Page 35

35

F or a long, hanging moment, Daisy could only stare at Filak , and then at the room before them. The … Skyli ?

But this — this wasn’t the first ruined cave they’d met in. It couldn’t be. That cave had been large, yes, enough that it had felt like a grand open room — but this, this was…

This was massive . A room meant to hold hundreds, or even thousands, of people. Big enough to be an arena, or a ballroom, or maybe — maybe even a temple. A soaring, sacred temple, hidden here empty and waiting under the earth.

And the longer Daisy stared at it, the more impossible it became. Not just the shining white stone, or the elaborate tiled floor with that eye in the middle — but also the multiple arched alcoves studded around the walls, suggesting many more tunnels and rooms. And — Daisy blinked, and peered closer in the lamplight — there appeared to be tall metal mechanisms lining the white walls too, extending all the way up the huge rounded ceiling. As if reaching for the sky, embracing it, lashing together around what looked like…

Another eye . This one made of black steel, there at the ceiling’s highest peak. Looking down at the room below, at the black-and-white tiled floor, and the eye directly beneath it.

Daisy stared at the ceiling’s eye for a long, hushed moment, her breath quivering in her throat — but this time, when she followed the eye’s gaze back downward, she finally noticed something else.

The ruins. The devastation.

Because as beautiful as the room was, it was also suffering from severe decay and neglect. Several of the adjoining tunnels had collapsed, their stone rubble spilling out onto the tiled floor, and the ceiling’s soaring buttresses had begun to splinter and crumble, leaving their white pieces smashed across the floor beneath. And as Daisy stared, a head-sized chunk of stone broke off the ceiling far above, and fell long and silent to the floor. Where it landed with a dizzying crash, and shattered into a thousand sliding tumbling pieces.

Beside Daisy , Filak hissed and lunged for the wall behind them, thrusting both hands against it, squeezing his eyes shut — and then the open door they’d come in through slammed itself shut again, the sound echoing through the huge room. And Daisy could almost feel the white walls quivering and settling in response, while Filak sagged against the closed door, and exhaled his shaky relief.

“ Heilleiki burearvirkisins ,” he breathed toward Daisy , with a shaky wave of his other hand at the high vaulted ceiling. “ Ekki gott .”

Not good , that last bit meant, and though Daisy hadn’t understood the first part, his meaning was still unnervingly clear. The Skyli was all connected, of course it was, and by opening that door, they’d somehow affected the integrity of the entire structure. And gods, the look on Filak’s face as he kept touching the closed door, and then the wall. His expression shifting between shock and bafflement and disbelief, all shouting that he hadn’t expected this. He hadn’t known about this. He’d expected… what?

“The first cave,” Daisy said slowly, her head tilting. “ You thought that first cave we met in was the Skyli . Right ?”

She gestured along as she spoke, and they’d practiced a few of those words together, too — and in return, Filak nodded, even as his voice broke into a long tumbling stream of Aelakesh . Far too fast for Daisy to follow, but she could piece it together, from his tone and his gestures and his face. Yes , he’d thought that first cave had been the Skyli . But he hadn’t taken time to explore it, perhaps because he hadn’t wanted to leave Daisy to do it. And in coming here, he’d fully expected to find that first cave again, or maybe more tunnels and rooms around it…

But instead — this . This huge, magnificent, ruined room. His people’s lost, forgotten home, built by his forefathers hundreds of years before. And surely that first cave was still part of it, but this — this — was the heart.

And Filak just kept looking at it like that, like it was still something he couldn’t understand, something he’d never dared to imagine. His eyes so bright, his mouth quivering, and in a flailing movement, he again flattened his hand against the wall, and clasped his other hand over his heart. And then he bowed his head and spoke, more rapid tangled Aelakesh , words that sounded like prayer, like he might fall to his knees and weep.

And when Daisy instinctively eased back toward him, slipping her arm around him, he instantly drew her tight and close, his claws digging into the skin of her waist. His breaths heaving hard and ragged against her, enough that her hands began stroking, all on their own. Rubbing up and down his rigid trembling back, pressing him as much reassurance as she could muster. Just as he so often did to her.

