The Princess and the Blade

[Emora Deen]

Tenara felt Havi's presence lift from whatever depths held him, effortless and light. The power rushed up with him. Because it no longer needed to work so hard to pull him out, it burst up like a rope snapped loose. She made a soft, startled sound, and he was there. Standing in front of her as he'd been before she'd pulled him back into the sword. She clutched the pendant, staring at him as her breath panted out of her. She was thankful for the pendant, for holding it, because if she didn't have her hand on that she would have snatched him up, dragging him to her, kissed him until the world melted away. She still might.

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi braced himself for the usual disorientation he felt when he first emerged, but instead, his senses just lit up. He didn't stagger for something to lean on while he got his bearings. He just...was.

Well, maybe he was reeling in other ways. Just as his senses had come online all at once, so had the hot lick of Tenara's power. Even the friction of his clothing was hard to bear at the moment. He fought off the insane urge to kiss Tenara. If he did, he doubted they would stop until he was buried hilt-deep inside her.

"How did that feel? Easier?" Artisuren asked Tenara, unable to wait any longer and wanting to remind them that he and Laurius were still in the room.

[Emora Deen]

Tenara startled at Artisuren's voice. She'd forgotten they were there, and she felt bashful at being in front of them both, knowing how she must look. She swallowed, took a breath, and when she was certain her voice would come out as something other than husky need, she said, "It was easier..." She waited, letting the fire still burning inside her cool. The ache of want—the almost maddening need to be devoured—eventually ebbed. But no headache. No dizziness.

Minutes passed, far beyond the point when those symptoms would have shown, and they didn't.

"I..." Her vision blurred with tears of relief. "I think it worked."

Laurius took a breath, and scribbled onto his paper. "Good. We should repeat the experiment one or two more times to make sure its not a fluke."

Tenara's already flushed cheeks darkened. "Two more times?"

"If something happens once, its an anomaly. Twice, a coincidence. Three times, a pattern. In order to definitively prove this works, we need to repeat it." He eased into a chair. "Go on. Again."

Tenara bit her bottom lip, and released the pendant, taking up the sword again. With an apology only the link with the sword allowed, she urged him back into it. They repeated the experiment, and again there were no side effects. Tenara clutched the sliver of Havitharon's horn so hard her knuckles whitened. Her breath came heated, and she trembled with the need to be touched.

"Again," Laurius said. "Once more, and we'll know for certain."

She laughed. "Once more," she said mockingly. Her skin felt on fire in the best way possible, and he wanted her to do it again?

She rolled her shoulders, taking a cooling breath of air that did nothing to ease the flush in her cheeks. "Okay," she said to Havi. "Once more... Then, we can go home."

Tenara drew him back into the sword, and a minute later, she began to call him out. She'd never called him repeatedly before, not with such short spans of time in between—when the heat of her magic was still blisteringly hot. She couldn't complain, though. It wasn't painful. It was the opposite of discomfort in every way, and by the third time it was better than sex. It was power and ecstasy and rapture. Her knees shook and her skin tingled, and want was a maddening song in her head. She clutched the pendant, the sword, her thighs together...

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi took shape beside her for the third time. Once again, there was no loss of balance, no sense of disorientation, but Tenara's effect on him felt like it was building up in his system. Every inch of his body felt rigid and inflamed. He barely managed to keep enough sense to wonder if the experiment worked. "Is your body alright?" he half-growled. He told himself he was asking about the strain of using her power, but his neon gaze had settled on the curve of her breasts as she strained for breath.

"We're right here," Ren warned, half-expecting them to rip each other's clothes off. Jealous, who, him?

[Emora Deen]

Tenara hesitated on speaking, afraid her voice would betray her. Her blue gaze fluttered up from the floor to meet his, finding his wandering. Her hand flexed around the sword, around the pendant. "It's..." It's on fire. Burning up. Impossibly good and complete torture all at once. For the first time, she wished he wasn't reserved. That he didn't wait to see if she took the lead. She wanted him. Needed him. She felt if something didn't happen, if she didn't find an outlet to relieve the pressure of her power, she'd come undone. A subtle tremble rattled through her. "It's fine." Fine. The word became a plea.

