by Mike Truk
I inhaled deeply and realized I had never felt so alive. Engulfed in lightning and flame, I felt light, felt loved, felt fucking beatified.
For a moment, I simply exulted in the sensation, then began to walk toward them.
“Stop him!” Brielle’s cry was indignant, rife with disbelief. “I thought you were the fortieth circle or something?”
“Will you shut up?”
Imogen’s levenbolts grew thicker, their attacks more thunderous, so my ward was subjected to an insane storm of lightning bolts.
I laughed and continued walking toward them. Brielle’s flames were growing more liquid in nature, pouring over my ward now, white-hot. The marble beneath my feet was baking, but my ward kept the ambient heat at bay.
And now I could see them both, shoulder to shoulder, leaning forward, pouring their all into their attacks, hair whipping about their shoulders, Imogen’s eyes flared into white opacity behind her lenses, Brielle’s gleaming with a fiery light.
I drew closer, and those last steps were the easiest of all. I barely had to channel any power into my ward, and when I finally closed with them, I extended my hands. Placing them over each of their own, I stifled their attacks and dropped my ward just as the lightning and fire cut out.
The sudden silence echoed. Imogen and Brielle were gaping at me. My smile wasn’t victorious; I didn’t feel pride, but I was exulting. Within me pulsed a universe-spanning love, and before they could speak, I stepped in and gathered them both into an embrace, pulling them close, holding them tight.
At that moment, as they wrapped their arms around me in turn, in that split second of sublime joy, I felt a sliver of terror cut through me, pierce right through my being.
Love them now, the words said. Love them now, for one day they may be gone.
I squeezed them extra tight, my eyes brimming with tears. This kind of happiness couldn’t last. This wasn’t the kind of universe that allowed joy to go unpunished.
Imogen and Brielle pressed their brows to mine, holding me just as tightly.
A great tremulous emotion arose within me, a terrible appreciation for how precious these moments were, how vulnerable we were to being torn apart, ruined, broken, destroyed. How one day I might look back at this embrace and feel nothing but bittersweet sorrow and loss.
“I love you,” I said, voice hoarse.
“Noah?” Imogen pulled back a little to study me. “What is it?”
“Nothing,” I said, releasing them and stepping back, wiping at my eyes. “Just can’t say that enough, you know?”
Brielle’s blue eyes were glimmering with tears, but she sniffed in mock-annoyance and glared at me. “How did you do that? You resisted both our attacks as if it were nothing?”
“And that way you cut off my attack?” Imogen shook her head in wonder. “I’ve never heard - never dreamed - that could be done.”
“It’s because he’s the fucking Savior!” shouted Emma from the far side of the pool, hands cupped around her mouth for humorous effect. “Remember?”
“He’s been the Savior since I met him,” said Brielle, eyes narrowed. “And now his ward is like the Source’s own love for reality?”
“It’s because of love,” I said. “You guys were absolutely right. You’re both absolutely mad and brilliant.”
“I’ll take one of those,” said Brielle, then couldn’t help but grin, clapping her hands together. “And yes! We’ve got wards! I’d like a rematch against those Morathi now.”
“You might get your chance,” said Valeria. Something in her tone caused me to glance at her in concern. Was that envy? Bitterness? Had watching Imogen, Brielle, and I go through that experience brought back her old resentment?
Then she smiled, and my fears faded away.
“I’m sure we’ll be getting a rematch down the road,” continued Valeria. “Don’t you worry.”
“Fair enough,” I said. “Now excuse me. I need to go pass out.”
“Now he gets weak around the knees,” said Brielle.
“Better now than during the fight,” said Imogen.
“True,” said Brielle. Then she linked her arm with my own and began marching around the pool.
“You going to pass out with me?” I asked.
She blew a lock of hair out of her face. “Something like that.”
Emma chuckled, guiding Valeria back into her massage room. Little Meow gave us a little wave and followed.
A moment later, Brielle tugged me through the archway into the massive bedroom. I was about to protest, to say I was too - something, I don’t know what - when she spun me around and shoved me hard in the chest.