But instead of making him softer, steadier, Daisy’s touch seemed to wrench Filak tighter, his lean body almost vibrating beneath her touch. His claws digging harder, as a fierce, tremulous shudder rolled up his body — and then, in a sudden jerk of movement, he clutched for her, yanked off her fur shawl, and dragged her down to the stone floor beneath them.

Daisy’s breath heaved from her lungs, her body jolting at the feel of the hard tiles beneath her back — but then, somehow, the stone… softened. Curved . Cradling around her, almost as if welcoming her, while Filak exhaled and shuddered over her. One hand’s claws digging into the large white tile beside her head, while the other hand slid down between them, yanking, pulling, opening…

Daisy groaned at the feel of cool stone against her bare arse, her thighs, her calves — because Filak was kicking off her new trousers, baring her for him, for this ancient ruined room. And he was baring himself, too, shoving down his own trousers, and revealing the stunning sight of his pale marked cock. Hovering and juddering between them, dangling white from the tip, like a threat, a claim, a vow…

Daisy’s thoughts flashed backwards to that morning, to the vow he’d written across her skin. The vow that was still there, shouting between them, and oh, he was looking at it too, his eyes fluttering as he watched his cock’s liquid seeping down to pool against it. As if painting it, or even sealing it, somehow, saying something sacred for all this room’s ghosts to see.

And once again, Daisy wasn’t fighting it. Wasn’t refusing it. Was just watching it, witnessing it, as her hands stroked down his long back, and found his firm arse. Saying something of her own, saying, yes, please, now — and Filak heard it too, his shadowed eyes finding hers, his low triumphant growl burning from his throat.

And with a single shared breath, his hips plunged forward, and that hot hard cock burrowed inside her. Digging itself deep, just as sure and certain as his hands had been against the stone. And just like the stone, Daisy could only splinter and shatter and obey beneath it, opening up wide for his strength, his command, his magic.

“Oh gods, Filak ,” she gasped, as the floor beneath her arse rose with his thrusts, helping him meet her, driving him deeper. “ Fuck !”

Filak’s ragged exhale sounded like a laugh, his sharp teeth nipping at her throat, his body moving deft and powerful above her. “ Fokk , sólin mín ,” he breathed back. “ Daisy mín .”

There was still no fighting it, only moaning and clutching him and needing him closer, shuddering all over as the stone kept shifting beneath her, as Filak kept delving, digging, drilling. Gouging himself deeper and deeper, ramming faster and harder, until the sounds were loud and wet and lurid, echoing through the huge empty room. But there still wasn’t any pain, and the cool stone beneath Daisy’s back now felt more like sand, like easy rippling softness that only urged them on faster, harder, closer. Please , more, please…

Daisy’s relief flashed out with sudden, shocking intensity, quaking her all over, while Filak’s eyes rolled back, and he drove himself even deeper — and then he was breaking, too. Shattering out into molten flooding bliss, shuddering them both into the floor, the room, the very earth itself.

Daisy could only gasp and quiver and cling to him, feeling his body seize and spasm inside her as he emptied out every last drop. Again speaking to her in that language they both knew, swearing he would fill her, he would show her his secrets, claim her here in the long-lost home of his forefathers.

When Filak finally drew away again, his face was flushed, and he blinked down at the sea of black and white sand around them with unmistakable awe in his eyes. Awe that only grew as he watched himself slowly pulling out of Daisy , as that surge of hot fluid bubbled and belched in his wake. Pooling out onto all that fine sand, painting and feeding it, too, life pouring out from the sun he’d given her…

“ Gott, sólin mín ,” he murmured, as he slipped his hand down into that thick, wet-stained sand, and delved his fingers into it. And then, as Daisy’s heart skipped, he brought up his dripping, sandy fingers, and then sucked them off, one by one. Clearly not caring in the slightest about the sand, or about the fact that he was tasting his own seed, or even about the bright red line one of his claws drew against his lip.

