Destiny Descending

by Amy Sumida

Arach grinned and relaxed back against the stone rim while our boys giggled.

  I've praised you before, Vervain, Faerie added defensively.

  “Rarely,” I continued to speak out loud now that everyone was involved in the conversation.

  I give praise when it's deserved, Faerie huffed.

  “It's definitely deserved this time,” Arach said proudly and kissed my cheek. “You went through some terrible things, but you persevered, A Thaisce. You kept fighting even when all seemed lost.”

  “There were moments when I didn't want to,” I admitted. “Moments when I thought there wasn't any—” I glanced over and saw my boys staring at me somberly. “Moments when I wanted to give up,” I amended my statement. “But you should never give up; not when it's really important. You keep fighting.”

  The twins nodded solemnly.

  “Well, that put a damper on things,” I teased them. “I didn't bring you out here to see your sour faces. I want playing! Lots of splashing and laughing and fun. Immediately!”

  The boys giggled and went back to their aquatic antics. I leaned back against my husband and started to relax again.

  You do deserve it, Faerie said softly in my mind. My praise and your family and all of the good things life will bring you, Vervain. You deserve it.

  Thank you.

  And for the first time ever, I believed that I did.

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Later that night, I tucked Brevyn into bed. He snuggled sleepily beneath the covers, and I bent to kiss his forehead.

  “I love you, my little prince,” I whispered.

  “I love you too, Mommy,” Brevyn murmured.

  I smiled. Brevyn called me “Mother” unless he was upset, in which case he called me “Mommy.” The only exception was when he was tired and forgot to be formal. I was about to trade places with Arach and kiss Rian goodnight when Brevyn mumbled something else.

  “Where did your moon go?”

  “What was that, honey?” I froze and stared at him.

  Brevyn sighed and turned on his side, already asleep. I blinked but let it go; I'd ask him about it in the morning. Arach came over, and I went to kiss Rian, who was asleep as well. They'd had a long day. Arach and I turned off the lights and tip-toed out of the room. We shut the door and smiled at each other, pleased with the little people we'd made. Then we headed to our own bed and not because we were tired.

  “It's good to have you to myself again,” Arach murmured as he helped me undress.

  “I missed this too,” I admitted.

  “Really?” He asked as he shrugged out of his tunic. “You wouldn't rather have all of us at once?”

  “It can be exciting but it's also exhausting and a bit confusing. I prefer one-on-one.”

  “I do as well.” Arach grinned as he shoved his pants down and stepped out of them, already raring to go.

  The crimson scales at Arach's temples spread down his cheeks to outline his throat and then his chest, angling inward at his hips and drawing my gaze to the sleek shaft rising between his thighs.

  Arach swept me up and carried me to bed while I was still undoing my bra. I got it unfastened just in time, tossing it aside as he laid me on the velvet comforter. Then his mouth was on mine, and we were licking and biting our way through a wild kiss. As we consumed each other, Arach tore away my panties then put away his claws so he could stroke my tender flesh. I writhed up against him, and his growl vibrated up his throat to shiver across my lips.

  Arach shoved me back onto the pillows before diving between my legs. He spread my thighs further apart and set his mouth to my sex with a sexy glance up at me. Wet, rapid flicks over that sweet spot sent my mind reeling. I grabbed at Arach's shoulders for support but the ecstasy kept coming, making me shiver too violently to hold on. Then my naughty dragon extended his tongue, as only he can do, and slipped it inside me. I cried out and clutched him closer, riding his face with mindless need. Arach mercilessly continued his intimate kiss until the aftershocks faded, and I flopped back onto the pillows limply. As soon as I relaxed, he surged up onto his knees and drove into me with one forceful movement.

  I cried out again, my eyes popping open, and clutched at Arach's shoulders, pulling him closer as I spread my thighs as wide as I could stretch them. Arach bit his lip as he lowered his face to mine, and I followed his lead, nicking my lip with a fang as well. Blood welled as we came together, and we eagerly licked up the sweet liquid as well as the memories that came with it.

  It's a Dragon-Sidhe thing; we can taste the life within blood, read its emotions like a book. I experienced Arach's most recent memories, feeling his arousal as he had pleasured me and the overwhelming love that made it all the better. Like the river of magma flowing beneath our kingdom, Arach's love is intense, fiery, and unstoppable. But it had been stopped, hadn't it? As the blood took me past Arach's lust, I fell into his yawning grief over what he saw as weakness. Failure. Betrayal. Dragons mate for life, just like Wolves, and neither Arach's beast nor he could comprehend how any magic could be more powerful than their love for me.

  I pulled out of Arach's memories and gentled our kiss until I could ease back from it as well. “The fact that magic affected you doesn't make you weak, Arach.”

  Arach slowed his rhythm to a gentle grind and stared down at me. “It changed my love for you, not just my body, A Thaisce. Our love should be infallible but twice now, it has been ripped asunder. I cannot fathom it.”

