Page 8 of Iridian (Chromatic Mages #3)

Rosabel La Rouge

The Council insisted that nobody was going anywhere with those scrolls until the sun came up and we found out if we could actually see the whole thing. To Madeline’s horror, they asked her to accommodate the Mergenbachs and Taland’s brothers, as well as all of them.

When I say asked, I mean that they didn’t give her the option to decline. They simply told her that she had the space and the money for it, and for the next six hours, she would be our host.

The look on her face would have made me laugh in any other situation. As it was, I just took Taland by the hand and guided him to my room while guards took the others to wherever Madeline had decided to let them stay until sunrise.

That’s how I ended up in my bedroom with Taland. That’s how I walked inside, turned the lights on, and closed the door, resting my back against it for a moment just to catch my breath.

“Fancy,” he said as he slowly walked to the middle of the room and looked around. “I want to fuck you in every corner of this room.”

Laughter burst out of me at the same time as tears spilled out of my eyes. The whole moment was so surreal that I could hardly get myself together.

Walking on my own was out of the question. I stayed there by the door, hanging on to the handles, and I watched him and I laughed and I cried until he came closer. Until he took my hands in his and pulled me to the middle of the room with him, then held me against his chest while he laughed, too.

It took me a while to stop crying and making those awful sounds.

“You’re in my room,” I finally said, cheek against his chest, my arms around him and his around me.

“Mhmm,” he muttered and kissed the top of my head before he rested his chin against it again.

Like that we spun around slowly, just to keep moving.

“You have a nice room, sweetness,” Taland said after a little while, and I nodded.

“I also have a nice bathroom. I think we need a shower.” We were both covered in dried blood and dirt from the last time we barely escaped with our lives.

Taland chuckled. “Don’t be shy, baby. Just say you want to fuck me in the shower first.”

The butterflies in my stomach went nuts and my knees actually shook a little. “I don’t…” I closed my eyes and bit my lip for a second. “I want to fuck you in the shower, yes.”

Taland grabbed my face in his hands and raised it until we were eye to eye. Goddess, he looked like a completely different person from the guy he had been when he first came to Madeline’s office. He always looked like another Taland when other people were around, and I adored that he saved this side of himself only for me.

“Good girl,” he said, and my toes curled and my cheeks flushed like I’d never heard those words before. Like I was just discovering that I adored them, too.

“Come with me,” I said, and with his hand in mine, I walked us to the bathroom and turned the lights on.

Taland stopped me in front of the large mirror over the sink and began to take my clothes off without a word. Goddess, we were a mess, both of us. I wanted to feel bad or afraid as I looked through the mirror at him slowly pushing down my jeans, but I couldn’t.

And the moment the wound on my thigh was visible to me was the moment I noticed the pain that was coming from it. Hakim had done a number on it, and I’d been so focused on everything happening, on the pain that I’d felt all over me that I hadn’t noticed how tender my thigh still was. Madeline had healed me, but that wound had been deep, so it was still there, my skin red, the scar angry.

Closing my eyes, I put my hand over it, and I began to chant a more advanced healing spell on myself. At this point we were already moving slowly. We were already weak, both of us, so even if it cost me energy, it was worth it, that spell. Colors came out of me, the bracelet around my wrist heating up for a moment. Then the magic slipped in the wound and the way it mended it within seconds was fucking miraculous. I was breathing a bit heavier, and Taland chuckled as he came in front of me and pushed my hand back, then kissed my thigh that was just slightly red.

The wound was gone and so was the pain. And I still looked at the bracelet, in awe of it just like I had been the first time I witnessed what it could do.

The spell did take a lot of energy out of me together with the pain. Goddess, I was too tired. I just wanted to shower and fuck Taland and sleep, and when I woke up, I’d eat. I’d get my strength back then, I was sure of it.

That’s exactly what I did.

We walked into the shower together. The cabin was more than big enough to fit us, and at first, we let the water wash away most of the dirt from our bodies. We held onto each other and we kissed slowly, and I swear his kisses were life. The more I felt him, the more alive I came, the more I wanted, the faster my heart beat.