It felt quietly, bizarrely sacred, somehow, and when Filak dipped his hand again, and brought it to Daisy’s mouth, she didn’t refuse. And instead, she carefully sucked off one finger, and then the next, and the next. Tasting the sweetness of his seed, the thick grit of his sand, the ancient weight of this room, the sharp threat of his claws against her tongue. All of it so strangely intimate, like another silent, secret conversation between them. With her saying, yes, I want you, yes, I want your magic and your danger and your Skyli , even if it’s foreign, even if it’s wrong…

And in return, Filak was — again — promising to give it to her. To prove this to her. To draw her into his world and his thrall, to share this impossible place with her, to whisk her into the bright shimmering dream.

That awareness kept whispering as they drew apart, and as Filak carefully cleaned Daisy up with a rag. And then, his hand smoothed over the sand beneath them, and… sealed it. Flattened it. Made the floor’s tile new again, but now — Daisy’s cheeks heated — now with the black and white slightly swirling together, with the remnants of their own blended pleasure embedded deep within it. Making it… theirs. Making it… art.

Daisy’s eyes caught Filak’s , held for an instant — and without at all meaning to, she groped sideways for her abandoned sketchbook, and the lamp. And then, still a little breathless, she began sketching all of it. The swirled tile. The stunning room. The beautiful curves of the ceiling. The black metal rising up toward it. The alcoves and doors lining the rounded wall, all silent promises of unknown wonder.

And once she’d captured all of it, she flipped to a new page, and drew one more. Filak’s long clawed hand, spread wide against the polished floor. Hers . Theirs .

Beside Daisy , Filak hadn’t even moved, waiting in perfect stillness while she drew. But once she finished, he twitched a satisfied nod, and then helped her dress again, and drew her back to her feet. “ Skyli , sólin mín ,” he murmured, with a wry shake of his head, and a disbelieving laugh. “ Vie fundum Skyli !”

We found the Skyli , it surely meant, and Daisy grinned and nodded back, while Filak turned and stared up at it again, and dragged both hands down his face. As if he still couldn’t believe it, as if he almost expected it to vanish at any moment.

But then, as they watched, another large chunk of stone broke away from the white ceiling above. Plummeting downward in stark, eerie silence, before smashing apart into a spray of sliding pieces on the floor.

Filak flinched all over, and he shot a sudden wide-eyed look at Daisy — and then he clutched her hand, swiped for the lamp, and yanked her back toward the wall. Where he slapped his hand furiously against the stone door until it opened, and then dragged her out into the tunnel, and slammed the door shut behind them. Just in time, apparently, as the sounds of yet more smashing rumbled ominously from behind the closed door.

“ Fokk ,” Filak hissed, his head tipped back in another silent prayer. “ Fokk , sólin mín .”

Daisy’s breath escaped in a shrill-sounding laugh, and she again eased into his side, rubbed her hand firmly against his back. “ It’s all right, Filak ,” she said, though she had no conception whether that was true or not. “ It’s stood there for hundreds of years, I’m sure we haven’t broken it permanently, right?”

Filak groaned and heavily sagged into Daisy’s touch, even as he launched into another incomprehensible tangle of Aelakesh . Maybe telling her about what was wrong with the room, and maybe something about an earthquake, and all the repairs that needed to be done. And then — she was positive she’d caught this part — he told her that since his magic was always weaker after nightfall, it wasn’t safe to stay much longer.

“ Vie komum fljótlega aftur ,” he said, with a decisive nod, as he clasped her hand, and led her back through the tunnel again. “ á morgun ?”

Daisy mostly followed that too, and nodded back toward him. They would come back again in the morning. And suddenly the prospect felt impossibly warm and bright, a shimmering tantalizing beacon. They would come back, and spend more time in this beautiful impossible place, and she could draw every last corner and cranny of it, while Filak fixed and fortified it, and then…

“And then,” Daisy ventured, glancing toward Filak’s profile in the lamplight. “ And then you bring back your people? The Nor -ka-esh, to the Skyli ?”

