by Ophelia Bell
That’s where he found the pair of them entwined. Gavra’s consciousness reached for him, but Assana’s was only a whirlpool of energy like her eyes seemed to be whenever she looked at him. She was even more primal and powerful inside her mind than she was in bed, and he felt that power pulling at him, sucking him into the maelstrom of her insanity.
“This is what we have to calm, Silas!” Gavra yelled over the storm. “My presence alone just makes it worse.”
In his body, he could feel the continued ripples of her orgasm and the well that absorbed her power filled, his limbs aching with the magic and close to erupting into the wooden roots to give that power back to the Earth … to Gaia herself. He struggled to hold onto it, to channel it all into that well where he could store it and use it. But the wild storm in her mind wouldn’t be denied. He had to do something; his presence wasn’t enough on its own.
Instinctively he drew on that substantial reserve of magic that had built up over the last day of melding with her. It was his power to use now, to channel to his purposes, and he held out his hands, letting loose with his mind. Inside his deep subconscious, the roots of his body extended. They whipped around in the spiraling fury of Assana’s desire, giving her an anchor to hold onto.
For a moment, nothing happened. He and Gavra simply stood facing each other, battered and torn by the storm of her mind, her spirit completely unchained. Then Gavra reached out with both hands and opened his mouth at the same time. Red magic flowed from his lips and his fingertips, swirling around to meet Silas’s outstretched tendrils. They merged in a circle and the dervish that was their lover whirled within, her ferocity abating as she found her bearings.
She was a beautiful thing, once she slowed enough for Silas to track her movements. Now that she was no longer a blur of motion, she still swirled in a graceful dance, circling around and around within the corral of their barrier. He’d seen signs of such grace when she moved, but had never actually seen her dance, and for the first time he understood how the nymphs so easily seduced human men with their graceful, swaying movements, akin to the hypnotic ebb and flow of the tide.
Her dancing took her in another circuit between him and Gavra and she slowed further, her more subdued gaze locking onto his as she passed, her fingertips brushing across his chest as light as feathers. Then she pirouetted into the center and gracefully dropped to her knees, bowing her head and resting her hands on the ground.
Her shoulders heaved with exhaustion, and he was about to release himself from Gavra’s smoky grip when she spoke.
“This isn’t enough,” she said. “I can feel myself slipping even within the power of your embrace. It won’t last.”
“What do we need to do to make it stick?” Silas asked.
She let out a rueful, shuddering laugh. “Nothing that won’t ruin our chances to stop my mother. Let me free for now so we can talk. You and I need to make sure we’re far away from Gavra’s cell soon.”
Silas released his hold on Gavra’s magic, suddenly cold and bereft after the psychic closeness to the other man. When he opened his eyes, he saw both his lovers had left the bed and he knelt there alone, his half-hard cock chilled from her drying juices.
Gavra stood on one side of the cell, Assana on the other, donning her torn dress that seemed to stitch itself together before his eyes. She looked a little shaky, but had returned to her smaller, more human shape, her magnificent antlers gone but her hair a tangled mess. She looked like she’d been fucked for days, and when she looked at him with a slightly panicked expression, he surged off the bed and went to her.
Assana clung to him, and he immediately bent and scooped her into his arms.
“Take me home,” she said weakly.
Glancing over his shoulder, he eyed Gavra for a moment. When the dragon nodded at him, he turned back, then cursed when he realized what a wreck he’d made of the barrier of Gavra’s cell.
“We have to do something about that,” he said, then stepped through the gaping hole with Assana in his arms. He craned his head around, eyeing the ripped and broken bars of the cage.
“I’m not keen on making an escape just yet,” Gavra said. “Better not let them think I tried … or that you helped. Assana, do you have the strength to fix it?”
She let out a sigh, and Silas could feel her struggling to summon her power. She reached out a hand, motioning to the side of the cage. The broken roots shifted and grew, fresh shoots breaking out from the broken ends. She flagged and drooped.
“I need your strength, Silas. Whatever you did in my mind … help me.”
He set her down in front of the cage and wrapped his arms around her torso to support her against his chest, then pressed his cheek against hers and closed his eyes. It was like nothing to fall into her mind again, like he belonged there and she welcomed him in. Just as easily, his strange new power flooded through him and he pushed it outward, like a gift to bolster her strength.
Her back straightened against him, her resolve growing sturdier as she lifted her hands and the power flowed from her, commanding the roots to reform and grow back into the latticework of the barrier that held Gavra imprisoned.
When he opened his eyes, it was like he had never been there, tearing his way through that wall to get to her. Gavra wandered over and picked up the pieces of wood that were strewn around inside where Silas had broken through, tossing them into the fireplace taking up the center of the cage.
Their eyes met across the reformed barrier, and Silas felt rather than saw the other man’s impatience with his situation.
The three of them were melded now, and the depth of their connection astounded him for how quickly it had occurred. He’d imagined it taking time … imagined there would be a wait and more ceremony when it happened, likely sometime after they’d dealt with their peril and had come out the other side, with the freedom to take their time and enjoy it.
