The Princess and the Blade

[Emora Deen]

Tenara did as he said, but with great effort. Her body begged for more, but she wasn't ready for it to end. She wanted the imprint of him on her body and soul. She rocked slow and soft, focusing on exploring his skin with her mouth. Her hands swept through his hair and curled around his horns and pinned his head to the wall. She dipped mouth to his neck, kissing softly before she bit down, pinching the skin between her teeth.

[Soran Nightblade]

"Hnng! Tenara!" He strained for control, but body and hands kept driving him further toward the edge. His painfully aroused cock felt abnormally full, like she was somehow inside and around him at the same time.

Then her lips were on his throat, teeth pressing down over his flesh, and his thin thread of composure snapped. He jerked his hips, not sure if he was trying to get out or go deeper. "Tenara... fuck, I'm..."

He shuddered inside her, but confused himself when there was no release for his budding orgasm. Every nerve was drawn taut, teetering at the edge, but instead of climaxing, it just kept building. He shuddered beneath her, meeting her hips desperately each time she thrust around him. "F-fuck!" he pleaded. The pleasure kept building and building, but there was no release. "Oh, god..."

[Emora Deen]

"So it is punishment," she murmured against his lips. She rolled her hips over him, but the look of pleasure on her face seemed to knot with confusion, then frustration. It felt wonderful but it wasn't... what she needed—what she seemed to crave—and she couldn’t ask him for it.

She felt a flood of shame for wanting to. He wouldn’t understand, and it barely made sense to her. It was this compulsive need for him to physically drive out whatever invisible hold they still had over her body. She had erased the outward marks so easily, but she still felt the ghost of them, like ants under her skin.

She reached out, having spotted the sash she'd used to cover his eyes the night before lying half-tucked under his pillow. She pulled it free and lifted it to his lips, twining it around his mouth and head once, then back around, tying a knot beneath his nose.

“I promise to free you when I’m done,” she whispered.

Tenara hooked a hand around one of his horns and braced the other on his shoulder, rocking over him again. The pace was similar to before at first, but then it became feverish. Merciless. Bruising. She met his eyes and held his alien gaze, watching every beautiful, poorly restrained look that crossed him. “Come for me, Havi,” she huffed, pressing her forehead to his as she rocketed towards bliss. A soft cry tore out of her, morphing into the sweetest command. “Come for your Yurivis.”

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi bit down on the knot she'd tied, groaning into the fabric. The way she was gripping his horns, locking his head still, made submission roll through him like a blaze on a dry field. He'd never had an orgasm like this, one that built and built until he couldn't speak or think.

It was her command that finally overcame the delay the ring had caused. She had asked, and his body obeyed. He huffed against the sash she'd gagged him with, and his hands slid under her buttocks, lifting her just enough to give him space to pump inside her. He leaned his horn deeper where she'd pressed it to her chest, sending tingles down his spine. He met her body rock-hard with deep, quick thrusts. "I'm coming, Yurivis," he groaned.

[Emora Deen]

Tenara clenched her eyes and held on as he drove into her. He was large, and so it was not hard for him to strike a place deep inside her that sent a tangle of sensations both wonderful and warning. Each hit drove a sharp cry from her. Her body had the instinct to want to evade, but she ground down instead, because she wanted the bruising ache of him to linger. Him.

“Mmm ommin, uris,” was all Tenera managed to get through the fabric muffling Havi’s voice. She settled heavily on top of him as he pulsed the last threads of his climax, tucking her face into the warm crook of his neck.

After a minute she reached up and untied her knot, letting the fabric drape loosely around his neck. Then, she returned to burrowing against him, soaking in the feel of his body against hers.

She found she wanted to cry, and wasn’t certain why. Perhaps relief or joy or peace. She knew if she did that Havi would be worried or hurt by it, so she pressed closer to him, like she wanted to climb inside him where it was safe, and let the strange tangle of emotions run their course.

“I don’t want to leave you,” she mumbled against his skin.

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi encircled her in his arms, focused on her every tremor and breath. Laying like this, even unknotted, made him feel connected to her. "Why should you leave?" Her silken hair tickled his face, making him want to touch it. He didn't want to release his arms, so he licked her cheek lightly instead. "You can punish me all night, if you choose." The teasing words were languid, too comfortable to be truly seductive... at least for the moment.

As an afterthought, he tensed and arched his neck to get a better look at her. "Is your body alright? Did I do too much?"

[Emora Deen]

Tenara snuggled closer. “It’s fine,” she said, and it was the truth. Her body felt fine, aching in the way she wanted it to. It was her mind she wasn’t sure about, but that wasn’t something she wanted to admit to him. She finally gathered herself enough to look at him, brushing fingers down his cheeks before framing his face. “You were perfect.” She kissed him softly, savoring, like drinking expensive wine. “I fear they will make me leave you eventually. I’m a prisoner, and your ‘punishment’ derives me too much pleasure. Besides, I should tell Laurius you won’t kill him tomorrow and ease his mind.”

