InkBorn (InkHaven Academy Book 2)

by Kenna Bardot

  "Mhmm," Finn teased.

  "It was! Don't make me tell Daniels you're being a smart ass again, Kaia." Ash pressed his lips together, but the edges tipped up in a suppressed smile.

  "Ooo," I mocked, touching a hand to the branch and letting my Earth draw a connected branch from the tree with a creak. The smaller branch sprouted, leaves bursting from the new bark to curve and leave a canopy of sorts as coverage for the camera. "I'm so scared."

  "Really? What's the worst he's gonna do to her?" Finn smirked at the other man. "Dude worships the ground she walks on."

  I dropped down from the tree, slowing my fall so that I merely landed on my feet gracefully. Well, as gracefully as I ever managed really.

  Which was, just to say, not so much.

  "What can I say?" I brushed my shoulder off with a flourish. "Can you blame him?"

  Ash snorted out a laugh. "Humility is certainly not a strong point in you."

  "You know it, baby," I teased, following Finn when he turned away to make our way back inside the Temple.

  "You shouldn't be so amicable with the others," Finn whispered as we walked, and I felt my brow furrow, stumbling a bit as I did.

  "Why not?"

  "I don't know. I just get the impression Daniels wouldn't be pleased with it. He knows these guys, and I know he's protective of you. Men are men, Kaia. And the reality of it is, not to be vulgar, Air Mage pussy is rare. Guys will read into those easy smiles and see an invitation." He ran a hand over his face.

  "I'm just being friendly," I protested. "You make me sound like a walking vagina."

  "Just be mindful. That's all I'm saying," Finn asserted, holding his hands in front of himself when he saw me starting to get defensive. "Matrons should be here soon. We better head in for collections."

  I nodded, sighing out a breath of excitement when the door guards hauled those huge doors open. They gave me bright smiles when we went in, which I read into since Finn had mentioned it. I settled in my place behind the altar and to the left. Finn took up the position in front of me. I crossed my arms behind my back, ignoring the lingering looks the few other Mages present gave my whip. I hid it whenever anyone Ronan had deemed untrustworthy was around, that was to say anyone but Finn and Ash, but the way it looked was still very peculiar especially in juxtaposition with my sword Conduit. I very much looked forward to the day when I became old news.

  When the Matrons entered, each lugging a cart filled with offerings for Zeevar on behalf of the Inked, the Priest came into the main space, and I zoned into my guard duty, keeping my face carefully blank as the Priest and Matrons sorted through everything accordingly.

  I was Security more than anything else, the last thing I wanted was for people to treat me differently.

  ✽✽✽

  Mar and Otto were being weird.

  I sat in the middle, which was not unusual, but the two seemed determined to mostly ignore each other. That said, they weren't hostile to one another. At all. If anything they seemed like they wanted to interact, but just wouldn't.

  It was weird. I raised my brow at Mar as she sipped her tea quietly. She raised hers back in response. Setting her cup on the counter, she turned mischief-filled eyes my way.

  "Soooo," she drew out, and I groaned. I knew Mar well enough to know where this was going. "Cel, huh?" she asked making a circle with her thumb and pointer finger and sticking her other pointer finger through it repeatedly.

  I dropped my forehead to the counter with a thud. "Why do I do this to myself? Why can't I have any normal friends?" I mumbled to it.

  "Cel?" Otto asked, snapping out of his trance. "What about him?"

  "Rumor has it Kaia here has added him to her ever growing bag o' dicks. Seriously, is it bottomless or something? Do you have some extra holes or-"

  "Okay!" Otto shouted. "I think I get the picture." He covered his ears.

  I bit my lip and turned my head to Mar. Tormenting Otto was just too much fun, the brother figure who was vastly tormented by any mention of our sex lives. It didn’t really matter that he was younger than both of us.

  "Gods Mar, I never pegged you for a prude. There's no rule that says you can only have one dick per hole."

  "You whore!" she gasped, smacking me while she giggled. "I'm so proud of you! Was it positively painful to say that without blushing?"

