by Kenna Bardot
“Considering what the doors weigh, I’d say it’s safe to guess not.” He gave me a subtle smile. I laughed in reply, stepping over the threshold and taking in the room. Strips of violet lined the floor, and Mages knelt on them, with their hands pressed tightly to their thighs and eyes closed. The altar at the front of the room had photos spread on top of it in honor of some of the sacrifices made by Temple parishioners. Even from a distance, my eyes were drawn to a photo I knew well.
Approaching the Altar, I felt Finn’s eyes tracking me, but I couldn’t have cared less in the moment. The photo was from my childhood. My father stood with one arm around my mother and the other clapping Vali’s father on the back. Even trapped in our respective mothers’ arms, Vali and I somehow managed to hold hands as we stared at the camera. I felt my bittersweet smile crack, and the white-haired Priest approached with a kind smile.
“Did you know them?” he asked.
“I’m the little girl,” I admitted, and his smile transformed his wrinkled face.
“Hana’s girl?” I nodded back.
“Hm,” he mused. “Well what do you know? I knew your mother very well in her years at this Temple. She seemed sure you’d come, refused to let me take this photo down until you came for it.” He grabbed the picture from the altar, holding it out until I wrapped my hands around it and tucked it into my chest.
“I kept it. Thought it was more meaningful than most. A group of six and three of them gone. I like knowing it’s just two.” He smiled again, and turned to walk away.
“One,” I said, and he paused in his steps.
“Pardon?”
I choked down the ball of guilt that had lodged itself in my throat. “Only one is gone. The little boy is an Air Mage now as well. Can you tell my mother that the next time you see her?”
“Of course,” he murmured, and he made his way to the back rooms of the Temple again. I turned to Finn and gave him a sad smile, even knowing my mother had done the only thing she could do to give me a piece of home in my new World.
“Would you like me to store your photo in the back before we begin our orientation?” Finn asked, holding out a hand. I hesitated, my fingers instinctively clutching the photo so tight I might crush it.
“That would be great, thank you.” I handed him the photo, and he smiled at me before disappearing with it. I wanted it back immediately, but swallowed my objections at having something so precious taken away – even temporarily.
I waited patiently, eyes darting all around the open space. Small, subtle murals lined the wood beams that bisected the ceiling, vibrant colors swirling together from paintings of one plant to the next.
“Have you ever been here before?” Finn asked, stepping up beside me suddenly. I started, but obeyed as he gestured me forward to signal I should start walking. We strolled along the walls, and I kept my eyes on the intricate eggplant paneling rather than on Finn.
“No, I haven’t,” I admitted. “As I assume you’ve gathered, my mother was a Matron, but I never came. I’ve been to the Temple near the Academy though.”
“Ah yes, of course. Well, that one is a bit more impressive with the goldwork, but our little Temple is no slouch either.” He smiled, a friendly gesture that brought a comfortable grin to my face. “Shall we move to the back rooms?”
“Absolutely,” I agreed.
So we did.
✽✽✽
"Thank you for the tour, really!" I stressed as we made our way down the steps from the Temple. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like it.”
“You’re very welcome, Kaia. Would you like to explore the grounds a bit? You’re free to walk around, just come find me when you’re-” he broke off suddenly, his head jerking back in surprise. I turned to follow his stare, finding Ronan thundering up the steps to meet us before we’d finished descending.
When he reached me, he snatched my hand in his quickly.
"Ronan," I hissed out in a whisper, tugging at my hand to get him to release me.
"I’ll have her back in a few, Davenport," that deep voice rumbled like thunder, though he kept his volume low regardless.
I felt eyes on me as Ronan hauled ass down the steps, and I had no choice but to hurry to keep up.
"Ronan!" I gasped, and we thundered down the more narrow steps within the woods. “Ronan! Stop!” I repeated, and he dragged me through the alley and into the side door of a restaurant at the base. He spotted the women's bathroom and hauled me inside with a light shove before he joined me. His thunderous expression quieted any protests I might have had. Turning back to the door, he slid the emergency deadbolt to the locked position, and took the chair from the entryway and shoved it under the handle for good measure.