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi smirked. "Of course I will not kill him. I may bat him around a bit..."

[Emora Deen]

Tenara smiled. “That’s my good Ivis…”

Truth be told, she cared very little how much Laurius got batted around. She hadn’t—wouldn’t—forgive him for not warning them Arken was on their doorstep. Even the thought of it brought back a rush of memories from his dining room that sent her body white-hot with rage. A bud of red light bloomed in her eyes and she closed them, kissed him. Distraction. She wasn’t certain for Havi or herself. “I should go, before they barge in to drag me out.”

[Soran Nightblade]

He frowned, his normal serious countenance returning as he helped her dress and escorted her to the door. "Whatever games my sister tries to play tomorrow... know that I am yours. There is nothing that can stop me from returning to you." He knelt on the ground before her and bowed his head so the guards outside could get a good, clear view of how properly he'd been subjugated.

[Emora Deen]

Tenara smoothed her hand over the top of Havitharon’s head, before gliding her fingers up to the tip of his damaged horn. She touched the pendant at her breast, wanting to say something to him, but words were lost on her. She didn’t want to make more trouble than she already had. “Tomorrow we will show her how strong our bond is,” she finally managed, and believed it with all her heart. Then, she let the guards lead her away.

The further she got from Havitharon’s room, though, the more the unmoored feeling seemed to swallow her. She couldn’t place it while she made love to him, and she couldn’t understand it now. She had thought being with him would drive it away. It had been easy enough to be with him after knowing about the ship, and it had been easy to be with him now. But there was this lingering sense of brokenness. Like she was a cracked teapot trying to meld herself back together.

—

Laurius turned on his heel as the door opened and Tenara slipped back inside, trying not to appear as if he'd been up to no good while the guards got their brief peek into their cell. The door didn't remain open long, however.

Tenara appeared somewhat shell-shocked, maybe a little pale. The paleness was hard to tell. She had seemed pale before leaving—had been pale since he and Havitharon had found them.

"Did he not agree?" Laurius asked. "Did you get to—"

"We made love..."

"You made love?" He hated the words as they slipped out of his mouth, arriving in the air with a mixture of judgement and confusion. What was it to him if they had? But he remembered her too well. She had been a broken thing last night, both in body and spirit. Who was he to say when something was too soon, but...

"I thought it would fix me," she said, her voice soft but angry.

"Fix..." He pursed his lips, trapping any more words behind his teeth before they could cause any damage. The silence dragged on, and she stood there, staring at him as if she expected him to offer something—condemnation, help, comfort. What?

"Why do I feel like this?" she finally asked.

He hesitated, swallowing. "Like what?"

"I don't know," she said, curling her arms around herself. "I don't know! It didn't feel like this last time—after I knew what happened."

Laurius glanced to Ren, and then motioned to the couch. "You need more rest," he said. "You and Ren went through a lot, and your body is healed but your..." Mind is not., he finished without speaking. "Time. Time will make it feel like before." He reached out slowly, like a man about to touch a wild cat, and curled a hand around her arm, and then her shoulder, and guided her toward the couch.

Tenara frowned as he helped her sit. "Why? Why didn't you tell me they were coming? Why did you let them take us? If they had taken Havitharon, instead of Ren, would you have even come looking for us?"

"Of course I would have," he said immediately, and it had to be the truth. Right? He would have gone looking for them too. But, while he had worried for Tenara, it had been thoughts of Ren that haunted him and drove him forward.

“He will throw the fight,” Tenara said, soft and earnest. “But he will have to make it look real. He has to.”

“Of course,” Laurius said.

“He’ll fight you. Ren has to keep working on the portal. We can’t afford for Havitharon to knock out whatever memory spell has enchanted his mind.”

Laurius glanced at where Ren had been scribbling for the last hour. “I want it to be me, anyway.”

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren twitched, pausing in his calculations to frown in their direction. He didn't like this, but there were so many reasons he couldn't argue their plan. They did need him to get home. And though he bickered regularly with Laurius, he couldn't bring himself to argue so freely with a Yurivis.

He propped his throbbing head on his fingers and returned to what he was sketching.

"We need to think about where to get the souls," he muttered. "At least 6 of them."

[Emora Deen]

Laurius sat on the opposite end of the couch, draping his arm along the back. “Well, I can think of a few souls—Havitharon’s sister and her friend.” The merchant turned in the seat to have a better look at Ren. “Do you think Havitharon would mind if we offed his sister?”

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren jerked to face him, aghast. "They are Yurivie. We can't.... Even if Thvoros permitted it, such a thing is...

[Emora Deen]

Laurius sighed at Ren’s reluctance to harm females who would otherwise gut him if he looked at them wrong. “Well, I’m sure we’ll figure something out. Perhaps Havitharon will have more than me to beat the shit out of.”