The bed was right behind my knees. I fell back onto the comforter.
“Hey,” I said. “I’m a little torn up about Neveah, and…”
Brielle grabbed the hem of her tunic and pulled it up over her head, tossing it aside. She began to unbuckle her belt.
“I, uh…” I was having trouble remembering what I’d been saying.
Because goddamn, I could spend all year just drinking in the sight of Brielle’s perfection. Toned and sculpted, a fatal combination of athletic and feminine, her body never failed to grab my mind with both hands and drag it down into the dirtiest depths.
She tore her belt free, causing it to slap along the belt loops. She doubled it, pushed it together so that each half flared, then yanked her hands apart, causing the belt to slap together loudly.
“Feeling you like that,” she said, moving toward me. “Feeling your power. Your mastery. Riding high on that much magic. Sensing our bond. Noah, nothing’s ever turned me on more. You’re coming into it. I can see it. Sense it. You’re fulfilling your potential, and I love it.”
She tossed the belt aside, peeled her leggings down over her wide hips, then stepped out of them, revealing long, muscled thighs. I moved back as she straddled me, knees on either side of my hips. Reached behind her back to pull her bra up and over her head, I freed her beautiful breasts, full and freckled across her cleavage, her nipples hard.
“Fuck,” she said, voice breathy, alive with desire. “When you reached out and stopped my fire - when you just shut me down cold, I thought to myself, This is a man.”
I propped myself up on my elbows and couldn’t help but grin. “You just starting to realize that?”
She slid one hand up around her head, mussing up her already wild hair, and moved the other down the length of her body to cup her sex.
“You got me so wet, Noah, I’m about to fuck the bedpost if you don’t fuck me instead. I want you to open up Svadhisthana. I want this to be crazy. I want this to be all out. My whole body is alive with power right now. I feel like I could explode into flame. I want you to make me explode, Noah. You feel how wet I am?”
She rocked her hips forward, dragging her panties up along my stomach, grinding down on my hips, and hot damn if she wasn’t right. Her panties were soaked, and like that I was right there, ready and willing, sitting up to bring her breasts to my mouth.
“No,” she said, and shoved me back down. “Svadhisthana. Set me on fire.”
I laughed huskily. “You sure, princess? You know what you’re asking for?”
She squeezed both breasts, pinching her nipples, then bit her lower lip and nodded.
So I delved into my sanctuary, dove down along the golden filament to where Svadhisthana hung, quiescent. Focusing my energy on it, I poured magic into its golden heart, and felt my pulse pound faster as the sanskara began to turn, its petals opening. Each was as long as my arm, moving to reveal its glittering heart, to turn faster and faster.
And its influence was immediate. I felt myself begin to burn with desire; opening my eyes, I saw Brielle half-close her own as its power began to soak into her.
“Oh yes,” she moaned. “That’s… that’s good.”
I reached up, running my hand up over her abs to cup one of her breasts. It was perfect, filling my palm as if designed for my touch. I placed my other hand over her heart an
d closed my eyes.
I focused on Svadhisthana, willing it to spin faster, to blaze forth with its power. I felt my magic draining down into its core, coming forth into the world through me to sink in turn into Brielle.
She soaked it up like a sponge.
“Oh fuck,” she was moaning, rocking her hips to move back and forth along my rigid cock. “Oh… oh wait, yes… what the… I can’t… don’t stop…”
A sense of mastery arose within me. She was fully open to my influence, absolutely no walls. I felt Svadhisthana burn within me, and in turn, set her on fire. She was a mass of kindling, her spirit cordwood, and Svadhisthana a blow torch.
Her whole body began to undulate as she rocked above me. She plunged both hands into her hair and began to gasp, her chest rising and falling as she thrust her breasts into my palm, her hips grinding, grinding. Perspiration beaded across her brow, making her skin glisten, and the scent of her pussy was driving me wild.
But I held to my discipline. Keeping my hand over her heart, I poured ever more power into her, lighting her up just as she’d asked.
Pushing her deeper, farther, harder.
