Page 11

~Vorzyr~

We rematerialized in an unfamiliar area shrouded in darkness.

As the teleportation spell slipped away, I employed my dragon senses to take in our surroundings.

We appeared to be deep within a ravine forest. It was surrounded by weeping trees. A dense fog rolled through the immediate area. It wasn’t eerie, but ethereal in nature instead.

I turned, brushing against Nyx as I did, who was looking all around as well, his horns glowing vibrant-blue as he reached out with his specific senses in his way. He trembled at the very slight touch of my arm skimming his shoulder. He was really worked up.

It was no surprise. With the emotional weight of everything, it had to be taking a major toll on him, especially.

He felt everyone’s emotions surging and slamming into him, and while it was an ability that was largely underappreciated because it wasn’t combative in nature, even I, someone who was predisposed to focus on might, could recognize what a powerful gift it actually was.

Especially in situations like this, where we all really needed it, needed him to employ that ability, to read what we didn’t want to expose but needed heard in spite of that reluctance, and what we needed him to translate.

But with that power came a significant drawback.

And I could see it now blatantly and painfully—it hurt him. It wore him down, even as it held the rest of us together.

“It’s all right,” I told him softly, wrapping my arm around him and tucking him into my side.

“Let go with us in a moment, baby.” I stroked his vibrant-blue hair with my free hand, little peaceful groans emanating from him.

“Do you hear me? It’s okay for you to do that.

Let it all out. We’ve got you, just like we’ve got Ariana. ”

He craned his neck to look into my eyes, and emotion welled. But there was a spark there, too, like he was so grateful that I understood, that he was being read well for once, his needs noted how he clearly desperately craved them to be right now.

“You already acquired it?” Kai’s voice sounded to our right, drawing our attention.

He was a few feet ahead with Ariana just beyond that and standing in the shadow of a building that hadn’t been there before. At least not visible to us.

She was sweeping her hand in an arc, finishing up, and as she pulled her magic back, I realized that the place had been glamoured, and she’d just removed it to reveal what it had been concealing and protecting.

“I call it Solumira,” she told us.

“From ‘solus’ meaning ‘alone’,” I mused. “And ‘mira’ meaning ‘wonder’. The wonder of being alone.”

“Yeah,” she said.

Kai was scrubbing his hand over his face, looking none too happy. “You already had a place ready to go.”

Our conversation a while back slammed into me as the realization took me.

“After this year is done, she’ll have fulfilled her promise to her family. And that will be it. She’ll resort to what she’s wanted all this time because of her fear of her own power.”

“Resort to what?”

“She’ll disappear into the ozone.”

No. She wasn’t doing that. She wasn’t going to disappear from the world and hole up here.

Was that why she’d brought us here? To say goodbye and sink into that solitary existence?

“No,” I ground out. “Not happening. Never.”

Kai walked to her and grasped her arm, not containing his urgency one little bit as he told her, “Tonight was a lot. There’s no doubt about that. But you can’t allow it to pull you from the life that you want, to—”

“I completely agree,” she cut in.

“You… do?” Kai asked, unsure and confused as hell.

I was right there with him on that.

“Why would you bring us here then?” I pushed.

Nyx eased from me and looked at her in wonder.

“She doesn’t intend this to be a place of retreat and solitude anymore.

I can feel her hope and her conviction. She brought us here for some peace and bonding.

Just a brief reprieve from the complications abounding.

” He smiled out at her. “It’s different now, isn’t it?

You’re not balking under the pressure. You want to use it to learn and grow.

” He sucked in a startled breath. “ More. To conquer them all and take back control. Not repression… this is about revolution. Damn… that’s a lot. ”

Relief flooded through me. More than that… I was majorly impressed. “That’s the mark of a true warrior.”

Kai smiled down at her, stroking her arm. “Well, then.”

“Come,” she said, pulling away and heading for the house.

As we followed her, I took in the place.

It was a converted watchtower-like structure, tall and narrow and built into the hillside of the forest valley. The foundation was weathered stone and reclaimed word, while the upper levels were made from dark wood and reflective black glass.

Surprisingly, she didn’t lead us toward the front door, veering off around to the rear of the property instead.

We trudged through the dirt path, our boots crunching on fallen twigs and leaves along the way.

