A flash of silver a slow.., p.21
A Flash of Silver: A slow burn sci fi fantasy reverse harem series, page 21
We could be with my Kitty.
I scooted closer and slid my legs on each side of her hips. The smell of dusty rot filled my nostrils as the tattered brown fabric of my pants shifted with my movement. No disgust tainted her Cara. As I grew accustomed to my fingers again, I pressed into her back muscles harder. She moaned softly, and her shoulders began to relax.
I placed my hands on each side of her spine and gently ran them downward. Her fear melted away. She didn’t turn to look at me, just allowed me to comfort her like she’d comforted my wolf. When I tried to drag my hands back up, her long, baggy tunic wrinkled under my hands. I growled and pulled the tunic upward. She automatically lifted her arms, and I pulled the fabric over her head, then dropped the shirt on the mattress. Panic filled her Cara for a heartbeat, but when I returned to the massage, she calmed. Her chest bindings still obstructed me, but I didn’t want her to run, so I loosened them to ease the pain in her ribs and worked around them.
I enjoyed having thumbs, I decided.
My Kitty let her head loll forward. “I’m lying to everyone. I want so badly to be a part of something that I’m forcing myself in where I don’t belong.”
“The magic called you.” I kissed her bare shoulder through layers of facial hair I didn’t remember having. “You belong. You could belong nowhere else.”
“I make everything more complicated,” she mumbled.
I kissed her other shoulder. “So do I.”
“Zelimir kissed me.” She sighed.
I nodded. “I can smell him on you.”
She groaned. “He thinks I’m a man.”
I laughed a raspy laugh. She didn’t smell human or fae, but she smelled female. “Perhaps you can fool them forever.”
My Kitty laughed, but her shoulders tensed. I placed my lips at the junction where her neck and shoulder met and ran my tongue along it before nipping the spot. A small dot of red blood welled up, and I licked it clean. Her taste exploded in my mouth. My cock hardened until it hurt. I searched our bond for something similar from her but found only a hint of passion lurking in her curiosity. The tail I didn’t have sagged. She thought of me as more wolf than man.
I squeezed my eyes closed. “Don’t leave us.”
My fae mind couldn’t face her response. The song wove through the air. Hot, dark magic swallowed me, reshaping my form. My world of simple needs and simple emotions engulfed me, and I opened my eyes. Except I knew it to be simple now. My wolf could never be simple again. My fur sprang up, and I leapt off the bed, rubbing my wolf body across Zelimir’s fancy carpet.
I jumped up, wagging my tail, and put my face in my Kitty’s lap in an invitation to scratch me. When she just blinked at me, I snapped up her tunic and bounded across the room.
“Hey!” She shot to her feet. “Give that back!”
I made her chase me until her laugher bounced around the suite, but in the end, I let her win. I would always let her win.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Teyr
I peered up at Declan and Zelimir, standing atop a steep hill of rock and dirt. Although the warm afternoon had dried most of the morning’s rain, patches of mud still clung to the slope, so I waited with Shade and the horses at the bottom to protect my clean hands.
Zel claimed to have designed this outing to teach Declan how to handle his mount, but I recognized it for what it was: yet another excuse to avoid the Council. A few days’ rest for Declan had turned into nearly a week at Stoneheim Castle.
I wanted to be angry with Zel for breaking rules he put in place, but excitement sparked into fire on my fingertips. If my stubborn commander stopped lying to himself, we could be whole.
He slid an arm around Declan’s waist and leaned down to whisper something in his ear. My fire drained away. Just as he fixed us, the human broke us anew. My mates had started keeping secrets.
In seventy-five years, my commander had never once shown interest in a man. Bash could be more open if I caught him in the right mood. The dragon joined Declan and Zel at the top of the hill and took the human’s hand in his.
Declan blushed. His unconnected Cara bloomed with lust and uncertainty. Being between them turned him on. Jealousy and joy rocketed through my veins. No, not jealousy. Disappointment. I’d been the only one excited to travel with the human, but somehow, I ended up last at everything. I hadn’t been the first to connect our Caras, the first to kiss him, nothing. My so-called mates hadn’t even admitted to their connected Caras yet, though everybody in the castle could tell.