She froze, clutched at herself as if in a panic, then her whole body convulsed as if she’d been dealt a blow. She screamed, froze again, and was wracked by the second contraction.
“Fuck!” She nearly toppled over but caught herself with an outstretched hand. Her whole body was shaking, shivering, as orgasm after orgasm pounded through her. Her body was jerking from the violence of it, stomach clenching and relaxing repeatedly, crimson hair fallen completely before her face. “Fuck, Noah, I - I - oh, oh fuck, it won’t stop -”
I slid out from under her, pushing her forward onto all fours, then tore my tunic off. Yanking my pants down, I clenched the fabric of her panties and ripped it clean off her hips.
Her perfect ass was shivering, trembling, and I ran my hand down between her legs, cupping her wet pussy, feeling the scrape of her bush. At my touch, she cried out again, then fell so her face was pressed into the pillows, her ass up in the air.
“Here we go,” I said, voice hoarse. “You wanted me to set you on fire?”
“I - Noah -”
“Prepare to burn,” I said, and unleashed another wave of Svadhisthana upon her just as I guided my cock deep inside her glistening pussy.
Her whole body went rigid as if she’d touched a live wire, and she jerked back up to all fours, tossing her head to clear her face of her hair as she cried out. I thrust in and out of her with smooth, measured blows, clutching at her hips, working with my own inexorable pace, pulsing Svadhisthana each time I sank to the hilt, easing up as I withdrew.
Brielle’s whole body was wracked by continuous orgasms. I felt my own pleasure but at a remove; what I was delighting in was seeing her come, seeing her lose her shit, fucking her just as she’d begged.
And I had no intention of stopping.
I worked her until she fell once more, legs kicking out straight so she lay completely supine on the bed, and still I continued to make love to her. I propped myself over her length, sliding in and out of her now-even tighter pussy. Her body was drenched with sweat, moans rising, falling, rising higher.
The more I channeled Svadhisthana, the greater my control over my own body became. I pushed myself right to the edge of my own orgasm, then there, on the cliff’s edge of oblivion, I arrested myself, holding myself just shy of total release.
And in that sweet torment, I made love to Brielle. I eased up on Svadhisthana enough for her to come to herself, gasping and cursing, but I didn’t let up. Moving her onto her back, I pressed her thighs apart, then lowered my lips to her own; licking and nuzzling, amazed at how wet she was, her inner thighs glistening, a puddle soaked into the sheets.
The more I kissed her, licked her, and drove her to another orgasm, the louder Svadhisthana roared. I closed my eyes and dipped into my reservoir, seeing the great sunflower was exuding a continuous stream of bright yellow magic into my reservoir, replenishing me, giving me even more strength to keep going.
I glanced up and set Manipura to life. The black sun began revolving; I felt my limbs grow so powerful they felt ponderous, felt my stamina grow deeper. Opening my eyes, I looked up the length of Brielle’s body where she clutched at her breasts again, her head thrown back, overcome.
I rose, wiped my mouth, and moved between her legs, sliding into her again.
“No more,” she gasped, “give me a moment. Just… I need to breathe.”
I laughed. “I thought you wanted it all.”
“I did. But this is… this is madness. It’s like a structure fire mixed with… mixed with an endless orgasm… while I’m being suffocated… and worshipped… and every sensation, my whole body…”
She pressed her hand to her brow, shaking her head in helpless amazement. Blinking several times as if dazed, she then focused on me. “Get that cock up here.”
I crawled up over her sweat-slick body and allowed her to guide the head of my cock between her perfect lips. I groaned as she cupped my balls, massaging them as she bobbed her head up and down my shaft, her tongue swirling around my head, the sensation glorious.
I lost myself to the sensation, to Svadhisthana’s roar, then felt Anahata begin to revolve. I blinked, looking around, and saw my ward was up.
“What the…?”
Brielle paused, looked around, and pulled my cock out so it popped from between her lips. “You expecting an attack?”
“No,” I said. “Just feeling… feeling really good.”
She frowned, then shrugged and went back to sucking.
I blinked, wiping the sweat from my face. Even as part of me was in heaven between Brielle’s lips, the other part of me was unable to dismiss the ward.