He didn’t think he’d change it, though, if he had a choice. They were his. They were together; even if they couldn’t entirely be together yet, they were one in at least one important way.
“She was right,” Gavra said in a low voice. “It isn’t enough for me, either. I need to mark the two of you, and I promise if I get another chance to, I won’t hesitate. Because if I’m right and I can actually get through to Nyx the way I think I can, I don’t want there to be any ambiguity about where I stand with the two of you.”
Assana pulled away from Silas, moving toward the cage and hooking her fingers on one of the freshly grown bars. She kept one hand firmly locked in Silas’s, however, and he followed.
“You know that’s why I broke down, right? I couldn’t bear the thought of letting you go to mother without being melded to me at least once … I had to be in your head. I needed that link so I would know …”
“So you would know I remained faithful?”
She took a deep breath and shook her head. “So I would know if she had any love left for my father.”
“That’s something I aim to discover too,” Gavra said. “Your father was my friend. I wouldn’t do anything to betray him, but if her love for him is anything like it used to be, I can use that to our advantage. It’s better that we’re linked now, but please promise me you’ll stay away when I’m with her. You … distract me.” His gaze moved to Silas and his lips quirked into a smile. “Both of you.”
Sensing Gavra’s rising lust again, and Assana’s response, Silas pulled her away from the cage.
“It’s time we left. We need to go report to her mother that we’ve completed our melding. I’ll try to come back and check in with you tomorrow. The Diviner was … enlightening, but we don’t have time to stay and chat about it.”
In his mind, Silas heard a deep chuckle before Gavra’s voice reverberated inside his skull. “You forget we don’t need to be face-to-face, now that Assana’s melded us so deeply. Get her taken care of and we can tal
k more when you’re alone. I admit I’m more interested in this new power of yours … ursa males aren’t known for their reserves of magic.”
Steering Assana down the path, he responded, “As soon as I figure it out, you’ll be the first to know.”
Halfway back to Assana’s quarters, it hit Silas that the delicious aura of dragon still clung to them both. Assana was coated with it, and there was no way in hell her mother would fail to notice.
“How much time do we have before we have to see your mother?” he asked in a low voice, glancing around the forest, suddenly worried about what nymphs or guards might be watching and listening.
“She’ll likely call us to dinner, so we have several hours yet. Time enough to rest.” She sounded weary, her footsteps dragging.
“You reek of dragon,” he said.
Assana giggled and looked up at him. “So do you.” Then she bent her head to her shoulder and inhaled. “Oh, wow. Yeah, he’s kind of all over me.”
“And inside you,” Silas murmured, his cock warming at the memory of their shared flavor on his tongue.
She slid her hand up his arm and shifted close to his side. Gazing up at him, she lowered her eyelids and whispered, “Will you share a bath with me when we get back? I was a little out of my mind when you made love to me just now. I’d like to try it again with a clear head.”
“Gaia, yes,” Silas breathed. “Are you sure you’re not too tired for it?”
“A little, but you’re excellent at seeing to my needs. I trust you’ll make it easy.”
Silas’s nostrils flared at the thought of another session of servicing this exquisite nymph who was practically his mate, at least in the eyes of her own kind. Except this time, he could have her in every way possible.
He struggled for focus as they entered her quarters. The sprawling bungalow was yet another extension of the nymphaea palace her mother lived in, with its myriad waterfalls descending around the high spires and falling past the arched bridges that spanned the many almost randomly placed towers. It reminded him of a giant sandcastle built haphazardly by a child with no other tools besides his own hands to drizzle the wet sand into structures. If they ever made it out of here, he’d love to spend his life on a beach with his lovers. One of the secluded islands in the many small lakes of the ursa Sanctuary would be perfect.
But until then, he had to ensure his mate’s sanity remained intact. Now that the three of them were melded, things should improve, but Assana still seemed shaky and out of sorts.
“What is it?” he asked her as he led her to her bathroom to her tub. It was already filled with hot water that flowed in a constant stream from a small waterfall nearby. It seemed like every structure in this place had water flowing through in some fashion.
“It’s him,” she said. “He’s inside my mind now, too ever-present to deny, even now that I’ve regained control.”
Silas moved to her and knelt at her feet, resting his hands on her knees. “I’m here too,” he said.
“We’re all here,” Gavra’s voice resounded in his mind. “Assana, having both of us inside you is going to take some acclimating. Let Silas help you through it. I’ll stay in the background as much as I can.”
Silas stared up into her whirlpool eyes. He gave her thighs a squeeze when she let out a shaky breath.
“I like it,” she said. “It’s just that I want more. Now that I’ve had a taste of Gavra, I want more.”
Silas let out a chuckle. “I’m right there with you. We’ve got as much of him as we can have at the moment. Let’s enjoy it.” He reached up and tugged at the asymmetrical laces that held her gown together. The material fell apart beneath his touch like it had a mind of its own and was just surrendering.
Assana barely moved, watching with heavy lidded eyes as he undressed her, then let him drape her arm over his shoulders as he scooped her up. He carried her over to her bath, taking a careful step down into the water and lowering her into it onto his lap as he sat. He leaned back, cradling her against him and held her as they soaked, enjoying the way she sighed and her body gradually went limp.
