Lady of Light and Shadows (44 page)

She laughed softly, not missing the jealousy, nor misunderstanding its cause. "He did.”

"Well? What did he look like?”

Her smile
faded
until only a wistful hint of it
clung
to her lips. "You.”

His eyes blazed, and his head swooped down to claim her mouth. His arms slid around her, steely bands that clutched her tight and pulled her hard against him. He kissed her until she was breathless and melting against him, then pressed his face into her hair and nuzzled the soft skin behind her ear.

"Perhaps I should not be so pleased that there has never been another in your heart but me, but in truth I cannot find the humility to be sad for it." A loin, growling purr of satisfaction rumbled in his voice.

"Can you not?" She laughed, a bewitching sound that sent his pulse skyrocketing. Her hands roamed over his chest, cupping the swell of pectoral muscle. Her nails scraped lightly across his flat nipples, teasing them into small, tight points. She paused to rub a testing fingertip across the pebbled flesh, then met his eyes and smiled. Her power flared. Magic leapt from her flesh to his in a breathtaking flow of energy.

Blood rushed to his groin in a hot, almost painful swell. He groaned and gave a rueful laugh. "Careful, Ellysetta, or you'll finish me before I can even begin.”

"Then begin," she insisted. Her hands trailed down his sides and tugged at the closure of his leather breeches. "You've shown me what to expect, and I find I am impatient.”

He didn't need a second invitation. Earth sprang from his fingers, dissolving boots and leathers and the remains of her nightshift, leaving both of them bare to each other. She gave a small gasp at her sudden nakedness, but despite the brief flood of color that darkened her cheeks, she did not flinch or pull away.

She was the same to his eyes, yet so astonishingly new. Her beauty radiated on so many levels, a banquet to his senses, and her emotions caressed him in waves, urging him on, singing to his soul a new song of her own ... not Spirit, not tairen, but woman. Captivating and compelling.
Come to me, Rain. Make me your wife.

He moved without thought, his hands reaching for hers, breath exhaling in a soft groan as his fingertips rediscovered the exquisite satin of her skin. At last, he had the freedom to claim what was his. By the laws of her culture and in the eyes of her family, the mating he'd hungered for was no longer forbidden-it was their right, his and hers.

He stroked the gentle, slender curve of her body, from the roundness of her breast, to the narrow tuck of her waist, and on to the soft flare of trim hip and thigh. A tingle of magic followed in the wake of his hand, the sparkling lights of his own essence dancing across her skin and setting her senses afire.

"It has been a thousand years since last I knew a woman's body," he murmured. "I pray I do not disappoint.”

Though he said it with a small smile, she heard a greater sincerity than he would have wanted to reveal. He feared the truth of this joining wouldn't be as stirring to her as the illusions he'd woven with such mastery.

"The only possible way you could disappoint me, Rain, would be to leave me now.” She arched against him and slid a leg over his. Her foot traveled up the rock-hard muscles of his calves to tease the backs of his thighs. His sex gave a hungry, surging pulse as her gesture opened the nest of curls between her legs.

"You do play with fire.”

She laughed, a throaty purr that rolled over his skin and made every cell leap in reaction. "It must be the tairen in me.”

His own tairen flexed its claws and gave an answering growl of approval. "Then take my flame,
shei’tani,
and burn for me.”

He bent his head and devoted himself to setting her afire, body and soul. Flows of magic swirled around her like a thousand stroking hands. His mouth claimed first one breast and then the other, teasing the soft nipples into tight, aching peaks. Alternating breezes of tingling cold warred with sultry heat, the combination an intoxicating, erotic play that roused every inch of her skin to aching sensitivity.

Her hands dove into the silky thickness of his hair, clutching tight. Her hips bucked against him in restless invitation, but he only laughed against her skin and left his weaves to tease and provoke her while he pressed a burning trail of kisses down the smooth, sweet softness of her belly, tasting each tender fingerspan of skin, drinking in her scent, rubbing it on his face and lips, breathing it in until her essence filled him so completely he could not take a breath that did not taste of her. Lower still his lips traveled. Hands found the soft swell of her rounded buttocks and gently lifted her hips.