  "Lend me your sword," Otto protested. "I don’t care if it’ll hurt holding another Mage’s Conduit, because I need to stab my ears out just that badly. Gods, Kai. I don't want to hear that shit."

  I giggled. "Really Otto, if you haven't tried it, you should-"

  "Lalalalalalala." He grimaced, hands covering his ears in a pathetic attempt to ignore him.

  Mar rolled her eyes at him. “If he thinks you have six men and don't have to get creative, then I feel sorry for him. Creative is fun."

  "That's for sure," I teased. The door to the kitchen opened, and Levi strolled in with Jace.

  I tossed a casual smile at him, turning back to Mar and our conversation too soon to notice he didn't smile back.

  "Anyway, yes, Cel has joined our relationship. Happy to have that confirmed?" I asked her. She cast eyes over my shoulder, but gave me a shrug when they landed back on me.

  "So long as you're happy, I'm happy for you," she admitted.

  "I am. They make me happy."

  "Good, but do you think you'll survive over the summer when you're all together? I mean, my vagina would probably fall out-"

  Otto's hand hit my arm, squeezing a little too aggressively for Otto thus drawing my attention to him. His hands were no longer on his ears, his body tightened as he eyed Levi where he glared my way.

  "Any idea what that's about?" he whispered.

  "No. He was fine at the party last I saw him," I mused with a shrug, but I didn't hold his glare against him. To be honest, Levi was someone I hardly knew, and as such his opinion of me didn't matter that much.

  "Well, he's not fine now," Otto sighed. "I think we should go."

  "I'm not done with my tea," Mar protested. "And so he has an issue, who cares?" She shifted her body to cross her legs, settling in for the long haul. “Maybe because we beat them at their game?”

  "He looks really pissed. Too pissed for a simple party drinking game. And it seems to be directed particularly on Kaia. She doesn't need to hear whatever he might have to say."

  "I think it's probably too late," I admitted, eyeing Levi wearily where he stood from his seat next to Jace and made his way to us.

  "Fuck." Otto hung his head. He was such a sweet guy; it was hard to imagine him getting involved if there was an altercation, but I knew it would kill him to take sides between me and someone he considered a friend.

  "Heard an interesting rumor, Kaia," Levi said, crossing his arms over his chest. He stood behind me, so I had to turn my head to meet his eyes. I swiveled my chair around to face him better, furrowing my brow at him in confusion.

  "And what rumor would that be?" I smiled sweetly although warning bells rang at the back of my head.

  "You fucking Cel now?"

  Otto went solid beside me. If I'd thought he'd been tense before, his body became stone at Levi's tone.

  "Man, watch it," he warned Levi.

  "Fuck that. I wanted to nail her and Emerson months ago. They told me they were happy as they were. Since then, she's started screwing Vali, Docent Fucking Porter, and now Cel? What the shit is that?"

  "The shit is that my sex life is none of your business, Levi," I interjected. "I hate to break it to you, and it's pathetic that you're twenty-three years old and you need me to spell this out for you to begin with. But just because you're interested, does not mean I have to fuck you. There isn't a waitlist for my vagina. You do not apply and wait for a position to open up. If I'm not interested, it ends there. And just in case you missed the memo, I. Am. Not. Interested," I stressed, leaning forward in my seat.

  "Then you should have said that. Not said that you were happy with what you had and then added
three more men to your harem," Levi accused. "You lied about it, and that's bullshit."

  "Okay, again. None of your business. I've had two, now three, conversations with you. I do not owe you a thing. That said, I did not add three more men. I was already fucking Docent Porter when you expressed interest. Vali I have known and loved since I was a child. I never thought I'd get him and Alec Gaius to see beyond their differences, but they did. And Cel, well, Cel just falls back in the 'it’s none of your business' thing, but if you must know he was Emerson's choice. I love Cel, sure, but more than that Emerson is in love with him. He has never once mentioned you, so I think it's probably safe to say that while he might have liked playing with you, he wasn't that into you in general."

