by Stella Inox
“Return to your homes” she said firmly. “We’ll know soon enough if Cernunnos will return to us.”
Some slammed their fists to their chests in acknowledgment while others merely filed from the clearing. It was an austere and subdued departure considering the feral excitement of the hunt.
Ceol cantered up to her and nuzzled her shoulder, lipping at her hair. Ryannon mounted without difficulty but when she turned the stallion, it was only then that she realised she had nowhere to go. Her eyes brimmed again but she refused to let the tears fall. She’d cried enough already.
Illaynos didn’t abandon her. He nickered at Ceol who fell in behind the Sidhe’s chocolate mare and led Ryannon on swift ride that ended at the base of the tree that Cernunnos had called home. Fatigue was weighing on her so she told Ceol to go, and made her way up the steps.
She washed the sticky red blood away in the warm water of the waterfall, and crawled into bed where she cried herself to sleep, trying to muffle her sobs before sleep took her under.
~
She woke warm and comfortable some time later. It took her a few seconds to remember why it felt wrong to be comfortable. Her heart was leaden.
In the days that followed, hope waxed and waned but there was no sign nor word from the absent Lord of the Forest. In despair, she tried to return to the mortal realm but the elemental magic was tied too integrally into her very being. It had claimed her for its own and wouldn’t let her leave, but she was able to pass on word to those who loved her, settling their fears. They reacted to the changes in her with wonder and no small sadness that she couldn’t return.
The news that no more sacrifices would be required was received with joy and celebration. Her family and friends worried for her health and wellbeing. For although she glowed with subdued potency, sorrow had left a marked cast on her features.
The core of the Sidhe warriors from the Hunt gathered around her. Illaynos gently bullied her into taking action and ruling on a day to day basis. The underlying wound in the Otherworld had been scraped clean with the bloody death of Cernunnos, but the Sidhe folk still needed direction.
Whole groves died which concerned her at first, but the new shoots that sprouted from the soil were straight and true. The infection was being swept away. The foothills below the mountains had been dust bowls growing only weedy grass. Newly grown, stunning fields of flowers had replaced them, lush and beautiful in the evening light. Although this world had been beautiful before, it would be stunning once the transformation was complete, but the process was going to take years. Her power was enough to start the recovery, but the masculine power of the Horned God was needed to balance her feminine energy.
Some of the creatures that had been damaged by Herne’s corruptions were changing too.
The small pixies glowed brighter, and sprites were once again repopulating the land. There would always be an undertone of darkness here, it would always be a wild and untamed landscape, but for the time being, that which was light and life was returning with a vengeance. She was surrounded by burgeoning life but still she was alone.
Months after the Hunt, she was sitting in her favorite place, next to a still pond. Its past murkiness had cleared, becoming a crystal pool that soothed something deep inside her. Her water sprite nature took comfort in such places. She was examining the much grown antlers that adorned her head in the mirror like surface. The horns were much larger and just recently, the velvet had fallen away exposing a lovely ivory bone. As she mused, movement in her reflection caught her attention. For a moment, she thought she could make out a pair of reflected moss green eyes over her shoulder. She whipped around with a startled gasp but her heart’s desire wasn’t there. She went to bed that night more depressed than ever.
She returned to the pool often hoping to catch even a glimpse and the same phenomenon happened again. She could clearly see mischievous eyes. In the following days, his form grew clearer. Ryannon was terrified that she was going mad and dragged Illaynos to the pool to check if he could see what she saw but he looked into the water for a few moments before he regarded her with pity.
It didn’t stop her from returning day after day. Cernunnos became clearer to her vision. He was thinner than before but somehow seemed more vital to her eyes. He tried to speak with her, his lips moving and hands held out beseechingly. Her frustration at not understanding what his ghost wanted of her was soul destroying.
It was twelve months after she’d slain him that Ryannon returned to the pool. Samhain had come around again and for the first time in millennia, the Hunt wouldn’t run down an unwilling target.
As soon as she laid eyes on the pool, she knew something had changed. The sun was setting in a fiery corona behind her as the liquid form of the Horned God appeared, reflected as if he stood behind her. He seemed so real to her eyes that she thought she could almost touch him. He held out both hands to her pleadingly, his lips moving and she could almost understand what he was saying, what it was that he asked of her.
Come to me.
She regarded him for a few quiet moments before shrugging. She’d accepted a while ago that the pressure of this world had driven her to insanity so why not give in to the madness for a few moments? She stripped off her clothing and plunged into the pool feeling her soul ease. But to her everlasting sadness, he wasn’t there like she’d hoped. Seeking surcease from the crushing loneliness, she closed her eyes and simply floated, her hair in a silver bright corona floated around her face in the depths.
No more than a moment later, she felt warm lips press against her spine. Snapping her eyes open, she spun in the water but no one was with her. She squeezed her eyes closed again. The touch returned. It played with the waving strands of her hair and traced the indention of her neck, splitting to follow the blades of her shoulders before seeking up and around to trace the swell of her breasts.