Was it a projection of my self-esteem? My confidence, my sense of being loved? A side effect of feeling so good in bed with Brielle?
Expanded and pushed into the world?
Did that mean it could interact with Svadhisthana in some way?
Rocking my hips back and forth, hitting the back of Brielle’s throat, I closed my eyes, picturing Svadhisthana’s golden revolutions, then overlaid it in my mind with Anahata’s viridian one.
Nothing happened, but I felt a growing sense of clarity, of mastery.
Should I drop the Vam? No. It felt wrong to do so while Brielle sucked me off. I didn’t want to lose touch with my body, my ecstasy.
But that sensation of control. I opened my eyes, flared them open wide, then gazed at my ward. I felt myself growing closer to climax, then took a huge leap toward it as Brielle slid a finger in my ass.
My thoughts were scattered, the sensations overwhelming. My last shreds of awareness were fleeing, but at that moment I extended my will, seized my ward, and tried to bring it in close.
It felt like trying to pack too many clothes into an already tight suitcase.
I took a deep breath, pleasure erupting from my core, and willed my ward to come in closer, to compact.
Then it did so, growing brighter as it shrank down around me, coming closer, ever closer, until with a cry I couldn’t hold back any longer. I came explosively into the back of Brielle’s throat.
She coughed, choked, then mastered herself, swallowing as my ward fragmented and flew apart.
My body was raw, my ecstasy total. With a cry, I released my grip on Svadhisthana, falling over onto my side, chest heaving.
“I - damn.” Brielle wiped my come from her lips. “I felt something there, at the very end - what was that?”
“Me coming in your mouth,” I said.
She smacked me, hard. “No, wise ass. Something in our channel, our bond. You were doing something. I could sense it.”
“I don’t know what I was doing,” I said. “Trying to pull my ward in, compact it, make it… stronger? More efficient? I was getting somewhere, but your finger up my ass ruined my concentration.”
“Hmm,” purred Brielle, rolling onto her side, expression at once wicked an
d content. “Yes, I could see how it might do that.”
I rubbed at my face, sat up. “I was almost there. This time I’m sure I’ll be able to do it.”
“This time?” asked Brielle, raising one imperious eyebrow. “What on earth do you mean, ‘this time’?”
“Oh - I’m sorry.” I grinned at her, completely unrepentant. “We’re not done here. Didn’t somebody tell you?”
“Somebody who?” asked Brielle, a flicker of alarm passing over her features. “And not done? My legs don’t work. I don’t have any sensation below my waist.”
“Lies,” I said, grabbing her beneath each knee to yank her across the bed and toward me. Reaching down with my hand to cup her sex, I squeezed her engorged lips beneath my fingers and sent a tiny pulse of Svadhisthana into her. “You telling me you don’t feel that?”
She clutched at the sheets, bit her lower lip, and moaned.
“Next time, be careful what you ask for,” I said. My cock was already growing hard. I rubbed its head back and forth over her bush, massaging her clitoral hood. “You just might get it.”
“Oh, Noah,” said Brielle in a deep, raw voice that almost undid me right there and then. “I want it. I want all of it. Give it to me. Please.”
“Yes, your royal highness,” I said, pushing my cock down and slowly inside her. “As you command.”
Brielle arched her back, tugged at the sheets, and pressed her hips up to meet mine. I inhaled deeply, sank in all the way, then with my exhalation summoned my ward once more.
It glimmered about me, platinum gold.
And with great deliberation, I began the long, hard process of mastering it.
Chapter 8
Queen Iphigenia’s audience chamber was far more impressive the third time. Following nearly two days of training, resting, and reveling in each other’s company, we were summoned at last by Emelias to attend the queen of the Morathi in what was to prove a formal affair.
We all refused courtly wear, and instead followed Emelias in our cleanest, albeit rather ragged, traveling clothes. I thought he’d protest us wearing our weapons, but no comment was made. He was anxious and distracted, waving us hurriedly to follow from the doorway of our suite into an antechamber that only seemed large until we passed through into the audience hall itself.