they landed neatly on my pink leather-clad thighs.
My frown deepened as I lifted them to eye level, then took in my handwriting all over seven pages’ worth of a report—the report I needed to write next.
“Win, what is—you wrote this whole thing for me?”
He lifted a shoulder. “A tiny little spell so it’s now in your handwriting too—and your verbiage—with no need to spend unnecessary time writing it out.”
“No, I can’t hand this in, that’s—”
“Don’t you have all that Requital induction stuff to get through as well?”
“I do, but—”
“Look, you already know everything I put into that report. You’ve been dealing with it all up close with everything that’s happened recently.”
“Win, thank you. Seriously.”
“Anytime, fireball.” He gestured across the room in the direction of the basement where Evira and Vax were sparring in the specially reinforced area that Vax had made for that specific purpose.
Yeah, they were getting all that tension out of their system.
Well, trying to. “Better put it away before they come up for a breather. Especially Vax.”
“Win… it’s… this sort of thing is… it’s new for you.”
He tensed. “You think it’s cheating?”
“I’m just saying—”
“Bending the rules is survival 101. I get that now.” He ground his jaw.
“If I’d gotten it sooner, a lot of this would never have happened.
” His gaze hardened. “I won’t let that fear get in the way again.
” And then he was smiling out at me, eyes not only no longer hardening, but…
sparkling? “Don’t worry, Z. You’ll all be safe from now on.
Even with the extra trouble being with me brings to you all. ”
“You… what?”
“I’m saying I’ve got you.” He blew me a kiss, then went to settle back into his work, flipping some pages of his grimoire for his Grimoire Creation class. “Love you. So much.”
Okay, I was done with this walking-on-eggshells thing.
I sat forward on the couch. “First, you don’t bring extra trouble.
Hello? Chaotic Ifrit here with a massive penchant for getting into trouble.
Vax almost causing a whole civil war—and not just because of stuff connected to you—and doing some dark, shadowy shit all over the place.
Evira being a dragon warrior who gives systems and rules the middle finger, and her also basically becoming an inter-realm fucking power broker.
I think we all bring the trouble, Win. Even without you factored in at all. ”
“Huh. That’s… all true.”
“Yes. Without a doubt, it is.” I wrung my hands, trying to conceal my unease with the other thing he’d said. “Your talk about being willing to break rules now… wanna elaborate on that?”
“Don’t worry, I’m not talking about anything crazy. I’m just no longer going to toe the line, like I used to. If protecting us, doing what’s needed for those I love, involves crossing a line here or there, I’ll do it.”
“You mean just in the sense of you hardening a little?”
“Yeah.”
“Huh.” I shifted my weight on the couch.
“So, what about this hypothetical scenario? The Light Fae Realm tries to attack again, sends agents here. They’re definitely threats.
So technically, if you’re about not toeing the line, you deal with them yourself and don’t call it into the Guardian Movement because that would take it out of your control.
So with all that shit being how I said… you tear into them, right?
Punish and torture first to send a message back to the Light Fae Realm to put them off ever coming at us again?
Then, of course, being immediate threats right there on our turf, you then also kill them, yeah? ”
He choked at my words, looking sick to his stomach.
Thank fuck.
“No!” he yelled adamantly. “I wouldn’t… I wouldn’t do that. Not that. I’d just stop them without worrying about unleashing too much power. Incapacitate as efficiently as possible. Then call in Ryker. He’s already been involved with the real life situation of that.”
I grinned.
“What?” he asked, arching an eyebrow.
“You don’t see it?”
“What’s that?”
“Ruxnoth didn’t alter you or taint you, Win.” I smiled. “You’re still that sweet, gentle guy, just with a harder outer shell. But that hardening isn’t him forcing that or making you that way, it’s a reaction you developed as a form of evolution to survive all of that.”
I saw him taking my words in, seeming to really hear them.
But then he started shaking his head. “Z, you were there… I wanted to kill him. Really wanted to.”
“Yeah. So did I. So did Vax. So does Evira. Fuck, Ambrose harmed him way more than was needed to keep him down. I even heard from Evira that Vorzyr has fire-charred effigies of Ruxnoth that he burns the shit out of several times a day after what that shithead did to him and those he loves. Feeling this way is a normal response to what’s been done to us, to you.
” I smiled. “You can emote, Win. You know? Isn’t that what you tried to get me to do for years until I finally got a clue?
” I smirked at him. “And as for the hardened evolution with you… well, you know me, babe.”
It happened so fucking fast, I was blindsided.
Win lunged across the coffee table between us and tackled me onto the snowy white couch, papers flying out of my hands, books upturned and hitting the floor, the whole nine.
“Mmm,” he growled, grazing his teeth over my jaw. “You’re right. I do know you. Every single part of you.”
He gave a tasty animalistic lick to the side of my neck. “Shit, yes,” I choked.
“I know how to make you tremble for me. To moan and groan.” He shoved his knee against my cock, and a strangled cry of so much fucking need tore from me. “To make you scream.”
With a spark of his magic, he had my pants off, then he reached inside my boxer briefs and wrapped his hand around my shaft, a shock of pleasure zapping through me. “Yes… fuck.”
“Mmm, you’re already so hard. I’ve barely touched you yet.”
He jerked me roughly, really fucking roughly, and it was awesome.