Ryannon focused as hard as she could on the phantom touch, her own palm going automatically to where the touch was. She could feel it on her body but her hand cupped her own breast rather than pressing against the hand that should be there. The phantom touch traced her curves possessively and she moaned under water, bubbles bursting from her throat.
She twisted and turned in the water seeking more and the pressure was quick to respond. If she concentrated hard enough she could feel him pressed against her, from the strong planes of his chest plastered against her back to powerful legs that entwined with her own. His erect cock was pressed between the swell of her buttocks but when she opened her eyes there was nothing to see.
She concentrated harder, blocking out any external stimuli to focus on his touch alone. One phantom hand drifted down over her belly to delve between the velvet folds of her sex. She pressed backwards against the ghostly cock and groaned in pleasure as it pressed against the eager petals of her sex before stretching her channel. It buried itself deep within, causing her to shout out her joy at the possession.
Ryannon twisted, pulling back and then thrusting down. She didn’t care if she was insane. This felt like him, like his shaft inside her. If this was madness then so be it. She stretched trying to help his ghost form impale her deeper. One spirit hand banded her hips to raise and lower her in rhythmic penetration upon a swollen erection.
The other slid up, cupping a mounded breast before burying itself in her hair. It grasped one of her antlers and tugged, the sensuality from it enough to jackknife her body in pleasure. She traced his touch up her antler, accidentally cutting her own hand on the sharp tine.
The plunging cadence increased in speed. Her body jolted in the phantom embrace and she went liquid with desire, body winding tighter at the driving beat of his hips. The ghostly hand strayed from her hips to dip between her folds, seeking the seat of her pleasure. It stroked her bud with a wicked touch finally holding her clitoris and squeezing until she went tight and exploded in pleasure and release.
Her ghostly lover released too, she could feel the pluses of hot fluid deep in her channel
.
She couldn’t help herself, Ryannon pulled herself free of his impaling cock and she opened her eyes, ignoring the bright red bloom of blood in the water turning and seeking further touch. This time, he was no longer a figment of her imagination or some phantom conjured by longing.
Cernunnos was really there.
Chapter Fifteen
He floated alongside her, pride and mischief clear in his eyes. His own hand streamed blood into the water from where her tine had slashed him as she’d jackknifed at the pleasure.
He didn’t try to speak, merely traced the amazed curve of her lips with a delicate touch before reaching out to drag her into his embrace. He kissed her, floating in the watery world as twilight fell on the land. This time when he pulled her legs around his hips she went eagerly, willing.
He impaled her again with her fervent, eager assistance, and they moved together in the pool. She traced the strong muscles that curved his shoulders, and framed his face with her hands, pulling him into a frantic kiss as their movements sped up.
His touch was necessary. There was healing to be found in their frantic pace. They plunged and thrust against one another as if they could climb inside each other’s bodies, hot, wet, hungry kisses, mouths dueling and licking. They spun in the water, not knowing which way was up or down and not caring, lost to the pleasure of finally being whole.
When they came, it was together. Their powers merged the same way their bodies had and the pool lit up with a backwash of immense power, strong enough that water geysered into the air high above their twisting forms.
Ryannon was shrieking as she came, arching and screaming. Cernunnos was spasming as he lost all control and jetted pulses of seed deep inside her. Fingers pressed where they held her to him with a powerful grip, as if he might never let her go again.
It was some time before they could move.
Never releasing their grip on each other, as if the other might fade away at any moment, they made their unhurried way to the bank. As soon as Cernunnos head was free of the water, he pulled her closer to him for a powerful kiss, his hands shaking as he pulled free to tip his forehead against her and just breathe in her scent. Their antlers clacked against each other causing them both to laugh joyfully. They sat on the bank in less than a foot of water and just held one another for long minutes.
“You’re really here” said Ryannon finally, the words muffled against the warm wet skin of his shoulder.
“I never left you. I was always there, I just couldn’t reach you.”
She pulled away long enough to look into his eyes.
“Why not?”
He pursed his lips ruefully.
“I gambled when I opted to run the hunt. The power of the Horned God that I received back was tainted by Herne, which meant that everything I did had that underlying miasma attached to it. I knew I had to cleanse it, but I couldn’t be sure if the land would return me. So I took measures to make sure that one person had both reason and the power to pull me back into this world if she so desired.”
He tapped her nose playfully.
“Blood and seed” he whispered against her lips. “I tied you to me with blood and seed but like anything else, it had to be given and accepted freely. Somehow, gloriously, you came to love me and seek my touch no matter what my people had done to you in the past. You’re the seed and I am the land that nourishes it, the fecund to my virility.”
“If that’s the case, why so long? I mourned you!”
“I didn’t gamble on being so weakened. Herne really did damage. It took longer to cleanse the taint, and I was too week to seek entry back into the world by myself. Had my original plan succeeded, I would have arisen from the soil refreshed and whole no more than a moon later. But the weakness meant I needed assistance. By blood and seed, you pulled me through. Your desire to have me here with you was the gateway I needed.”