When he spun to me, he froze in place and stared at me. "Do you have any idea," he paused and took a few steps. I felt it wise to keep some distance between us, backing into the sink in my desperation for it. "How worried I was when you didn't show up at the Ink Temple?"
"I'm sorry," I whispered, closing my eyes at what must have gone through his head considering all my accidents. "I didn't have any way of telling you. By the time I had made my decision-”
"Don't care," he spat, and I flinched back. “Do you have any fucking clue what went through my head?”
I considered my words carefully, “I’m sure it wasn’t easy on you, Ronan, but I had to choose the Earth Temple,” I whispered, tears pooling in my eyes. “It was my mother’s.”
He cursed, guilt crossing over that savage face before he crashed his lips down on mine in response, and my fury instantly gave way in the face of how much my body missed his. I needed his lips on mine. I needed Alec Gaius’. I needed Vali's, and not having them regularly was doing my head in.
"Scared the shit out of me," he grunted, pulling back just enough and slipping a hand between us to unfasten my pants. "Thought I’d lost you.”
"Ronan," I whispered as he shucked my pants down with a fast tug. He didn't even pull them off my legs, just kept them bunched around my knees. His lips found mine again as his hand dove between my thighs and played with my body's arousal. I whimpered against his mouth, moving my hands to loosen his own pants.
“Need to feel you, woman.”
He groaned as my hand wrapped around the steel of him, tugging rhythmically. He turned me around harshly, giving me a light smack to the globe of my ass.
"On the counter," he ordered, and his hands lifted me from my hips so that he could haul me up. My pants tangled, and I couldn't maneuver myself very well, but somehow I ended up kneeling on the sink counter with my hands pressed into the mirror and my breath fogging up the glass.
Ronan's hand slid down my back to press on the lowest part of it until I lowered my rear as much as I could without touching myself to the counter.
Because euw.
His fingers went back to my core, thrusting two in suddenly and making me bite my lip to stifle my cry. His free hand cracked down on my ass again, harsher, but not enough to actually hurt me. Still, I jumped and nearly fell off the counter.
"Are you ever going to worry me like that again?” Those fingers curled inside me until I mewed and ground down on his hand. I needed more.
"I didn't mean-"
Another slap to my other cheek. "Doesn’t matter," he hissed. "Never again, Kaia. Say it."
"Ronan!" I gasped, and tried to fight the urge to thrust myself back against his hand. Ronan knew my body; he knew how to play me like an instrument, and I couldn't decide if it was more of a turn on or a humiliation.
"Say it!" he ordered.
"I won't! I won't scare you again. I promise," I cried out.
"Thank fuck," Ronan hissed, and I whined when his fingers pulled away. He replaced them with his head a moment later, and he thrust inside me as suddenly as he had with his fingers. My head flew back on a cry, and Ronan gathered my ponytail in his hand as he pulled out slowly and pressed back in roughly.
Watching his face in the mirror, I stared at the way
his eyes never left our connection. He watched his cock sink inside me, and it seemed to soothe something inside him when he relaxed a deep breath. "Whose pussy is this?" he asked me, slapping my left ass cheek as he fucked me in slow, deep thrusts.
"Yours, Ronan," I agreed on a whimper.
"I think my dirty girl likes having her ass spanked." He smirked at the glare I turned to him. But I couldn't deny that the warm tingle that shot through my core every time his hips or his hands hit my skin wasn't altogether unpleasant. I was sure my ass was red from his spanking, but I couldn't be bothered to care in that moment.
But later?
I was going to return the favor.
"Whatever you're thinking, stop thinking it. I don't like that glint in your eye," his voice sounded thoroughly amused, and I couldn't wait for how amused I would be when I spanked him. He gave a particularly rough shove inside me, and I felt my walls clench around him. "Yeah, dirty girl."
"Ronan, just shut up and fuck me," I pleaded and he consented. Releasing my hair, his hands both went to my hips to steady me as he took me in hard, nearly punishing thrusts. I shoved a hand between my legs, toying with my clit to bring myself back to that edge I distracted myself from.