"Wonderful," Laurius said, scribbling his notes. He glanced over at them, and smirked at the barely-restrained tension passing between them. "Do you two want some privacy?"

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi's hands twitched at his sides, and his gaze grew unfocused. The way Tenara was looking at him somehow carried the same silent command as if she'd grabbed his horns and twisted him onto his back.

Out of instinct, he glowered at the sound of Laurius's voice disrupting his focus on her. "Yes," he growled at their host. "Go." He said it more like an offer than a command, primarily for the other man's benefit, because if his Yurivis asked something of him right now, he was certain he couldn't care less whether they had an audience.

Artisuren had already picked up on this. He had begun edging toward the door to the adjoining greenhouse room, but curiosity prevented him from fleeing completely.

[Emora Deen]

Laurius closed the book with a loud, purposeful thump, and though Tenara saw what he was doing, the sound made her jolt. Jolting pulled the fabric of her dress along her sensitive skin, and she made a startled sound before clamping her mouth shut.

Laurius smirked at them. “I recommend the desk...”

If looks could kill, Laurius would have been dismembered.

“Come along, Ren,” he said and breezed past.

Tenara closed her eyes, because, damn it, even the wind shifting through the room as he passed was a pleasurable caress.

“If you don’t touch me, I’m going to come apart,” she choked out before Laurius and Ren could leave the room, immediately regretting it. If he wanted to touch her, wouldn't he have done it by now? "...Sorry." It took everything she had to be still, to not launch herself at him and tear his clothes away and demand him. Every breath she took pulled her clothes against her skin, a teasing torture. She could touch herself, she thought, and ease the burden of her magic. It wasn’t his place or purpose to be her release from it, and he was likely just as tortured as she. Did he still harbor some mild distaste for its overwhelming nature?

Tenara pulled at her clothes, trying to get cool. She felt hot. Feverish. She eased over to Laurius’s desk, every step stilted as if she were in pain (though it was the complete opposite), until she rested an arm against the top and took a steadying breath. Her other hand snaked down the front of her dress, gathering fabric up, slipping beneath. She clenched her teeth at the feel of them sliding along her too-sensitive skin, and silently cursed every ounce of power she had. This was not a gift, she thought. Her fingers skimmed the softness of her inner thigh. Just a little—just a bit to ease the maddening, aching song thrumming under her skin. Her fingers found the slick heat of her center and she melted across the desk, a ragged moan quaking out of her. She didn't even have the state of mind to be embarrassed by her display. Perhaps she would later, when the song was quiet.

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi wrapped his hands around his arms as if to anchor himself. His body was already hypersensitive from his Yurivis's magic, and the sight of her touching herself felt aimed at him, a targeted undoing of his last shreds of sense. Part of him knew that he shouldn't - that Laurius and Ren hadn't even left the room yet.

But that part of him wasn't nearly loud enough to drown out the sweet sound of her gasping in pleasure, wanting him, needing him.

Three swift steps brought him to her. He loosened his fly in two. Then his large hands were at her thighs, caressing up to her hips, sliding her skirt along with them until she was exposed to the room. "Don't stop," he rumbled and bent her further over the desk. "Come with my cock inside you." His hands tightened around her slender waist. He arched against her slickness and fed her his pulsing erection in one long thrust. As far as he was concerned, the rest of the room was gone.

Ren looked over his shoulder, wide-eyed, as Laurius drew him away. Holy shit. He had seen sex many times, but that didn't prepare him to witness the infamous Thvoros practically in rut, worshipping his Yurivis like nothing else existed. The larger male's body was arched powerfully over the princess, and the air felt suddenly dripping with masculine strength. The sensation was as much a vow of worship as it was a warning. He'd encountered a few Ivie who could throw off pheromones at other males when in rut, but he'd never felt anything like this. It was hard to breathe. Ren swallowed wetly and nearly walked into the doorframe as he followed Laurius.