“Don’t do that again. You can’t lump me with all this and then piss off for holiday.”
He laughed, a joyful rumble before kissing her tenderly again.
“I said that, given the chance, I would love you all your days sweet Ryannon. I am a male of my word. I have been given the chance I asked for and I always take care of what’s mine.”
“Yours?”
“Am I not yours too?” he asked seriously.
“Yes” she hummed, content with the world, pressing her lips to his again.
“In a bed I think this time, yes?”
He picked her up in strong arms and carried her cradled form up over the bank. The wild cheers as they appeared had her clutching at his neck in panic. The crowd around the small clearing was ten deep, the celebration was as wild as it was heartfelt.
The Otherland had the balance restored and a King and Queen of the forest. The land would never be the same.
Epilogue
The Horned Lord and Lady still rule. Breakers of oaths don’t fare well there anymore with such leaders. The green men once again walked the land, strong and true. The cruelty of before melted, giving way to seasons of plenty.
Fertility returned to the land culminating in a child, the best of them both who had moss green eyes and silvery white hair, and a tiny nubbins of bone on his brow.
Cernunnos has so far kept his promise to love Ryannon all her days.
The End
Thank you for taking time to read my story.
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For other excerpts of other titles, please see the below.
About the Author
Stella Inox grew up in family that travelled extensively. Visiting so many different countries exposed her at a young age, to many different local rumors and legends. Stella has always been interested in mythology, fairy tales and the paranormal.
Granted, when she first started reading the materials that interested her, she wasn’t fantasizing about making love to the subject matter but that changed as she got older.
There’s a streak of kink a mile wide in her nature and Stella has always enjoyed writing so it seemed like a match made in heaven, figuring that if she enjoyed writing it so much that others just might enjoy reading it…
Stella loves receiving feedback from readers and other than making love to mythological creatures in her head, Stella enjoys riding her horses and drinking great wine with good friends. She also fancies herself a chef.
Excerpt: Caught in coils
“For crying out loud” she muttered. “I meet a mythological creature and rather than be scientific about it, I woof on myself.”
“I understand your language but don’t understand your reference” said Serpen quietly.
She waved her hand, signifying that it didn’t matter.
“Where are the others?” she said finally.
“They didn’t survive the encounter. They attacked before I could mesmerize them into leaving and forgetting the location.” He indicated the cavern with a tilt of his head. “If they were friends of yours, I apologise.”
“They weren’t friends of mine” snorted Amelia. “You did me a favor. What do you intend to do with me?”
He cocked his amazing head and looked at her considering.
“I had hoped to share your company for some small time while you healed. I cannot take you anywhere after that, I haven’t been more than a few meters from the mouth of the cave. You’ll have to make your own way back once your leg is healed enough to walk on.”
Amelia winced. She pulled the blankets back and cringed at the sight of her badly bruised, very swollen left leg. She wasn’t going anywhere for a while.
She gently touched the injury. It was too distended to tell the extent of the damage but surprisingly didn’t hurt as much as she felt it should. She could just move her toes and the leg looked straight so it was probably a really bad
strain or fracture. Either which way, she wasn’t walking out of here today.
His stillness caught her eye.
When she looked up, Serpens gaze was locked on her pussy. She’d accidently lifted the blanket, exposing herself when trying to look at her injury. His dark eyes dragged back up to her and she froze like a mouse caught in the gaze of hungry viper.
His forked tongue flicked out from between his full lips, as if tasting the air around her.
Serpen’s snakes writhed on the bed some touching and then wrapping around her upper thigh, the bravest sticking its blunt nose into her groin, its forked tongue flicking and tasting. The others stirred towards her in curiosity and eagerness.
Excerpt: Djinn and tonic
His eyelids dropped until they were half shut as he examined her body carefully.
“I’ll need to touch you for this” he said casually and she nodded and held her arms away from her body.
Nasaan drifted closer until his misty half body effervesced against her skin and she shivered, goose bumps rising to pebble her naked flesh. Her nipples tightened to furled nubs.
His hands rose to stroke her face and she flinched back. His hands were graceful with long fingers that displayed black tinted neatly cut nails on each digit. He waited, hands still extended until she relaxed and leaned forward into his touch.
The Djinn was gentle as he ran his fingers over the planes of her visage and she could feel a sweep of power in his wake. Her skin tightened and she gasped at the wash of wellbeing that followed his caress.
He dug his nails lightly into her scalp and drew the length of her hair through his hands, tugging her head backwards before moving on, drawing strokes down and across her shoulders.
His touch was so fine that she moaned deep in her throat and her eyes drifted shut. He traced out the length of her arms and then moved to her chest.
Rather than the light touch he had been using, he paused and then he palmed the heavy weight of her breasts, cupping them firmly, lifting each as if weighing them, fingers and nails pressing into the soft skin. His thumbs brushed and pinched the tightly furled nipples and Alicia’s body leapt, her belly twisting with need.