Chapter 28
Alora
With the setting moons behind us, we ride away from the Zurian shores. With daybreak ushering in, I take one more look back at the stunning waters.
Oddly, leaving the black sandy lake felt like leaving a piece of me too.
Like I knew that who I was would never be the same after bathing in the sacred waters, not after Kassiel brought me from the licking waves.
Turning back around in my seat, I follow Kassiel’s gaze to the trail that we begin to trek down. The mountainous boulders are treacherous in areas. Thank gods for horses because I’m sure I would fall more than once and practically crack my skull in the process.
“Have you been through these passes before?” I ask Kassiel.
He snorts before answering me, “Yes, many times in fact.”
“Oh?”
He shakes his hair out of his face and I’ve discovered I quite like the tousled look when his hair falls into his face. It makes him look wild, not as kept as The Devourer would be, but rather the unabashed Kassiel.
“Rune and I actually come to these mountain ranges from time to time when we need an escape from life at court. Often, King Euron would let us take a reprieve if he sensed us getting too pent up. I guess he figured it would be less trouble to lead us by using a carrot instead of the rod.”
My thoughts float back to what he revealed to me under the canopy in River’s End. The atrocity of Euron’s punishments. I would accept any reprieve, any token of kindness, with the threat of his wrath.
“Tell me what it’s like when you use your magic. When you usher someone’s soul?”
He grows very still in his saddle. Moments pass between us and I wonder if I’ve stepped too far out of line by asking him something so intimate.
His reply is quiet but thoughtful, as if trying to give weight to the words, “If I close my eyes, I can almost see that dark paradise. The echoes of love, cries of joy, the nearness of home. It’s all but just a taste of what I’m missing.”
He looks away and I get the inkling he’s meaning more than he says.
“It sounds beautiful.” I offer, suddenly feeling self conscious.
I focus my eyes on the red boulders streaked with white striations.
“It can be, yes, as you’ve witnessed for those that ask it of me,” he adds.
I’m almost afraid to ask but I do so anyway, “Can it be worse?”
“Much worse. When I take the soul of someone who yearns for this plane, who fights me—” he cuts off, wiping his face as he struggles to continue.
“Gods, it’s brutal. I hate it with everything in me.
It’s like being forced to take everything from them as their soul screams and begs for mercy.
There is nothing worse than ripping away someone’s will to live, it defiles them and shreds their soul.
My power invades their body as they plead with me not to, and I’m forced to assault them in the worst way. ”
He brings his fist up and slams it against his thigh.
Goddess it’s awful.
I look away feeling sick to my stomach.
Understanding washes over me in a revolting wave—any time he is controlled by King Euron to use his magic against his will, he’s forced to violate someone in a similar way he’s been violated.
“That’s an unimaginable cruelty that you’re forced to bear.”
He nods but continues to look at the landscape.
Leveling my voice, I withhold the scream that threatens to tear from my throat. “No one deserves to have their will stripped from them, not even you.”
He looks at me, the mutual understanding between us that we both have thought we deserved less in this realm for actions out of our control.
“I think it’s time we send for Rune,” he finally says.
I nod in agreement—it’s time we set the wrongs in this world right, starting with freeing Kassiel.
Oak delivered the message Kassiel had scrawled and returned back to us with his answer. It only took half a day, but Rune would meet us at nightfall just out on the outskirts of the Leith Mountains, where we would still have cover from the Helianate and royal guard.
We arrived early and camped out under the cover of the Quaking Trees that backed up to rocky formations that looked like pillars.
Kassiel had asked me what my life had looked like prior to The Hidden finding me and we talked for clockhours about the intricacies of ourselves. Down to the last little pieces of knowledge of even my favorite thread color for gowns.
“I guess I am not surprised that you would pick silver,” he teases.
I glower at him from the rock I’m perched on and pick up a small stone and let it fly towards his head.
“Silver is a fine color, and you know it!” I chide.
“It’s a very fitting color for you, I admit.”
Though sunset marries the sky with oranges and purples against the distant capital of Ezmelir, you wouldn’t have known the day slipped away from us sooner than we wanted it to.
“And what’s your favorite color? If I had to guess, I honestly wouldn’t know.”
He grins at me and sucks his teeth before answering, “If you guess right, I’ll give you anything you want, though it may take time on my end to procure.”
“Hmm.” I begin to think about the answer, wondering what I would desire if I answered correctly.
I huff, twirling a little leaf that had fallen off the Quaking Tree as we sat underneath it.
His head turns towards Ezmelir, looking at something in the distance.
“I’m not sure I know,” I begin, focusing on the group of people that begin to make their way towards the base of the mountain we currently sit atop.
Distractedly, I continue to roll the leaf between my fingers, a sense of dread beginning to curl in my belly.
I’m suddenly uneasy about going to the capital.
I look up again and find Kassiel watching me too, instead of studying the group as he had been.
“What is wrong, Alora?” His words caress me, offering a blanket of comfort.
“I feel as if everything is about to change,” I confess, my heart constricting, “and I’m worried that my world might crash after.”
He stands swiftly, jumping over the rock that separates us with one hand on the boulder.
“Come here,” he says softly.
I stand and he brings his arms around me in a tight hug.
His hands thread through my hair and he begins to rub at the base of my neck.
He brings his mouth close to mine and kisses me, just one swift peck before kneeling in front of me.
“What will it take, Alora?” he begins, “If you asked me to kneel before you and worship, I would. I’d utter prayers as I kissed you, begging you to hear me.”