“She’s asleep,” he said to Gavra. “We need to talk.”
“Tell me what you learned today,” Gavra asked immediately.
Rather than recount the conversation he’d had with the Diviner, he broadcast the entire memory wholesale to the dragon, preferring to avoid adding any of his own biases to the mix. His own agenda wasn’t relevant to their goals for the Haven. He was only tasked to ensure the Sanctuary’s link to the Source was never broken again. That would happen one way or the other, but not until they’d succeeded in handling Nyx.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Silas
He’d parted ways with Assana that morning in the cave that led to the Diviner’s lair. As he padded down the passageway that led into her chamber, his fur brushed along the narrow walls, sending shivers through him the entire way. He was grateful for the relative protection his true form offered, particularly his claws, but he had a feeling none of that would make a difference once he was inside.
When he passed into the misty cavern, he stared in awe for a moment at the way the beams of sunlight streamed down, reflecting off the moisture above the central pool in such a way that made the mist seem as opaque as smoke. The way it swirled reminded Silas of a dragon’s breath.
The slithering noise that hit his ears made him tense, and his skin prickled with eerie awareness of the presence lurking in the room somewhere beyond that vaporous haze. He peered around, but saw nothing beyond the disturbance in the surface of the water.
“I sssee you have obeyed the rulesss, Silasss,” a rich, female voice said, resonating off the wet stone walls of the chamber. “You may shed your true form now and show me your human shhhape.”
He obediently shifted back into his other form and took a step closer, keeping his gaze focused on the movement of the water where the ripples had quickened and were coming closer together. The smoke changed shape then, coalescing into a statuesque torso of a female with the figure of a goddess.
When the smoke cleared he saw all of her, from her striking face and her eyes more hypnotic than Assana’s, to the strange tendrils of hair that looked like they were alive. Her body was a pale blue-green, and her glistening skin was covered in tiny scales that he only saw when the sunlight caught them just so. But from the hips down, she was a beast. He’d have thought “dragon” at first, save for the presence of several tails … A dozen, he guessed.
“You have found me, Miteradoro. You are Gaia’s chosen, so you may ask anything of me and I will answer.”
“I am Silas Rainsong, Diviner. I don’t think my … status has any bearing on my questions.”
“You are a Miteradoro of the ursa. Our mother’s gift. You have great power that has bearing on all your questions. Ask what you came to ask.”
He stared for a second, mouth open as he tried to form a question, but a bigger question was on the tip of his tongue. He was supposed to ask about Nyx and how to control her—how to undo the damage she’d done, but all he wanted to know was what his power really meant.
“It’s Nyx,” he finally forced himself to say. “She’s destroying our alliance, risking the lives of the residents of the Sanctuary, not to mention driving her daughter mad in the process. She’s done something even worse …”
“What is your question, Silas?”
“How do we reverse the blood meld?”
The Diviner’s tails shifted and coiled beneath the surface and she grew even larger before him. He had to crane his head back to look at her. Her deep blue lips tightened into a hard line and her eyes swirled with a strange luminescence. The power in her eyes was reflected in a pearly shimmer that cascaded through her scales the way Gavra’s Nirvana had flowed through Silas’s body, making his skin glimmer with magic as it filled him.
“The blood mel
d is not meant to be broken, when carried out as Dion intended.” She made the statement as though there were no room for argument.
“Do you have any idea what Nyx has done?” Silas asked, his eyes widening in disbelief.
The water around her churned and frothed. The spiraling colors in her eyes became pure, opaque white, her attention seeming to focus inward. Her blank gaze persisted for several moments, the violent movement beneath the water sending small waves crashing over Silas’s feet. He waited as still as a tree until she finally let out a frustrated yell.
“Sister, what have you hidden from me?!” She stared blindly around as though trying to see something through the mist. Waves of power cascaded down her torso, sending ripples of color through her body that flooded outward from her with each sloshing ripple from her pool.
The energy she exuded prickled at Silas’s skin like an invisible, expanding cloud. The mist sparked with it and his wet feet tingled. His testicles pulsed from the proximity—somehow he was able to absorb some of what she emitted simply by being in the room.
The power condensed into a bright, swirling ball twice the size of Silas’s head. Within the orb he saw Nyx surrounded by a group of nymphaea in some sort of ritual. All the women in the vision had blood on their lips. Their eyes were blank stares, their heads thrown back and their bodies rigid while Nyx mouthed words Silas was unable to hear.
“Is this what you have seen, Miteradoro?” the Diviner asked.
“The effects of it, yes. The nymphs are only half-willing. They believe the Haven’s safety requires this of them, but they’re destroying our alliance in the process. The ursa can’t let this continue. We will take matters into our own hands if she isn’t subdued. We have to ensure our link to the Source is protected.”
The swirling orb spun faster and faster, the Diviner’s rage apparent in her clenched teeth and twisting tails. With a roar she flung the orb at the far wall where it hit with a loud smack and burst into a flood of water.