"Shit," Ronan groaned when my fingers brushed against the base of him. "Good girl. Make yourself come for me." A minute later I did, only just managing to keep my face from smashing into the mirror when I came down from my high. Ronan followed me over that ledge, spilling himself inside me. We stayed like that for a moment, until knocking on the door interrupted our post-sex moment.
"Excuse me? Anyone in there?" a woman's voice questioned hesitantly, and Ronan backed away from me.
"Just a minute!" Ronan returned, and I turned wide eyes to him.
"We're in the woman's bathroom!" I hissed, slapping his shoulder. On the other side of the door we heard scuffling, and the woman hurried off muttering about men in the ladies room.
"What were you thinking?" I questioned, and hurried to climb down from my perch on the sink. "Gods, Ronan. What the fuck?!" I knew my voice was too loud, but considering the cat was out of the bag, it didn't seem entirely relevant.
He had the decency to run a hand through his hair before tucking himself back into his pants. "Let's go." He took my hand, using one hand to rip the chair from the door and open the lock just as a pounding came at the other side of the door.
"Sir! You can't be in the woman's bathroom!" a now male voice ordered from the other side, and I knew my face turned scarlet with the way it heated so thoroughly, so quickly.
Ronan threw open the door, and I looked at the floor as I used my free hand to tug the ponytail holder out from my hair. My dark hair tumbled around me in lush locks, and helped shield my face from the eyes staring at us all over the restaurant.
"I'm calling the police," the employee started to say, but his eyes coasted over our uniforms before they widened on Ronan's face.
"Don't bother. We're leaving. It won't happen again." Ronan's voice was as apologetic as I'd ever heard him speak to anyone who wasn't me. Another pull on my hand, and he dragged me from the restaurant and into the back alley again. We made our way to the stairs of the Temple as I seethed in silence.
"Kaia," he said, finally stopping when we reached the clearing on the edge of the woods at the top of the steps.
"Don't," I whispered.
"Kaia, listen to me-"
"I cannot believe you just did that. I can't believe we just did that," I said with a disbelieving shake of my head. "People knew we were having sex."
"No one saw anything. I'd never risk revealing you like that," he objected, but his face twisted in guilt regardless of his words.
"They probably heard us, and even if they hadn’t, that was the single-handedly most humiliating experience of my life," I cried, fighting back angry tears.
"Sex isn't something you need to be ashamed of, Kaia. People have sex in the bathrooms at InkHaven all the time-"
"That's InkHaven! Those people are part of the Order that encourages openness in sex. Those people back there aren't like that! They do not barge into a restaurant for a quickie in the bathroom."
"I'm sorry. I lost my mind for a minute and fucked my woman in a place I wouldn't normally have done so. I do apologize for that," he admitted.
"Why do I feel a but coming?"
"But," he said pointedly, cupping my cheek even though I motioned to step away. "You need to stop clinging to fear of what the Inked will think of you. You have five boyfriends. One of which is your teacher. They’re never going to approve of your lifestyle or your sex life or you." He paused, and I knew whatever he said next would strike home. "And most importantly Kaia, you aren't an Inked anymore. You're never going to be Inked again, and those people won't be a part of your life."
"I know that," I whispered, sagging into him despite my anger.
"I hope so. This isn't just some temporary thing for me, or for any of the rest of us. Our relationship is the most important thing in my life. I would never intentionally do something to hurt you. I just lost control," he admitted, and I glanced around to see if anyone was watching us. We were blissfully alone. “I don’t think you understand how worried I was. Having to stay and work the rest of my shift after you didn’t come was torture, Kai. I’m sorry for what I did. I am, please believe me.”
"On my first day at the Temple one of my boyfriends dragged me out to fuck me. Even if I ignore the Inked, you undermined me here. Made me look weak and pathetic. I don't want that to be how these people think of me."
His nose nuzzled mine. "You'll be fine, woman. Just be you."