She stopped before a concealed archway that was carved into the hillside.

Cool, damp stone gave way to a delightful warmth from rising steam.

As we moved closer, we walked upon an ancient stone floor and found ourselves in a cavernous space illuminated with the muted glow of a couple of candles positioned by a wide arched window.

The window was streaked with condensation and framed in dark wood.

Set deep into the stone floor was a sunken pool—a hot spring steaming, the water bubbling and glowing with a muted teal hue and glinting against the carved edges of its pool.

Rough stone walls enveloped the space on one side with their uneven curves.

An aromatherapeutic scent of lavender and sage filled the air.

Despite the soothing nature of it all, the sight of water itself had me tensing.

A shower was about all I could normally do where that was concerned.

“It’s more than merely water,” Ariana spoke, and I snapped out of my trance-like state to see her stripping just a few feet away and tossing off her tank and bra on the stone floor around the edges of the pool.

Nyx couldn’t hold all the intensity plaguing him at bay anymore, and he was stalking over to her in the next second, his gaze all over her, taking in her stunning full breasts completely bared to us.

Kai’s eyes were hooded and darkening with erotic need over on the other side of the pool to them as he shrugged off his leather trench coat, then used his magic to strip the rest of his clothes off.

I swallowed hard and dragged my gaze away to focus back on the water just a few feet in front of me.

“More than water, how?” I asked Ariana.

“It’s a natural hot spring. It possesses both healing and soothing properties.

And it’s infused with my magic as well. With your primal connection to me after us coming together in Meforian Forest, you’ll be able to feel it very powerfully as soon as you sink into the water.

Nyx, too. And Kai from a primarily magical standpoint.

” She smiled out at me. “I normally hate water, too. Even when it rains, actually. But this hot spring is nothing like any of that. I promise, my dragon.”

My dragon.

Her calling me that was almost enough to undo me right there and then.

And it was definitely enough to get me to move forward and crouch down at the water’s edge, then dip my fingers into it—albeit, tensely.

But that tension melted away almost instantly as the warmth of the spring infused me. And she’d been right, I could feel her through it as well. Calling to me.

Deeply emotionally.

Dangerously primally.

I looked up to see her now standing naked on the stone floor at the edge of the pool, her arms linked around Nyx’s neck for purchase as he swirled his tongue all over her breasts. She felt my gaze on her and turned her head, and her eyes blazed at me.

Motherfucker.

The sight was something else.

With a flick of his magic, Nyx stripped himself bare as well, just ramping up the desire building within me.

I caught sight of Kai stroking his own cock, his abs tightening as he approached the pool, eyes locked on Ariana and Nyx. The deep groan that slipped from him made my cock ache.

I couldn’t take another second of it.

Of not being all over them.

I needed to be fucking consumed by them, by her.

I went to start stripping, but a whistle from Kai caught my attention, and I looked to see him now in the pool.

His arms were folded on the stone edge as he stared up at me.

He raised a single finger and, with a spark of his magic, my coat was gone.

“More?” he asked, drinking in my inked arms—the black and crimson striking dragon tattoos—with some heavy lust hooding his enchanting hazel eyes.

“Yes,” I breathed. “More.”

He smirked. “Love hearing that from you.”

An excitable shriek from Ariana jolted the both of us, and we turned to see Nyx had snagged her in a firefighter lift. He jumped into the pool with her, then put her down, and she thrust her hands at him in the water, dousing him all over.

“The hair!” he cried jokingly, full of faux drama king energy. “Not the hair, Halo!”

That had her giggling.

Kai and I exchanged a look. Perfect. She was loosening up, enjoying herself, and finding happiness amid the nightmare that had come our way tonight.

I started as Kai suddenly stripped me completely naked with his magic. A self-satisfied smirk tilted his lips and I chuckled. I did enjoy his playful side. Immensely. His dirty playful side had come to be my favorite.

He read me well, taking it further as his expression turned wicked and he levitated me with his magic, then pulled me toward him with graceful ease.

He stepped back from the edge of the pool, and then he used his power to drag me into the water, submerging me until my feet touched the bottom.

Heat rolled through me.

Her essence infused me.

I could feel her everywhere, fueling the primal connection between us.