  “Our love may have been damaged, but it was strong enough to heal,” I reminded him. “Magic is magic; energy that will sometimes be more powerful than even our most steadfast emotions, but it's what happens after the magic is washed away that truly shows how resilient our love is. That no matter what hurts us or rips us apart, we will always find our way back to each other. Remember? We've made this vow before. If I lose my way, you remind me, and if you get lost, baby, I'm coming for you. Every time. Even if you push me away, I'm going to keep coming back until I bring you home.”

  Arach's body shivered as his eyes misted. “I love you so much, A Thaisce. You are more important to me than anything else in all the realms.”

  “I love you too.” I held his face in my hands and pulled it back down for another kiss. “To the moon and stars and even beyond that.”

  Something shivered inside me strangely, but I pushed it away. This time was for my husband and me alone. I'd worry about nagging fears later.

  Arach started a stronger pace, and I soon forgot the strange shiver, replacing it with another, more delicious trembling. I grabbed the perfect globes of Arach's ass and pulled him even deeper as I angled my hips up to meet his thrusts. The slamming of our bodies drove away everything but this. This beautiful union. This arching, straining pleasure. This boiling delight of quivering, sweating flesh. The clawing, clenching hands. The primal rumbles and resonant screams. The wild, blood-soaked love of a pair of mated Dragon-Sidhe. There's nothing like it.

  I bucked up and rolled my husband onto his back with a ferocious snarl. His dragon eyes filled with light and claws sprouted from his fingertips. Arach drew them lightly down my arms as I started pounding onto him. Then he was clutching at my hips, the tips of those deadly talons barely breaking my skin so that blood trickled down my flanks and onto him. The scent drove us both wild, and we began savagely slamming together until I roared my release. With the rapture came fire, and I bent my head to breathe my flames into Arach. He sucked them down greedily, merged them with his own, and then gave it all back to me. His fire. His love. His essence.

  As flames filled my throat and licked their way down to my belly, I clung to the memory of Arach's love, all mine once more. That feeling was far greater than any other ecstasy he could ever give me.

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  My dreams that night were misty. At first, I thought I'd wandered out of my dream and into the Dream Realm but this mist glowed silver, not blue, and it felt cold. Frigid. I rubbed my arms as I wandered through the bright fog, searching fo
r whatever it was that I was trying to tell myself. Often, when something was bothering me in the waking world, I'd work it out in my sleep, and I had a feeling this was one of those times.

  “Hello?” I called out.

  My voice echoed back to me, but it didn't repeat what I'd said. Instead, I heard, “To the moon and stars and even beyond that.”

  I frowned. Why would something I'd said to Arach be bothering me? I continued forward into the fog, not in the least worried about what it held. The Fey had built the Dream Realm, and I was powerful here. If I needed to, I could transform my dream with a thought. But I didn't want to change anything yet. First, I needed to figure out what I was doing there and why my words were coming back to haunt me. I squinted through the haze. The light was coming from somewhere above me, not from the mist itself. I waved my hand through the thick air and it swirled into spectral shapes that reminded me of the Jinn.

  “Go over this battle in your mind carefully, Vervain. All is not as it seems,” Zimri-dagan's voice came from somewhere beside me.

  “Zimri-dagan?” I called out even though I didn't think he was actually there.

  Maybe the dream Zimri-dagan would respond. You never know. I waited but nothing else happened.

  “Okay,” I muttered. “That whole 'all is not as it seems' bit is a little cliché, but I'll roll with it. I need to replay the battle.” I frowned and went still as I tried to remember it from the beginning. “We arrived, Marduk called me a traitor, and then he started beating me up with my own territory. I cast an illusion around him, got buried alive, dug my way out, and then he nearly killed me. What am I missing?”

  “All you had to do was leave me alone,” Marduk's voice echoed eerily through the mist.

  “Wait,” I murmured. “There was something strange.”

  “Where did your moon go?” Brevyn whispered, and I shivered.

  “Where did my moon go?” I repeated it in revelation. “Love went to Ishtar but who did Marduk give the Moon to? Did he keep it for himself?”

  I tried to remember what it felt like to reclaim my magic. I had distinctly felt Love get taken away from Ishtar, and I was pretty sure that I felt the Moon get torn away from someone else. It couldn't have been Marduk because he wouldn't have to fight himself like that, he'd just give the magic up calmly. So, who did Marduk give my moon to? Ishtar is a love goddess so Marduk gave her Love. It was easy for her to claim because it wasn't a new magic, just additional power for her existing magic. But what about the Moon? I suddenly remembered how strong Sin's magic had been when Cephissus attacked me; practically double the strength of my moon magic. Double.

  “No,” I whispered in horror. “That's not possible. Sin helped me. He protected me. He wouldn't take my magic from Marduk, even if Marduk got past his anger enough to offer it to Sin. No way.”

  “Sometimes your total obliviousness just blows my mind,” Dustin from Stranger Things announced.

  “Hey!” I snapped. “Don't be using quotes against me. That's my thing.” Then I stopped and realized that I was yelling at myself for being myself. “Yeah, okay, that was dumb.” I grimaced. “That's what I get for watching a Stranger Things marathon.”