And with that, he melted a little bit of the temporary ice around my heart. Ronan was so rarely vulnerable; I didn’t have it in me to reject him when he admitted worrying after me.
Well, at least not all around.
Twenty-Four
Kaia
“And that means you have to not just guard the people in the Temple but everything that honors Zeevar. Right, Docent Woods?” I asked him as we stepped out of the room after class. We had Critical Thinking after our first duty to talk about it, and I could feel my enthusiasm for Security building even more.
“That’s correct, Miss Shaw. You seem very happy about it.”
“I am. I do honestly believe that I made the correct decision.” Charlie landed on my shoulder the minute I stepped from the classroom and Docent Woods stared at him, otherwise not reacting.
He did nod at me though. “I do believe that you did.”
“Thank you, Docent Woods. Docent Ho was a particular inspiration.”
He chuckled, a deep rumbling sound. “She’d be glad to hear that.”
“Kaia,” I heard my name being called and saw Mar was striding toward us in long, purposeful strides. "What's wrong?" I asked.
“Well….” she trailed off and looked up at Docent Woods.
“Ah, Docent Woods, Marisole Chesson. She’s a Fifth Year Ink.”
Mar narrowed her eyes at Docent Woods. “Tomos Woods?”
“That’s right, Miss Chesson,” Docent Woods agreed with a nod. “I have to go. Ladies, enjoy the rest of your evening.”
We thanked him, and he strode off with Mar staring at him.
“Hmmmm. Sexy man, your Docent. Why don’t I get any sexy Docents?”
“Zeevar, Mar! Don’t even go there.”
“Why not? You did with Porter,” she sighed.
A hand snaked around my waist. “Go where?” Emerson asked.
“Nowhere,” Mar replied, giving me a hard look before grabbing my hand. "I need Kaia for just a second." With a tug, I pulled loose from Emerson's hold and gave him wide eyes over my shoulder as she dragged e off.
We ducked into one of the empty classrooms, and she turned to shut the door behind us. "Okay, what's with the bird?" she whispered, and Charlie cawed back at her.
"Oh, don't worry about him." I waved her off with a smile. "He's just my new stalker."
Her disbelieving eyes turn
ed to me. "Are you kidding me? What exactly does that mean?" I looked around the empty room, wondering why all the guys needed roommates when there really were so many extra rooms available. Not dorms, obviously, but it would be easy enough to rearrange things.
"He's just fond of me. Likes to follow me around." I shrugged, and Charlie sprung from my shoulder, catching me in the face with a wing as he flapped himself into the air.
Dick.
I narrowed my eyes on his back, but my attention snapped back to Mar when she sighed.
"The bird..." she paused, rubbing at her temples with two fingers on each hand. "follows you around." There wasn't a question there, so I just gave her a blank stare. "You didn't think to mention that?"
"I- well, it was a fairly recent development," I admitted. "And I didn't see that it mattered really."
"I've been doing research in the Ink Sections of the Library!" Her hiss was a whisper. "To find out what it is about you that's different. Knowing that you have a familiar would have made my life quite a bit easier. I'd have known exactly where to start looking, Gods."
"I have a what?" But I heard what she’d said. I was just in denial about it.
"A familiar. The bird, he's your familiar. Part of your soul tie with the Earth, Kaia." Mar's voice softened. "You really didn't know?"
"I still don't know!"
She sighed, tugging a thick book from her satchel and sitting on the floor with it. I sat next to her with a return sigh of my own, and she opened the book to a premarked page. "Here." Her finger pointed at a specific passage as she turned the book my way, and I waved it off when I couldn't see what I was meant to read.
My name stared back at me, written in deep gold ink, next to the date I'd first been meant to die as a child. "I don't understand."
"Your first date, right? I assume you had an accident that day? Something you or your family wrote off as being minor since you got a new date anyway."
I turned the book back to her and stared up at her in thought. "Well,I fell out of a tree," I admitted on a harsh whisper, reaching a hand up to touch the faint scar on my cheek. "I'd climbed that tree every day since I could haul myself into it, and outside that day I never fell."