Ellysetta gave a thin, breathless cry as he bent his head to feast on her. She tried to close her legs against him in a last, instinctive rush of Celierian modesty, but he would not allow it.
As you reminded me, our vows have been spoken, shei’tani. By your customs as well as mine, there can be no shame between us. All that you are is mine to discover and adore.”

She felt the slow, lingering lap of a tongue and nearly leapt off the bed.

«
You taste of honeyed cream, shei’tani.» He took another leisurely taste of her, followed by an insistent, probing dart that was wholly wicked. All the while, his weaves cupped and teased her breasts until she thought she would fly apart.
«Open for me.»

Gods save her. Inner muscles clenched tight in rippling spasms. She squirmed against the hands that held her fast and groaned as he laughed softly against her most intimate skin. Helplessly her legs fell open, and her eyes closed on wave after wave of indescribable sensation as teasing tastes became long, savoring strokes that turned her veins to rivers of smoldering fire. Pressure built up inside her as her hips assumed an instinctive rhythm, rising and falling to meet each sinful stroke of his tongue.

At this moment, all he wanted in life was the taste of Ellysetta on his tongue, the scent of her filling his nostrils, the feel of her soft skin filling his hands. Through touch, skin to skin, he shared every fevered emotion speeding across her shattering senses. The sound of her sobbing pleas and the restless leap of her hips drove him wild. Within his soul, the tairen roared.

Ellysetta closed her eyes as a torment of sensation rolled over her. The roar of the tairen resonated along the thread of their bond like a bolt of lightning, setting every fiber of her being blazing to sudden, incandescent, throbbing life. Her back arched. She flung her head back.

"Rain!" Oh, dear gods.
“Rain!"
The climax burst over her in a thousand shuddering explosions, each stealing her breath and shaking her to the core.

He rose up above her, eyes blazing, his mouth parted in a triumphant, near-savage smile. The hard, thick length of his sex entered her body on a single breathtaking thrust. If there was pain, he stole it from her, leaving only the feel of his body inside hers, stretching her, filling an emptiness she'd never known existed.

His hips drew back, and she almost wept in protest, clutching at his hips with an instinctive plea. He surged forward again, and she cried out in wild pleasure.

Within her mind she saw the tairen, roaring in triumph as it leapt to claim and dominate. For the first time, her own wildness rose up in savage answer. Within her soul, she felt the sweep of wings and claws, the thunder of tairen bodies meeting in an ancient, untamed mating, while together, on their silken bed, Rain and Ellysetta's Fey bodies surged in an equally fierce union. Her hand curled, and she raked her nails down his back, matching his unrestrained passion with her own.

Rain threw back his head and roared. He rose up on his knees and drew her hips up with him as his body pounded in a relentless beat. As she sprawled on the silken sheets of their bed, Ellysetta's hair spilled across the pillow in coils of flame. Her breasts bobbed with each powerful thrust of his hips, and as he watched, the Fey glow of her eyes grew brighter and brighter until they were whirling opalescent pools, blazing with an inner fire. Tairen eyes.

Again and again he drove her to the edge and pushed her beyond it, loving the sound of her cries ringing in his ears, loving the shocked, dazed look on her face as pleasure shook and shattered her. Her inner muscles convulsed around him, silken, tight, rippling in a series of fierce spasms that stole the breath from his lungs. Every muscle in his body clenched tight in response, straining as her climax detonated his own.

It swept over him like a wild wind, ripping away all thought, all doubt, leaving only a bedrock of unshakable certainty in its wake. This was the primal, elemental beauty of life, the passionate exchange of flesh and breath and essence, two halves made whole. This moment with her was the reason he'd been born. She was the reason for his life.