  The mist solidified into a white screen and my memories started playing across it, crackling and flashing like a home movie. I saw Marduk running out of his palace again, fury and shock filling his face. The lightning hit; he rose into the air. It all played out there, along with the nuances I had missed in the midst of battle. I saw myself accusing Marduk of breaking his vow by torturing Sin then I noticed how deeply Marduk had scowled.

  “Your lies won't work here, harlot,” he sneered.

  I moved closer to the screen and studied Marduk's expression. It wasn't all anger, there was also a blankness in his eyes and a wrinkle between his brows. He didn't know what I was talking about.

  “He didn't know?” I whispered. “But I saw Marduk there. I argued with him. I saw him hit Sin. How...” I trailed off as the memory shifted and a new scene played on the screen.

  Marduk stared around at the illusion I had cast with narrowed eyes. “What is it; an illusion?” He grinned. “Of course it is; you have moon magic like Sin. You thought to trick me!”

  “Moon magic like Sin,” I said brokenly. “I trusted him, and he played me. He made me think Marduk was after me. He even tossed in that tidbit about Marduk being pissed because I didn't teach him how to use territory magic. So fucking clever.”

  I remembered how the chair and chains didn't come through the Aether with us when I rescued Sin. Neither had Sin's injuries. All of the wounds Marduk inflicted were gone in an instant.

  “Because Sin was never tortured and Marduk was never there. It was all an illusion, crafted to trick me into war. How very like a god.”

  The fog fell instantly, and I was left on a dreary plain. Grass lay damp and trodden beneath my feet, trees shivered around me, and a melancholy moon hung overhead.

  I stared up at it and cursed, “Damn you, Sin!”

  Chapter Fifty

  “I wish I were going with you,” Arach growled.

  I'd woken up that morning and told Arach my suspicions. I couldn't wait another day; I needed to go back to the God Realm and confront Sin now or it would eat away at me. So, I was leaving once more but this time, I'd say goodbye properly.

  “I'm not a hundred percent sure yet.” I kissed Arach softly. “He could be innocent.”

  Arach gave me a scoffing look.

  “I'm going to give Sin a chance to defend himself,” I said firmly. “He deserves that much at least.”

  “Now, I really wish I were going back with you,” he huffed. “You're too lenient.”

  “I'll be fine.” I crouched to speak to my boys. “I'll be back in a few minutes,” I promised.

  “Okay, Mother,” Rian said before he kissed my cheek.

  Brevyn hugged and kissed me then stood back to stare at me steadily. “Did you find out where your moon went, Mother?”

  I sighed deeply. “I think I did, baby. Now, I need to make sure.”

  Brevyn nodded as Dexter and Deidre nudged forward for their hugs. I stroked their soft fur then stood up and looked at them all, standing there together. Two beasts, two princes, and one king. And they were mine; my family. I'd carry the image of them with me to calm my heart and remind me that we had triumphed again. Even if Sin had betrayed me, he hadn't won.

  “He didn't win,” I whispered.

  “What's that, A Thaisce?” Arach asked.

  “I'm just wondering what Sin was after.” I shook my head. “If he was working both sides, he did a poor job of it. And if he and Marduk had planned this together, why trick me into attacking Marduk?” I blinked as something else occurred to me. Then I cursed, “Hover Dam!”

  Arach just waited for me to continue.

  “The night before the battle when Marduk changed my destiny, Sin asked to speak with me,” I said in a rush. “He said that he knew how to defeat Marduk but what he told me to do didn't work. That's how Marduk had enough time to direct the Tablet at me. I was so confident that I'd win that I kept trying to use Marduk's alleged weakness against him.”

  “What did Sin tell you to do?” Arach asked.

  “He told me that Marduk's magic was based on lightning and if I used my moon to change the water inside him, I could drain his magic.”

  “Drain his magic?” Arach asked in confusion.

  “Water conducts electricity.”

  “And you thought that Marduk's magic would just drain away through the water?”

  “Sin said that with an imbalance of water, Marduk's magic would pour out of him until it was depleted. It made sense at the time.” I grimaced. “Damn, he's a slick talker. I guess I should have expected that of a playboy named Sin.”

  Arach hugged me tightly. “It doesn't matter now. Just go back and get that god as far away from our people as possible. Who knows what scheme he's concocting now.”

  “Our people?” I lifted a brow at Arach
as I stepped away.

  Arach rolled his eyes. “Yes, Vervain, I'm claiming them as mine. They are your family and so they are my family too. Don't let it go to your heart.”

  “Head,” I corrected. “Don't let it go to your head.”

  “I said exactly what I meant,” he insisted. “Don't get distracted by your emotions, A Thaisce. This is the time for cool calculation.”

  “Then I had better get all of that emotion out of my system now. I love you, Dragon. You are fire and life and all that makes me happy.”

  Arach's somber visage softened into an adoring smile. It was the last thing I saw before my ring took me back to Aaru.

  Chapter Fifty-One