We scrubbed the dirt and dried blood off one another thoroughly, and the more we did so, the faster we moved because he was hard and I was wet between my legs, too, and we needed each other more than we needed sleep.

“Sit down,” I told him when we were as clean as we were going to get, and I pushed him back toward the white marble bench that lined the wall at the end of the cabin. I’d always loved that bench—it made shaving so easy, and now I loved it even more. It wasn’t big by any means, very narrow, but the seat wasn’t slippery, so we made it work. Taland sat on it with a wondrous smile on his face and watched me as I straddled him while the shower over us continued to spill warm water.

His arms were wrapped around my waist tightly. Our lips were pressed together as I held his cock up and slowly lowered on it, taking him in inch by little inch. It slipped inside so easily because it was wet, too, and when I sat on him all the way, I felt right at home.

Goddess, the way he stretched me. Even now, I still needed a moment to adjust to the size of him, and he needed a moment, too. To kiss my entire face slowly, dig his fingers in my ass to hold me in place, to analyze every bit of me that he could see in this position.

“How do you become more divine every new time?” he whispered as he ran his other hand down my chest and touched my breasts with his fingertips, my nipples, trailing the drops of water on my skin.

I didn’t know the answer to his question, and I was pretty sure that it was just him who saw me that way, so I said nothing, only moved.

I fucked him slowly, our skins slippery from the water, and my knees hurt from the hard surface of the bench, but I didn’t care. Taland guided me up and down with his hands on my hips. Sometimes he raised his own and pulled me forward and back until I felt him in my very core. The sound of the water falling from the shower muted half of our moans and whispers, and it was a moment as perfect as any other when we were together like this, connected in soul and body and mind.

Chest to chest, mouth to mouth, we came together a little while later, holding onto each other, calling each other’s names with the last of our strength.

The water had gone cold by then, but neither of us complained while we cleaned ourselves up, wrapped ourselves in towels, and made it back to the bedroom, walking like we were drunk or high—or both. By the time we crashed on the bed, we were completely spent. I didn’t even have the time to tell him that I loved him, that I’d dreamed of having him in this bed possibly more than a million times before.

I fell asleep right away.

A knock on the door.

My eyes opened and I was a bit confused because my mind insisted that the warm body next to mine and the heavy arm draped around my waist was Taland’s, but then my eyes were telling me that I was in my bedroom in Madeline’s mansion, and that couldn’t possibly be. Taland sleeping with me under the same roof as Madeline?

No way in hell…

“That’s the third time they’re knocking, sweetness. Want me to get that?”

I sat up, breathing like I’d been racing for hours, and I looked behind me—at Taland in my bed, his gorgeous head on my pillow.

“I don’t mind,” he continued, grinning because he could see just how confused I was, just how shocked at the sight of him, but the memories were already coming back. The memories of last night, of him coming to my rescue, again, this time in Madeline’s mansion. Of him putting the bracelet around my wrist and scrubbing the dirt from my back and guiding my movements on his cock by my hips— holy fuck.

“No, no, I-I-I got it.”

I made to jump off the bed when he grabbed me by the arm and spun me around. Then my face was between his hands and his lips on mine.

He kissed me softly, just a small peck, and whispered, “Breathe, baby.”

So, I breathed.

And good thing I did because, when I breathed, I realized that I was completely naked—we both were—so I had the good sense to put a robe on before I went for the door, smiling. Impossible to help it—Taland was here, in my bed, and so of course I would be smiling even though little made sense and the sky outside my windows was still dark.

Then I pulled the door open to find Fiona with a big tray in her hands that must have been very heavy.

“Oh, Rora,” she whispered, like she was both surprised and happy to see me.

“Hey, Fi,” I said, pulling the robe closer together as I looked over the empty plates and the silver domes that surely hid food.

Oh, Goddess, there was food on that tray and I was fucking starving.

