Bound in Darkness (33 page)

“I am sorry for that. Perhaps I can help you look?” Airi said.

“No. I have my own methods, as you have learned. I will find someone one day.” She held out her hand for the dagger and Airi handed it to her. “Now come. I will take you to the house of the gods and there your training will begin.”

“Can Airi come?”

“Not until you make a demigod of her. And in order to do that, you must learn.”

Airi swallowed hard and looked at him. “It's all right. Go with her. I will be waiting when you are ready.”

Maxum was indecisive. He didn't want to leave her. Not for a second.

“How long will this take?” he asked Meru.

“Oh…years I'm afraid. But I will teach you how to make her a demigod first thing so she can be there for you as you learn.”

“And how long will that take?”

“That depends on you. Don't worry, you can visit her as often as you like once you learn how. Now come. Let's get this started. You will enjoy the house of the gods, most especially the food of the gods. There is nothing like it in the whole of your experience.”

Maxum stood up on shaky legs, his body still hurting from his transformation into godhood. Airi came with him, supporting him. He looked down into her treasured face and smiled.

“I will be back for you,” he said solemnly.

“I know you will.”

He kissed her hard and then reached out for the hand Meru offered him. He leaned into the goddess and kept Airi's eyes until the very instant he disappeared.

Airi blinked and then found herself back in the temple.

She swallowed back the pang of pain that came with being separated from him and reminded herself that the outcome could have been much worse. Sabo could have destroyed him.

What was a few days apart compared to that?

A
iri was doing the laundry.

Oh, she had more than enough money to afford a laundress, but since she had come to Calandria she had taken to doing it herself. There was something soothing about the rhythm of it. Wet. Wring. Wet. Wring. Scrub. Wet. Wring. Wet. Wring.

She pushed a straggling bit of hair back off her forehead and leaned into the bucket for another piece of clothing.

She felt a tickling sensation against her ear and she brushed at it. She'd worn her hair down and loose today, which she supposed hadn't been wise considering the work she was doing, so her hair tended to drift over her sensitive ear at the oddest times. Whenever it did it reminded her of the last time someone had stimulated her ear and her body would go warm and tingle all over.

And then she would miss him.

She didn't know how long it took to learn the basics of being a god, but he had promised he would come for her…and he hadn't so far. But in spite of Doisy's insistence that she had been forgotten, she refused to believe it. Even after a full turning of the seasons, even as the snow settled around her again, she believed he would come for her.

Something tickled her ear again and, frustrated, she swiped at it.

She connected with something.

Gasping she whirled around and saw him standing there, his fingers teasing at her ear through her hair, a smile on his face.

She hauled off and hit him. Slapped him right across the face and shouted, “Where have you been?”

He chuckled and caught her hand before she could hit him again.

“I'm invulnerable, love. You can't hurt me.”

“Well it makes me feel better!” She blinked back the sudden pricking of tears in her eyes. He had come.
He had come.

“What are you doing here? Women's work?” He sounded aghast.

“It…helps,” she said.

“Helps what?”

“Helps keep me from missing you, you big idiot! Where have you been?”

“I've been in the house of the gods. But you knew that. I told you I'd be back.”

“A full turning later!”

“A full—it has not been a full turning!” he exclaimed.

“Yes, it has!”

“Well…I…time must move very differently in the house of the gods. It felt like only a few weeks to me.”

“Well, it felt a hell of a lot longer for me.”

He gathered her up in his arms against himself. “I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, love. I never meant to do that to you.”

Slightly mollified, she allowed him to hug her tightly. She heard him breathe in her scent. He exhaled a contented sigh.

“I missed your smell. I missed the feel of you.”

“I missed you too,” she confessed on a hot, strangled whisper.

“I can do it now,” he said. “I know how to make you a demigod.”

“I don't care about that. I just care that you're here.”

He pulled back, found her mouth, and kissed her as deeply as she had wanted to be kissed for all these seasons past. She sighed happily as he pulled back and looked down into her face.

“If you're amenable to it, I think I should like to lick your ear for a little while.”

She blushed hot in a dozen places at once.

“I might be…”

“Might?”

“Well…I suppose I am.”

“You're not sure?” he asked with a chuckle.

“I'm not sure you deserve it.”

“Oh, come now…surely you can forgive me a little slight.”

“Little!”

“All right, a big slight. But surely you can forgive me.”

She sighed. “Of course I can. If you kiss me like that again.”

He did…and she forgave him instantly.

It was weeks later when Maxum took Airi to meet his brothers. Using his powers as a god, he gathered the four brothers and their families into the fortress of Dethan's political seat in the city of Hexis. Children ran about them noisily, playing and squealing as their parents sat before the fire in a group and got to know one another.

“I had always wondered what it would take to get Maxum to settle down,” Dethan said with a chuckle. “Who knew that all that was needed was for him to become a god.”

“Is that all?” Garreth said mildly. “Sounds easy. I think I should try it myself.”

“You will
not,
” Sarielle, his wife, said. She moved to stir the fire, but Garreth snatched her off her feet and into his lap. Such was the case for all of the brothers. Each sat with their woman nestled firmly and protectively in their laps. Even Jaykun, whose wife, Jileana, was once again heavily pregnant with his child. Jaykun rubbed his large hand around and over her belly again and again, the movement soothing and rhythmic.

“No. I will not. I am done with tempting the gods,” Garreth said.

“As are we all. But just in case, it is good to know we have someone there who is on our side,” Jaykun said.

Airianne smiled lazily as she dropped her head to her lover's shoulder and watched the children play. Most of them were under the age of four, so it was more about watching them totter about and grasp at things that caught their fancy. Sarielle's young twin sisters, beginning to grow into the first blush of womanhood, played with the children and kept them entertained.