[Emora Deen]

A cry tore from her at the feel of him slipping in, striking deep. She lost the focus to swirl her fingers over herself, her other hand scraping along the desktop of something to hold onto. She refocused, doing as he asked, touching herself while he took her. She was so close already, so near the edge. Her body burned, and she wondered if this was what a rut felt like to Havitharon.

"H-havi..." She gave up trying to find something to hold onto across the desk, and reached back for him, grasping one of the arms holding her by the waist. His large hands snaked around her, gripping beautifully. "I..." She felt heat and pleasure searing her inside and out. She was going to break. Shatter. It was too soon. She didn't want it to stop. She never wanted it to stop.

[Soran Nightblade]

"Yes," Havi moaned, and began to pump himself against the spot she always reacted to the most. She was already beginning to shiver and constrict around him, a warning of the sweetness that was about to consume them both. "Please... Yurivis... Have me." He didn't slow. It was entrancing to hear her breaths thicken with pleasure, to know his touch was driving her head-first toward her climax only seconds after entering her.

Of course, it wasn't as if they'd truly just started. This had started 20 minutes ago, when she'd first pulled him up from the sword, and they'd been teetering back and forth from the edge ever since. Now he was ready to dive over it with her.

[Emora Deen]

Laurius pulled Ren into the stone and glass chamber nearby. The unfortunate thing about glass rooms and glass doors is that they did very little to drown out sound and sight, but the rippled panes offered a poor view, and Laurius was gentleman enough (somewhat) to allow them a measure of privacy. He rested his back to the wall next to Ren, shoulder to shoulder, and listened.

"Gods," he muttered, clutching the book to his chest and trying not to let the sound build up in him like it had on the island. "Should we go back to the house? They'll be at that for a while, don't you think?" He looked back at Ren to gauge his reaction. He could just see a little movement beyond the textured glass over Ren's shoulder, no details other than when one shape drove forward, the other moaned into the air so sweetly his own cock twitched. Fuck that voice. Laurius huffed and redirected his gaze back to Ren, but found it settled on his lips instead.

There were more important things to think about, like Arken, like the letter, like the fact they were wholly unprepared but all he wanted to think about was the warmth of Ren's mouth. Doomed, he thought. I'm doomed.

----

Tenara's nails dug into the skin of his arm as he hammered into that spot so deep inside. But his words... They were as wicked as his touch. "Oh, gods!" She tightened around him, squeezing mercilessly as she tumbled over the edge. "Yes! Fill me. Please. Please!" She wanted that burning warmth of him spilling, claiming. Tenara shattered, pressing her forehead into Laurius's desk and screaming into the wood.

[Soran Nightblade]

"I... don't think they'll need long, from the sound of things," Ren said hoarsely, just as awed by the performance as Laurius. The princess's cries affected him just as they did his master, and his pants were uncomfortably tight. But unlike Laurius, Ren could still vividly feel the other Ivis's pheromones like a biting wind warning him to back off and hold still. He resisted the urge to turn and cling to the man.

________________________

Havi groaned at the feel of her climax convulsing around him. Thanks to her erotic demand that he fill her, he was out of composure as well. "I will fill you, Tenara," he promised in ecstasy. He curved tight against her back and gave a few last quick pumps before burrowing deep and spilling inside her. He closed his eyes and groaned with each wave of release.

[Emora Deen]

Laurius’s attention drifted back to the blurred image over Ren’s shoulder. He was right. From the sound of things they were nearing an end. He could only imagine how worked up her magic had made them. He had only felt it once, briefly, and it had been the sweetest drug.

“I suppose you’re right,” he said, his voice cracking as he spoke. He coughed to clear it, and laughed at himself. “I am an awful man,” he said. “I don’t know how you stand me. All I want right now is to make you get on your knees and open your mouth—and we are going to be dead in a day or so. Who knows? I should be thinking about that. But no. I’m listening to an angel sing and wishing I was...” He met Ren’s eyes and tossed the book down on a wood table near them. The potted plant on it rattled unsteadily. Laurius grabbed Ren by the collar and pulled him close, planting his mouth hard and wet against the other man’s lips.