“So sorry to bother you—I’ve been trying to bring you food all night. Poppy insisted. I hope I didn’t wake you.”

Poppy. The mentioning of her name sent shivers down my spine. Poppy was here.

“You’re not bothering me at all—thank you. Do you need help with that?” Though now that I was thinking about carrying that tray, I realized just how weak my limbs felt.

“Not if you let me through,” Fiona said with a little grin, like she already knew my secret.

Like she already knew that I wasn’t alone in my room.

My cheeks flushed bright scarlet. “Of course, yeah,” I said, and stepped aside, pulling the door open for her.

She came in with the food. Taland was sitting up in my bed, his body covered in my red silk sheet.

I was mortified.

“Hello, sir,” Fiona said to him with a nod and went to put the tray on my bedside table.

“Hello,” Taland said, a little mischievous grin on his face.

“Taland, uhm…this-this is Fiona. Fiona, this is Taland,” I barely managed, and I had no idea why it was so hard to look either of them in the face just now.

“It’s a pleasure, Mister Taland,” Fiona said.

“Just Taland is fine.”

“Do you need anything else from me, Rora? Any medical help maybe?” Fiona stepped by the door again and looked me over quickly with her hands folded in front of her, like always.

Her smile was genuine and her eyes warm, but even so, I felt like my skin was on fucking fire.

“Nope, nope, I’m fine. Thank you for the food, Fi. I’m fine,” I assured her.

She threw a quick look at Taland, and I could have sworn her cheeks turned a bit pink. Fuck, it was so hot in here…

“If you need me, you know where to find me,” she said with a bow of her head, and then she turned around to leave.

“Thank you, Fi,” I said, and by the time the door closed, I felt like I was standing right below a scorching sun.

Then Taland chuckled.

He wore nothing but a towel around his hips as he came to me, took my hands and pulled me toward the bed, sat me on the edge.

“You know, for someone who grew up with maids and slept in silk sheets and had a bathroom the size of most apartments, you should be more spoiled, baby,” he told me, then reached for the huge tray and put it on the bed between us.

I realized it had two of everything—plates and glasses and cups and hardboiled eggs and silverware—that’s why it was so heavy. It was almost twice the size of what Fiona brought in for me after I had one of my (now pretty consistent) near-death experiences.

“I’m plenty spoiled,” I muttered, and my mouth watered when he pulled the silver domes open to reveal two large plates full of everything—pancakes, waffles, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, and in smaller bowls there was melted chocolate and maple syrup and mustard and that garlic sauce that Fiona made, which made me want to literally drown in it.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better-looking breakfast,” Taland said in wonder, pulling the white and red cover from a small basket at the edge of the tray that had four croissants in it—my favorites. “And no, sweetness, you’re everything but spoiled.” He broke a croissant in half, brought the bigger piece to my lips, and bit into his at the same time I did.

Heaven.

It was heaven. Soft and warm and so delicious I wanted to cry.

Instead, I ate more.

I ate another three croissants and two waffles and drank the whole glass of milk, too, so fast that when it was time for the coffee, I felt like I’d explode if I took a single sip.

Meanwhile Taland smiled and chuckled and laughed at me while he watched me stuff all that food in my mouth at once, while he ate like a normal person. I didn’t even care—I had been starving for real, and now that I had all the food in my system, I fell down on the bed and breathed. For real this time.

Fuck, I kept forgetting how much better everything looked with food in my system, how much clearer my mind could get.

“This was good,” Taland said, wiping his mouth with his napkin when he was done. “Not as tasty as you, though.” He stood up and put the tray on the bedside table again, then lay down on the bed sideways with me.

His kisses after all that food were twice as powerful, especially when his lips lingered for a few seconds everywhere on my face.

“I always forget what it means to be full,” I muttered, eyes half closed as he continued to kiss me. “What time is it?”

“Your clock says it’s a little past four a.m. It will be dawn soon,” Taland said, and I flinched.

“The others?” I knew he didn’t know—he’d been with me the whole time, but he could guess.