Shade whined at my feet and thumped his tail against my leg.
“If you shifted again, you could climb up there and join them.” I scratched his head. “The view should be incredible. You could see Stoneheim, the plains beyond, the volcanos, almost the Academy.”
Shade pressed himself into my legs. I ran my fingers through his fur again and wished I could talk to him properly. Declan had even seen his first shift since Light. Fire, I was done being left out.
“All right,” I shouted. “Shade and I are bored, time to go back to training.”
Bash dropped Declan’s hand. Zel released the man’s waist without complaint.
Declan looked down at me and crooked a finger. “You come up first.”
I looked at the mud on the slope. “I don’t think so.”
Bash lowered himself down using his telekinesis while Zelimir jumped down. A little purple parachute bloomed above him, so he landed softly. I glared at them both. Show-offs.
“Come on.” Declan bounced. “I’m sure you can tell me something the other two didn’t. The view is incredible.”
I smirked. “The view from down here is pretty good too.”
He turned red and wrapped his arm around his middle, embarrassment filling his bond. Under the embarrassment, I found a hint of pleasure. I sighed, looked at my nice, clean hands once last time, and began to claw my way up the hill. Dirt ground under my fingernails, and a patch of still-wet grass stained my tunic vibrantly pink. Finally, I hoisted myself up over the top and attempted to clean my hands on the back of my pants. The human, it seemed, didn’t plan to give me that long. He launched himself at me.
“What in Fire!” I tumbled to the dirt.
Before I could defend myself, he landed on top of me. We rolled. Mud squished under my shoulder, and a patch of bright red moss stained the arm of my tunic another new color. I cursed. Declan laughed. Our legs tangled together, and he pressed himself against me. His humor not only rang in my ears but danced on his side of our bond, radiating toward me, and warming my world.
We rolled to a stop against the shrubs lining the hill’s edge. Declan lay on top of me. The frustration and anger I’d held onto for the last few days eased, and I grinned up at him.
“See, you can be dirty and smile at the same time.” He sat up, straddling my hips to keep me pinned to the ground.
My cock strained. I placed a filthy hand on each of his hips to keep him in place and barely restrained myself from grinding up into him. If only he hadn’t gotten his hands on a pair of Fire-damned, self-armoring Cara pants that kept me from feeling if he responded to our closeness as I did.
“I’d get twice as dirty if it meant having you straddling me.”
Declan groaned and tried to disengage my hands. “I just wanted to see you laugh.”
My heart thudded, but I let him clamber off my lap. I wanted him to want to touch me, touch all of us. I wanted to know what his face looked like in the throes of pleasure. But when he settled back down in the mud next to me, my heartbeat calmed. A breeze tousled his dirty hair, outlined against the brilliant blue sky, and I set a hand on his knee for no reason other than to feel him. He closed his eyes and turned his face to the sun. My heart ached for something I couldn’t identify.
“My parents didn’t have much.” The words spilled from my lips, a story I hadn’t told in nearly a century. “They taught me that if you present yourself as who you want to be, the world will believe it.”
He looked at me curiously. “And you want the world to know you’re clean?”
I sat up and smiled ruefully. Sometimes I forgot just how little he knew. “Classism is the blood in Emberhold’s veins.” I rubbed the shaved side of my hair, my biggest insult to my home. “I was born in the lowest class, the coals, but my parents wanted more for me. They spent every penny on making me look like I belonged in the upper class and a special school to develop my magic.”
I looked out over the horizon. If we could have seen far enough, I knew where Emberhold would be. I always knew. “They…died because we couldn’t afford the final tuition payment.” I swallowed. A day this beautiful shouldn’t be sullied with the truth, that they’d been murdered in their home by vicious debt collectors as I graduated.
Sorrow filled Declan’s Cara, and he placed his hand on top of mine. Even through the mud, his callouses scraped over my skin.
“I owe them everything. And now, I can be the son they wanted me to be. Staying clean is an easy part of that.” I smirked and ran my hand up Declan’s thigh a few inches. “Almost no one wants to bed a dirty fae.”