But yes, of course that was Filak’s plan, and the warmth flashed across his eyes as he gave an approving pat to her arse. “ Ach , sólin mín ,” he replied. “ Nor -ka-esh. Skyli . Heim .”

Heim was home , Daisy knew, and Filak said it with a catch in his voice, a slight straightening of his spine. As if this was a genuine relief for him, a light in his darkness, kindling in his eyes, curving at his mouth.

“ Líka fyrir tig , sólin mín ,” he told Daisy , with another pat to her arse. “ Daisy og Filak og sonur okkar. Heim .”

Oh. Daisy couldn’t quite follow all of that, but his meaning was again far too clear. The Skyli was for her, too. And if she agreed to stay, they would make it their home.

The weight of that swung and swayed in Daisy’s belly, because beyond her first few years of childhood, she’d never once had a real home of her own. And now Filak was just… offering this. Giving it to her. The most beautiful place she’d ever seen in her life, here, hers . A home, a dream…

But the further they walked, the heavier it felt, because damn it, she shouldn’t be going along with this so easily, right? She was still only supposed to be observing, learning, for the next two weeks. Not longing for Filak’s home, or believing his promises, or allowing him to act as though he owned her, and had settled her fate, again. He was still dangerous, he’d still locked her in a dungeon…

It made for a long, quiet walk back through the tunnels, and even once they reached the cart again, the distance back to the mountain felt much further this time, too. And driving the cart seemed to take far more effort than before, and at several points Filak even got out and pushed it from behind, the sweat trickling down his face.

But finally the cart rolled to a stop, and Filak guided Daisy back out of the tunnel, and into the familiar shop again. Though the room was now eerily dark and silent, with no one else in sight, and Daisy fought the urge to draw closer to Filak , to feel his safe solid body against hers.

But then, once they stepped out into the corridor, there were — people. A loud, motley knot of people, all rushing straight toward them. “ There they are,” called a vaguely familiar voice. “ Filak ! Daisy !”

Daisy froze in place, and after an instant’s confused staring, she caught sight of Rosa , and her mate John - Ka , and the tall sly orc from the garden. Joarr , his name had been. And several other orcs she didn’t know, and wait, there was also Jule , and her big captain mate Grimarr , too.

They all tumbled to a stop before Daisy and Filak , Rosa in front, with a worried-looking smile on her face. “ It’s so good to see you!” she told Daisy , a little too brightly. “ Where have you two been hiding, all this time?”

Daisy blinked, and shot another uneasy glance at the assembled group of people behind Rosa , but then took a deep breath. Rosa would love to hear about the Skyli , right? Surely all of them would? And maybe that was why they were here, why they looked like this?

“Well,” Daisy began, with an attempt at a smile toward Rosa , “we went exploring, and then we —”

But her voice broke there, because Filak’s hand had suddenly clenched hard against her back. And when Daisy glanced toward him, she found him looking starkly, viciously forbidding. His shoulders hunched, his jaw set, his eyes narrow and glinting and cold. Speaking his own answer, as clearly as if he’d shouted it aloud between them.

He didn’t… want Rosa to know about the Skyli . Maybe he didn’t want any of them to know.

The confusion whirled through Daisy’s thoughts — why didn’t he want them to know? — but she wasn’t about to argue it now, so she took another breath, let it out. “ And … we found so many interesting things to draw!” she continued, as steadily as she could. “ Tunnels , and stalactites, and crystal deposits…”

But her voice trailed off again, because none of them actually wanted to hear it, did they? No , no, they were just glancing uneasily at each other, shifting on their feet. Until beside Daisy , Filak drew a little taller, and snapped out some kind of demand that she couldn’t understand. But in return, Rosa and John - Ka both winced, Grimarr and Joarr frowned, and Jule squared her shoulders and stepped forward, holding out a folded sheet of paper.

“I’m afraid we have some important news for you, Daisy ,” Jule said, her voice low with foreboding. “ Your partner wants you back.”