“Probably somewhere bickering. Waiting.” He wrapped an arm around my waist and turned me to the side to face him.

“Do you really think it’s going to work—the sun? Or did I just have a bullshit idea?” It was very possible, considering everything that had brought me here.

“I don’t think you’ve ever had one of those,” he muttered, kissing the tip of my nose. “I think it will work—why else would a little sun appear as we were given the scrolls?”

I closed my eyes and sighed deeply. “I don’t want to be here.” Goddess, how I wished we could be all alone in that safe house again.

“I don’t mind where we are as long as we’re together,” he said.

“But you didn’t care about being together when you ran from me and left me alone in that safe house.”

I wasn’t trying to be a bitch, but remembering what it had felt like killed me a little bit even now. Not my fault for trying to understand, for trying to make sure it wouldn’t happen again.

With his eyes squeezed shut, he brought his forehead to mine.

“I’m sorry, sweetness. I had hope that the Devil would make that deal with me. I had hope that he’d let me go so I could come back to you.”

“How about next time you talk to me,” I said, bringing my hands to his face to touch the stubble that had grown on his cheeks just slightly.

“I don’t plan to end up in the Tomb again anytime soon, so…I don’t think I’ll be owing anything to anyone again,” Taland said. “But I promise you this—I will never again assume or hope. I will never let anyone or anything get between us in any way. I promise you, sweetness. I’ll kill them all first.”

His every word rang true. My stomach tied in a thousand knots, and even though I didn’t want to like it, I did. Whatever it was about Taland when he said things like this, when he threatened the world on my behalf and meant it, something primal inside me worshipped him more for it.

“Just don’t die,” was what I said, even if a part of me thought I should tell him that that was wrong. Killing people was wrong —but he knew that already, didn’t he? “Whatever happens next, let’s just make sure we don’t die, okay? Not you and not me. Neither of us.”

He nodded, grabbed my hand and kissed my palm. “We live.”

“We live.” Because in the end, that’s all that mattered.

“Did it ever occur to you when we were in my dorm in school that we’d end up here, talking about staying alive, just three short years later?”

I laughed a little. “Not at all. I thought we’d be arguing about holiday locations, honestly. I thought you’d hate the beach and I’d hate skiing—but that’s it.”

His shoulders shook as he laughed, too, then kissed the palm of my other hand. “I do hate the beach when you’re not there. When you are, I love it.”

My toes curled. “I’ll still hate skiing even if you’re there, though,” I teased.

He grabbed me suddenly and spun me around and put me on his chest while he bit my jaw, and I laughed out loud when he tickled me, stuck his hands underneath my robe and gripped my ass. Of course, he was hard.

“Then we won’t go skiing,” said Taland. “I think I can survive on beaches only.”

I kissed his lips a hundred times. “I’m sure you’ll convince me a time or two.”

“I’ll just have to work very hard at it,” he said, and his fingers were dangerously close to my pussy, so I jumped off him right away.

“Don’t you dare,” I warned. “We need to get ready and go downstairs. We need to be out there when the sun rises, Taland.”

He sat up, a tent in the white towel wrapped around his hips.

Now my mouth watered for an entirely different reason.

“Yes, yes, I know. I’ll just need to use your bathroom real quick,” he said and stood up, took the towel off and threw it on the bed.

Naked. He was so perfectly naked and hard and fucking delicious I wanted to devour him.

“Taland,” I breathed, my eyes on his body, and the asshole chuckled as he walked backward to the bathroom.

“You wouldn’t happen to have a razor I can use, do you? My face is itchy,” he said, grinning.

“Second drawer,” I muttered absentmindedly, then closed my eyes to gather my thoughts. “Damn it, Taland.”

“I’m sorry, baby, but my clothes are in the bathroom.” He shrugged, his eyes glistening. “Join me if you want.” He slipped inside the bathroom and left the door open just a bit.

And I was going to just go to my closet and put my clothes on. That’s what I did—I went in there and I picked up washed clothes and I was going to put them on and walk out of the room.

I was going to.

But then I didn’t.