—-

Tenara felt the blissful heat of Havi’s form meld over her, rush inside her. His breath fanned against her cheek with each heavy groan and the sound—the sweet sound—rumbled against her back.

The relief that swept her after the release was powerful and terrifying. She had been overwhelmed and hypersensitive from her magic before, but nothing like this. A tangle of emotions melded with the aftershocks of her climax. She trembled, her body squeezing around him. Her legs curled up, her feet cupping against his backside and pulling him tighter to her—if that was even possible.

Words failed her, so she stayed like that. Happily crushed. Happily sated. Happy…

And tears crept into her eyes and she clung to the arm her nails had found purchase in, biting back the urge to weep at how beautiful it felt, how full and content and loved this felt.

He didn’t hate what she was. He didn’t shy from her magic or its effects. He carried her through it, broke her and mended her with it.

“This is love,” she whispered, remembering what he had said in the dining room that morning—about wanting to learn it. She pressed her cheek into the wood. “If I could, I would break my heart open to show you how full it is.”

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren twitched in the other man's grip, his breath coming out in a confused gasp. He sagged back into the wall and parted his lips in clumsy obedience. It wasn't the first time Laurius had kissed him, but this felt different from before. The hot tongue invading his mouth felt urgent, maybe even desperate. Ren was still thinking about what his master had just said.

"I'm listening to an angel sing and wishing I was..."

How would that sentence have finished?
Did Laurius wish he could be with the princess?
Did he believe they were really going to die?

That certainly might explain why the man's kiss was passionate enough to turn his knees to water. Ren studied his master through half-closed eyes and did his best to keep his voice in check. If Laurius was imagining himself with the princess, speaking would spoil the illusion, and Ren didn't want him to stop. His chest was throbbing again as he kissed him back.

____________________

Havi paused his breathing and went still, trying to process what his Yurivis had just said. "This is love?" he murmured. Even though he was certain she was telling him something important, he still wasn't sure if he understood. She sounded like she might be crying. He hoped to god he hadn't hurt her again. He hated that he couldn't see her better from this angle. The need to protect and comfort her was so intense he could hardly breathe.

He wrapped his arms around her tightly, sliding his hands over her belly as if to remind her of his presence inside her. "Do not cry, please. Even if I do not fully understand, I swear that everything I am, all that I know and don't know, is yours," he whispered into her hair.

[Emora Deen]

Laurius wanted to keep kissing Ren until the sun fell, but the anxiety swirling in his heart roared in his ears. No time. No time. No time. It just kept telling him he had no time.

The kiss slowed, its intensity softening until Laurius pulled away only enough to rest his forehead to Ren’s. He wanted to keep going. Gods, how he wanted to keep going but the tangle of worry in his mind was loud now that the princess had gone quiet. “Later,” he promised. “Tonight, perhaps? Come to me tonight?” He kissed him again, feeling this oddness in his chest as he did. He told himself it was the anxiety but then his hands wouldn’t listen to him to let Ren go.

—-

Tenara breathed in at the pleasant feel of his large hands sliding across her belly, pressing into her, reminding her, though she didn’t need it, that they were connected. She could feel him inside, and wrapped around her all at once.

“I’m not sad, Havi,” she said, reaching down to curl a hand around one of his and press it tighter to her. “I am so, so happy…” She wasn’t certain how to explain that he’d made her come so hard it broke her mind and heart with bliss and contentment. That being like this with him was the closest to heaven she’d ever get. She tried to twist beneath him and still stay connected—to turn as much on her side as she could and keep his hands on her, his body inside her. She wanted to see his face, and let him see hers so he could know there was no sadness in her eyes. She curled an arm around his neck to steady herself, and met his gold gaze. “You are mine,” she said, “and I am yours. You are my sun, and I am your moon, and that is why I cry. Because it is too good, too… perfect… to be true.”