“Will you be wed?” Dethan's wife, Selinda, asked Airi and Maxum.

Airi colored. They had never talked about such a thing. Afraid it would make Maxum uncomfortable and put him on the spot, she laughed it off.

“Surely there are more important things to worry about.”

“More important than pledging myself to you heart and soul?” he asked. “Name one.”

She pinked up with pleasure and pulled his head close for her kiss. “All right, you have me there.”

“Unless you don't want to—”

“No, I want to!” she hurried to assure him.

He smiled with pleasure, his eyes turning wicked and hot as they looked her over. “I've never slept with someone's wife before.”

That surprised her. “You were never married…before?”

“No. I never was. You are the only one who has ever, and will ever, win my heart. The only one I would ever want to make such a commitment to.”

“I never thought to see the day,” Jaykun said.

“I never thought any of us would fall to love. Marriage was always a means to an end in our former lives,” Dethan said. “Now it is something far deeper and more meaningful.” He looked with pride from his wife to his three children. “I would not trade a single day of the torment I suffered, for it led me to you, little juquil.” He brushed an affectionate finger down Selinda's nose.

“Agreed,” Jaykun said, giving his wife a kiss.

Airi smiled but then gasped when Maxum nosed his way through her hair and lightly tongued the tip of her ear. Blushing furiously as her whole body went weak she buried her face against his neck and pinched him on his arm.

“Stop that!” she whispered heatedly.

“Make me,” he countered in a whisper that brushed his lips over her ear again.

She stood up out of his lap suddenly, her hand grasping one of his as she affected a loud yawn and a stretch. “Wow, I'm beat,” she said.

“Does a demigod get tired?” Garreth asked with a knowing twinkle in his eye.

“Yes as a matter of fact they do,” she said primly. “And so do gods if they know what's good for them.”

“I think that's my cue,” Maxum said, getting to his feet.

“But it's not late. The children aren't even in bed yet,” Sarielle said, being purposely obtuse.

“It takes a lot of godly energy to bring us all together like this. Godly power is not infinite.”

“You learn something new every day,” Dethan marveled.

“It was lovely to meet all of you. And your families. We'll see you in the morning,” Airi said, waving her fingers in a waggle of goodbye before she yanked Maxum down the hall with her.

“We don't even know what room we're staying in,” he said with a chuckle.

“We'll find one. As long as it has a bed that's all we'll need.”

“True. My, my, you're in such a rush. I wonder why?”

“Shut up,” she said, opening a door and peeking inside the room. “Nope. No bed there.”

“We could always go back and ask—”

“Nope. We'll do just fine on our—aha! A bed. And it looks unoccupied.” She yanked him into the room and slammed the door shut at his back.

She grabbed him and kissed him madly. It wasn't long before true heat burned away all of his amusement, passion bursting forth to overwhelm them both.

“I like your brothers,” she whispered as he began to kiss her down the side of her neck. “But don't go climbing any mountains with them ever again.”

“My mountain climbing days are over. So are theirs. Not a one of us is out to seek adventure any longer. And now that the war with the gods is won…we can all settle down with our women and make happy homes and healthy babies.”

She went still and drew her head back to regard him curiously.

“Do you want to make babies?”

He returned her regard measure for measure. “I wouldn't presume to tell you what to do with your body. If you don't want to make babies then we won't make babies.”

“It's not that! I would love to make babies! I just…I didn't know that you wanted to.”

“Airi, you and I would make the most beautiful babies in the world and the eight heavens besides, why wouldn't I want that?”

Airi's eyes teared up and she sniffled. “But I'm going to make a lousy mother!”

“Nonsense. With a heart as golden as yours? Better to worry about what kind of father I'll make.”

“Nonsense. With your loyalty and devotion…your determination and force of will? You can do anything you set your mind to.”

“Very well. I accept,” he gave her a sound kiss. “Marriage and babies. We'll have little demigods running around in no time. Let's start making them right now!”

He scooped her up and threw her onto the bed.

She landed with a bounce and giggled exuberantly. “If you insist!”

“I do. And I'm a god. We tend to get our way.”

“I've heard that somewhere I think.” She squeaked when he ran his hands up her legs beneath her skirts. He found her bare bottom and he groaned. “You're so warm and soft. Although,” he cocked a raised brow at her, “must you wear this?”

He jerked her dagger out of the sheath she'd strapped to her inner thigh and held it up before her nose.

“Old habits die hard,” she said with a shrug.

He tossed the dagger aside and worked to untie the sheath. It came free and he tossed it aside wherever the dagger had gone. That left a bare expanse of inner thigh to be explored. He did so eagerly.

She gasped and then sighed.

“I love you,” she said on an intense whisper.

He lifted a brow. “Do you now?”

“Indeed I do. Now you're supposed to say you love me back.”

“I'm a man of actions, not words.” He went about untying the laces to his breeches.

“I always liked that about you,” she noted with a grin.

It was when he had finally thrust inside of her that he said, “I love you more than life. Everything I do is for you. Nothing would matter if not for you.”

She sighed and wrapped her legs around his waist.

“Words and actions. I'm a very lucky demigod.”

“And don't you forget it.”

Dethan stroked Selinda's hair, his affection for her radiating from the action. He looked around at his brothers and was satisfied. He had led them on folly all those decades ago, seeking for something that, in the end, had never been the prize worth winning. Each brother now knew something that meant far more than immortality or riches or glory.

It seemed an age since those things had mattered to him. For a long time since, his life had been filled with Selinda. The war with the gods was over, but he would keep his agreement with Weysa and battle in her name until he was no longer able to. Until age and infirmity ruled him. Until he was ready to spend his golden years surrounded by his wife and his many children.