He chuckled, but his gaze lingered on the horizon line as well. After a moment, he turned to me. “Well, I think you look just as much like the charming Cara mate I met in line that first day.”
I grinned, and my Cara reached out to tangle with his. Pure, almost innocent joy burst through me, making my limbs buzz and the world spin. I reached out and pulled him against me. His chest met mine, and heat washed through my body. My heart danced. Instead of hiding it like my mates, I opened my Cara to share the moment with everyone.
Declan’s blue eyes grew wide with the same dizzy glee, and I cupped his face to kiss him. He started to lean in, but Bash gripped the two of us with his telekinesis and lifted us down.
As our feet hit the ground, Bash and Zelimir opened their Caras. I could almost have sworn I felt something from Shade. We gathered around Declan, and I very nearly didn’t resent the dragon for ruining my moment.
“I think this is cause for a celebratory orgy. Who’s with me?” I smirked.
Shade began jumping around and barking, but Declan turned bright red, and panic shot through our Cara.
I patted his arm. “Don’t worry. I’ll guide you through it.”
Declan’s blush deepened. “Uh, that’s not really the problem.”
Bash stepped back a pace and bent forward in a full belly laugh, and Shade took the opportunity to race into the middle and chase his tail. I didn’t know what made the dragon so happy, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Bash
I frowned at my commander as we mounted our horses. He wore his Cara uniform for the first time in days. He’d woken us early and hurried us through packing our things. The Lower Council had sent a message through the communication bowl last night, and they were not pleased.
One of the stable boys held Dee’s new horse, a sturdy Arabian roan just a bit smaller than my Friesian, as she mounted stiffly. The relaxed and playful Dee we’d coaxed out over the last few days had vanished. In her place sat Declan, the hardened, take-no-shit mercenary we’d met in the human town. She wore fitted leggings, now paired with a long-sleeved green tunic that clung to her chest as close as she dared but still draped well over her leggings. She’d replaced her cuirass in Stoneheim Village, and the orange fae leather shone against the brown of her other armor.
I grunted and mounted my own horse. I couldn’t begrudge her the transformation. Everyone felt the shift. Zelimir set his mouth in a hard line. Teyr frowned around his yawn. Even Shade stood motionless as we prepared.
At a single pulse, we moved. Zelimir took the lead with Teyr behind him. I jerked my head to Dee, and she maneuvered her mount between the ember’s and mine. Shade would range, as always. My dragon purred. She belonged amongst us, not lagging behind.
We followed a small dirt track through the decorative forest, skirting to the backside of the castle, from which we could reach the main road. I watched the trees, trusting my mount to follow. In a few hours, we would stand before the Lower Council. What did my commander intend to say?
“Brother!” Cordelia called.
I jerked my head up. Zelimir’s sister stood, flanked by guards, in the middle of the five-pointed intersection that would lead us off castle grounds. Beyond her, the first hints of the red and orange conifers of the volcanic range that ringed the Academy peeked out of the brighter trees.
“Cordelia,” Zelimir said warily.
She crossed her arms. “Sneaking out without a goodbye?”
“It’s early. I didn’t want to wake you.” He held his reins with an ease he wasn’t feeling.
I eyed her crimson dress, golden makeup, and braided updo. She would’ve had to have woken long before us to prepare herself to such perfection.
“Oh, you know me better than that.” Cordelia’s eyes twinkled. “And I know you better than to believe you.”
“I was trying to spare us another argument. My answer is unchanged,” Zelimir replied.
“What answer, Commander Zelimir?” Another voice rumbled out of the trees behind Cordelia.
Geminai’s Cara trotted into view, mounted and smiling. I drew my magic to the forefront of my mind and gripped the handle of my axe. They’d abandoned us to the wraiths, last we saw them.
They stopped abruptly before the center of the dirt intersection, farther away from Cordelia and her guards than was polite. That had to be the boundary line of Stoneheim Castle. My heart raced. They didn’t want to start an incident. Which meant they intended to fight once we rode off castle grounds. King Zephyr only staffed titans, so those that bore his colors were tall, broad, and well-trained, but they were nothing compared to the might of a full-fledged Cara.