He fell back beside her against the softness of the mattress and regarded her from dazzled eyes as his ragged breathing slowly grew even. She was such a wonder to him in every way. A salvation he had never expected. A joy he had never deserved. And here, now, lying beside him, her soul so bright she shone like a star, she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever known. Strength blazed beside her
shei'dalin's
compassion; her will was threaded with the purest steel and the tairen's fierce wildness. When she finally embraced the entirety of her abilities, she would be a force of nature, a Feyreisa of such power as the world had never known. It humbled him to realize that he, Rainier vel'En Daris, was the warrior chosen by the gods to stand beside her, to protect and aid her, to ... love her.

Unexpected tears gathered with surprising swiftness, filling his eyes and spilling over.

"Rain?" She reached for him in concern.

He gave a small, embarrassed laugh and lifted a knuckle to wipe away the betraying moisture. "This Fey learns humility after all.”

She did not return his smile. "What is it? What's wrong?”

"Las, kem'san.
Nothing is wrong. I only just realized something I should have known all along." He carried her hands to his chest, then cupped her face with one hand while wrapping the other around her waist. He held her close, skin to skin, so that with her
shei'dalin
senses she would feel for herself the wonder that bloomed within him.

"From this day forward, no matter what happens between us-even if we never complete our bond, even if we cannot save the tairen or the Fey-I want you to know this one thing, Ellysetta Baristani." He smiled into her eyes and gave her the words.

"My heart has followed where my soul has led.
Ke vo san,
Ellysetta. I love you.”

He felt the faint tremors that rippled through her when the truth of his emotions washed over her senses. Her brows drew together and her forehead creased in a confused frown. She wanted to believe, longed to believe, but her fear of opening herself up to another betrayal made her doubt him.

He pressed a kiss first at one corner of her mouth and then the other. "Your soul calls out,
shei’tani.
Mine answers." He drew back to meet her gaze, and held it with a steadiness she could not doubt. "And I would have it no other way." He lowered his head and claimed her lips with aching gentleness and dazzling intensity, pouring into his kiss every hope, every dream, every ardent wish, all coupled with a steadfast vow. He repeated the words in Feyan, then sang them to her in the rich tones of tairen song, his song, the song she had been born to hear, carrying in its wordless symphony the essence of all that was Rain.

Tears shimmered in Ellysetta's eyes. She could taste his emotions like a rich, many-layered spice, a truth she could not disbelieve, a promise she knew he would die before betraying again. He was offering her, at last, the love she'd always dreamed of, the acceptance she'd always longed for.

Closing her eyes, she returned his kiss and drank in his shining promise of devotion. Her arms wrapped around his neck, holding him close.
«I love you, too, Rain. I always have.
»

Against her hip, his body stirred as love became passion and passion became need. She took him into her body, smiled with breathless wonder as once more he filled and completed her.

And afterward, as they lay together in spent silence, the first fragile thread of communion that had fallen silent last night began softly to sing once more. A second, shimmering new thread joined the first, adding its own melody, tender and bittersweet, tempered by loss, deepened with forgiveness, and stronger than the song sung between them before.

In the small silver bells of the night, with no fanfare to mark their passing, the Fey departed Celieria City.

Sol and the twins were packed up as well, traveling west with Lord Teleos and the Fey. They would stay on Lord Teleos's lands near the Grarreval, guarded by ten quintets who would help Lord Teleos fortify his defenses and train his men in the Fey arts of war.

Outside the western city gates, Rain stepped away to summon the Change. Ellysetta closed her eyes as the swell of his magic swept over her, calling to her own, long-buried gifts. And when he crouched before her in tairen form, magnificent and fierce, his black fur gleaming like the richest ebonwood in the silver-bright light of the moons, she was glad she'd been born to stand at his side.

She would choose him. She would always choose him. She would leave her family and everything familiar to her. She would embrace her magic. She would defy laws and kings and Mages and demons and even the Church of Light to be with him. She would tear down the barriers that still lived in her mind, confront whatever darkness lurked behind them, and defeat the Mage who thought to claim her soul. That soul-and every part of her-belonged to Rainier vel'En Daris. There could never be happiness for her that did not include him.