Cursing under my breath, I put the clothes down and dropped the robe on the floor and went to the bathroom. I was so damn horny I couldn’t even find it funny that Taland was shaving his face with a pink razor. I just jumped him like a fucking savage.

The razor ended up discarded for the moment, and I ended up with my hands on the edges of the sink and my ass in the air while Taland fucked me from behind like it was the first time we were doing this.

The mirror was right there. I saw him through it while he pounded into me, looking down so intently at how his cock disappeared inside me, like it was the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen.

I absorbed every little inch of him with my eyes as well, but when he saw me looking and our eyes locked in the mirror, it got even better.

We came seconds later, holding each other’s eyes, moaning each other’s names. Taland pulled me up until my back was against his chest, and he wrapped me in his arms with all his strength, all his desire, like he wanted me inside his skin, too.

The reflection in that mirror was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Us, together, one for real. Naked, bare, exactly as we were.

In love.

We didn’t really get to think about what was happening, Taland and I, or what awaited us in the next day—or days, or weeks. It was for the better. We both needed a moment of peace before we faced our new reality.

So, when I got dressed and walked out of the closet, I planned to go downstairs immediately, ask Fiona for some clothes for Taland. I had no idea if someone from the staff was the same size, but we’d make it work.

Except the moment I opened my bedroom door, Poppy was there in the hallway, leaning against the wall, waiting for me.

She ran and hugged me with all her strength, and her eyes glistened with tears, and she screamed in my ear about how she was going to pay me back for all the scares I gave her and for not going to see her before I slept last night.

“I’m fine,” I assured her for the twentieth time, and eventually, she believed me.

“Tell me everything,” she said, squeezing my hands. “Is it true that Taland is here with you?” She rose on her tiptoes to see into the room, though she didn’t bother to keep it down. “Fi told me that you weren’t alone, but I can’t believe it. She was messing with me, wasn’t she? It’s not?—”

“It’s true, I’m afraid.”

Taland’s voice sent shivers down my back as he walked out of the bathroom, clean and shaved and wearing my white robe that was a bit too small on him.

My cheeks almost fell to the floor.

“You must be Poppy,” he said, and Poppy, who opened and closed her lips a dozen times couldn’t bring herself to say anything yet.

Goddess, I thought Fiona was bad, but this was a thousand times worse.

“Um, yeah,” I said, stepping slightly to the side to block her view of him. “Yes, yes, this is Poppy, and Poppy this is Taland, and he needs clothes, as you can see—that’s why he’s wearing my robe.”

If I didn’t die of embarrassment in those moments, I never would.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Poppy. I’ve heard great things,” Taland said, and by the sound of it, he was coming closer.

Goddess, how I panicked.

“Right, so, I need to go get him some clothes, and—” I was going to walk out of the room, close the door and run down the hallway, but…

“Stop.”

Poppy put her hands on my shoulders.

“Stay. I’ll bring clothes.”

Without even blinking her eyes, she turned on her heels and she ran just like I’d imagined doing a moment ago. She ran like her tail was on fire.

“Poppy, wait, you don’t have to…” I whispered, and it was pathetic. I was pathetic, too.

Meanwhile, Taland chuckled.

“You’re an asshole, you know that?”

All he did was shrug. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Luckily, when Poppy came back to bring me a pair of jeans and a green shirt that looked to be Taland’s size, I managed to convince him to stay in my closet. Poppy still hadn’t stopped blushing, though now she was smiling, too, eyes darting back and forth from me and into the room.

“He’s in the closet; he won’t come out,” I assured her. “Poppy, I?—”

She suddenly came close until our noses almost touched. “He’s hot! ” she whisper-yelled, then stepped back and cleared her throat. “Grandma and the others are waiting for you downstairs. The sun will be up in less than twenty.”

Again, she ran, but this time she also jumped every few steps like she couldn’t contain her joy. I watched after her with my mouth open until she turned the corner and disappeared from my sight.

Five minutes later, Taland and I were in the backyard with everyone else.