Something in the brush to the left rustled. I trained my ear fans in that direction, my gaze on the combatants in front of us.
Cordelia clicked her tongue and smiled. “I seem to have found myself right in the middle of Cara business.”
Geminai attempted a diplomatic grin and prodded his horse forward a step. “It’s always lovely to see you, your highness, but unfortunately, you are. Please step aside.”
Cordelia studied Geminai’s Cara, and I thought she might refuse. If she wanted to destabilize the Council, starting a war would be an effective first step. I didn’t want to live through another civil war. She gestured, and her guards split to line each side of the dirt road. She stepped back to join them and placed a hand on her hip. My stomach sank. The princess intended to watch. Something rustled to the left again, this time farther back from us. It was leaving. Or getting out of range.
“Zelimir,” Geminai bellowed. “Disgrace suits you.”
“It’s been too long, Geminai.” Teyr urged his horse next to Zelimir’s and put Dee firmly behind them both.
My commander let purple magic shimmer across his palm. “We have business beyond you.”
“We’re your escorts.” Geminai spit on the ground. “You’re to surrender your weapons and come under guard.”
The rest of his Cara snickered.
Teyr scoffed. “We’re being treated like criminals?”
“You disobeyed.” Geminai grinned, almost vibrating with excitement. “You’re not even a full Anam Cara. Some human doesn’t change that.”
I pressed my horse toward Dee. Cordelia raised an eyebrow and whispered to one of her guards. I hated politics.
Teyr’s horse pranced. “You’re living in a fantasy if you think we’re surrendering our weapons.”
“Last chance. We’ve been empowered to use force.” Geminai flicked his gaze toward Cordelia.
She bowed her head. I growled. She would ask her brother to risk everything for her cause but wouldn’t break the law in private to come to his aid.
“There are five of us.” Geminai’s grin turned ghoulish and triumphant. “And three of you.”
I unsheathed my axe and dangled the weapon at my side, making my mount dance toward Dee. The cherrystone glimmered dully. A bhelrian screamed above us. The air pressure dropped.
A rift sliced through the air between Geminai’s Cara and us. A single metal leg emerged from the opening and hit the ground, accompanied by the whir of hydraulics and soft hiss of well-oiled metal against metal. A SpiderTech crawled out with several DogTech scattering around its spindly legs.
I yanked my axe up and pinned Brettrus, Geminai’s minotaur second-in-command, with a stare. He narrowed his eyes but nodded. Truce.
Their Cara spread out as a Tech I had never seen before climbed out of the rift. Like a SpiderTech, this Tech walked on telescoping metal legs but, instead of a torso, it had a clear, human-sized tube. A thousand tiny pieces of metal, constantly moving and shifting, formed terrifying arms. Silence froze the battlefield for two horrific heartbeats.
Cordelia’s shout to her guards broke the spell. A DogTech leaped for Teyr, but one of Dee’s arrows buried itself in the thing’s body. Sparks flew. Dee’s horse pranced and reared in fear, but Dee dropped gracefully backward onto her feet and spared me a nod before leaping for the nearest tree. I bared my teeth in a growl.
The Tech’s lasers would chew my horse up. I vaulted off his back and sent him racing after Dee’s fleeing mount. Battle shouts and the clash of steel filled the air. My blood raced, and I roared. Zelimir pulsed to close the rift.
I caught Teyr’s eye and pulsed my need to the ember. Wicked blue flames flew from his fingers and burst across my axe head. I charged into the fray, reaching out with telekinesis to slow the Tech around me so my superheated axe could cut through their metal bodies like a hot knife through butter.
Zelimir pulsed a warning to my right. I spotted the DogTech leaping at my side just as it went limp, two arrows jutting out of its side. My dragon roared in approval. Another DogTech in front of me fell under my heavy blow. Two SpiderTech climbed out of the rift. I wrapped my telekinesis around a nearby tree, tore it out by its roots, and slammed it into them. They crashed to the ground in a pile of metal shards and oil.