He grabs my hand and squeezes. “If you asked me to crawl on my belly, submitting to you, I would. If it pleased you, I’d stop at nothing until you would bear witness to my fealty. So I ask again, what will it take for you to know my heart lies with you?”
I choke on unshed tears and watch him. He looks like someone offering penance, and I just happen to be the goddess for which he kneels.
I look down my nose at him, letting the tears stream down my face before clearing my throat.
“Then crawl.”
And so he does, with hunger in his eyes that could only be described as someone witnessing their salvation.
With a groan, he falls onto his palms and looks up to me with the same emerald eyes I’ve come to yearn for.
“And what would my lady have me do upon my knees?”
Good gods he’s wicked.
“I want you to undress for me, so I can see your naked body as you grovel.”
His lip turns up, exposing his canines.
“The little warrior is a naughty thing, I see, afterall.”
The way he calls me such things has liquid pooling between my legs.
In moments, he’s undressed, leaving his clothes strewn across the earth.
He drags his hands through the dirt, followed by the slide of his knees until he's directly beneath me.
His expression fills with want, as if he’s more than eager to submit to me. It’s enticing knowing he trusts me with such power over him.
He rocks back to his heels, knees still pressed into the dirt and lowers his chin to his chest. He looks like a fallen sentinel, in the most delicious way.
Nightfall is upon us, drenching him in shadow and light from the moons, adding an even more erotic layer to the situation.
I slowly peel off my blouse, letting him worship my body as I undress with each layer.
His touch is reverent as he feathers his fingers across my too hot skin. The cool breeze of the night is welcomed as his touch ignites my flesh.
He begins kissing me, just above my navel and trails down. His arms encircle me once more as he hugs my lower half, a smirk forming as he presses his hands under my butt cheeks and squeezes.
“I think I may need to inform Caym I’ve found a new favorite position.” He speaks with a sultry tone.
I playfully smack him, laughing while doing so.
Grabbing his hair with my free hand, I pull his head back and expose his neck.
The swirling tattoo continues to pulse, alive in its own right.
“You’re devastating, you know that?” I admit to him.
I kiss the top of his head and continue, “You’re so beautiful and yet filled with such sorrow and hurt, it’s amazing you haven’t turned to stone from it.”
Something deeper fills his eyes, washing him in a flush that reaches his cheeks.
“I think I had to suffer enough, to atone for my curse, to be rewarded with you in the end. I’d gladly endure whatever I needed to have a chance to sit at your feet, time and time again.”
He moves lower, kissing my thighs.
“If the fates had commanded me to burn the entire world for a chance to be with you, I’d have done so over a hundred times, until the ground was nothing but char, that is how deep my devotion for you lies, Alora Viren.”
His kisses move inward as he shifts my legs apart before sliding his tongue in between my flesh.
He spreads his tongue flatter and tastes my pussy, licking and lapping as my fingers roam across his skull.
The wide part of his tongue presses deeply, forcing a groan from my mouth that I quickly cover with my free hand.
I pull him upwards and he kisses me greedily, the taste of my arousal mixing with the taste of our lips.
“Do you like that, laochra?” He murmurs against my lips.
I nod as rain begins to pelt down from the sky, the unfamiliar word sending delicious ripples down my spine.
My nipples pebble with the frosty drops.
Kassiel looks up to the sky and smiles, his full mouth stretched wide. His teeth glint in the moons' light.
“Gods,” I cry as his hands pinch my tender peaks.
“Don’t speak of them when the only altar I plan to worship is your tight little cunt.”
The downpour of rain ramps up as his hand meets my core and starts to pump furiously, curling again as the water trickles down his arm. He works so quickly that my orgasm threatens to snap at any moment.
He kneels, bringing his teeth to my clit again and lets them gently scrape against the sensitive bundle. It’s pain mixed with pleasure as he continues to edge me.
He suddenly stops and withdraws his hand and mouth and looks at me while bringing his wet fingers to his mouth and sucks the trickles of rain and my wetness.
“It’s said that water is necessary for all survival but they haven’t tasted the nectar of your arousal.”
The rain continues to trail down, unrelenting in its fury.
Suddenly, he spins me, pinning my arms behind my back as he bends me over the boulder that lays behind us.
Small fires from campsites glow amidst the downpour.
“Let them witness your moans, little warrior.”
He slides into me and my breasts drag across the sandstone.
We both rush towards our climax as he drives into me.
The cries break from my lips and he groans into my ear, an intimate melody that only pushes me closer to the edge.
He releases my hands from behind my back and grabs onto my hips before plunging into me harder and I raise myself up off the boulder.
His leg brushes my backside as it comes up to find purchase next to my body on the stone. He pistons his body into mine, quickening the pace, and I feel like I’m falling from the onslaught of pleasure.
My arms give out and I drop against the stone again and with a scream, find myself coming so forcefully it almost hurts.
Blurriness fills my vision as I roll my eyes and feel his cock pulse and thicken inside of me.
With one last thrust he fills me with his warm cum that paints me from the inside.
I’m still riding the high as he finishes, the feeling of him coming as I climax is enough to make me never want to finish any other way.
Once his cock quits pulsing, he withdraws from me and I feel too empty.
He takes his shirt and cleans me, all while kissing my sticky skin.
We both know this is the last time we will spend together until he’s free and the bittersweet moment passes much too quickly.
The next time I face him will be when he dons his mask as The Devourer.