  "Were you always such a little bitch?" He sneered at me, and Otto moved to stand. My hand on his arm made him still, half in and half out of his chair.

  "No," I admitted. "I wasn't, but I have no patience for men who think I'm required to fuck them just because they want to fuck me me. Now, in case it wasn't obvious, this conversation is going nowhere. But to avoid further confusion, let me spell it out for you. I will never be fucking you, Levi. Find another pussy to jerk off in, k? Thanks. Bye," I hopped off my stool, strutting my way out of the kitchen. I heard Mar snickering behind me as she followed suit.

  Otto didn't follow. I imagined he was already well into scolding Levi.

  Didn't matter to me.

  As Mar would say, my bag o' dicks was full.

  ✽✽✽

  I was exhausted. Cel had pushed me harder than normal while we trained, determined to make certain I would never be caught in a situation where I needed him to save me again. Although to be fair, we saved each other more during the trial rather than me being completely helpless, there still was no denying the fact that I would not have survived without him.

  We trudged up the staircase, and I resolved not to glare at him too hard. Much like Ronan had done the previous year, I knew his harshness came from a place of love.

  He only wanted me safe, after all.

  When Cel pushed open the door to our room, I froze in shock at the sight that greeted me. Lounging back on the bed, Vali was watching as Ronan sat in the chair and Gale knelt between his legs and worked him with his mouth.

  “Come here, Little Bird,” Vali cooed in that honeyed voice. My eyes went to Alec Gaius and Emerson laying at the foot of the bed, facing each other but inverted so they could lick and suck at one another. I stepped into the room, casting curious eyes back to Cel who hovered behind me and stared at Vali in apprehension. Taking his hand, I guided him into the room. We approached Vali, who stared at Cel with a clenched jaw.

  “Vali,” I murmured soothingly, lying on top of him so my lips lined up with his, met them and kissed. His lips were light on mine at first, but with a groan he wrapped an arm around my back and tugged me into him. He crushed me within his arms, deepening the kiss until he drank at my mouth like a man dying of thirst. When he drew away, I bit my lip, already wet in anticipation of what my men might have in store for me.

  “What are you all doing here?”

  “Gale snuck us in.” Vali gave me a dark look, and those eyes of his drifted down to the vine wrapped around my arm. While he watched, I let loose the control on it, feeling it begin to curl and sprout leaves. “Said we had things we needed to discuss.”

  “Vali-“ I started, afraid that their visit would end in a confrontation.

  “Hush, Kaia. Gale already filled us in. We know you didn’t mean for it to happen.”

  I shuddered out a deep breath.

  “It was helpful in the last Trial,” I admitted. I probably would not have survived without it. “So maybe it was a good thing, in the end.”

  “The end hasn’t come yet, Little One,” Cel offered from behind me. He moved closer, his chest brushing against my back though I could feel the hesitancy to get too close until Vali acknowledged him. “We still don’t know who’s hurting you.”

  Vali’s eyes hardened for a brief moment, and then he exhaled a deep breath. He set me aside, grasping Cel around the back of the neck and pulling him in so that their foreheads pressed together. “Heard that you saved her life. Can’t thank you enough for that, man,” he grunted, emotion clogging his throat.

  “I didn’t do it for you,” Cel shocked me by saying. “I did it because I’m in love with her.”

  “I know,” Vali agreed readily. “Can see it the way you look at her. She loves you too.”

  I nodded as both men glanced my way. “I love all of you.”

  Vali smiled at me, shaking his head. “Endless love.”

  “How could I not love all of you?” I whispered, feeling my throat clog with emotion. Vali turned his eyes from me with a smile, and his went to Cel’s lips briefly.

  “Well, let’s give this a shot then,” he whispered, and then his lips were on Cel’s. His eyes widened comically, and I knew he hadn’t expected Vali to ever reach a point with him where they would be involved with one another within our group. I’d assured him that was fine, as Vali and Ronan never actually fucked one another. They were both too dominant. Though that wasn't the case with Cel, I knew the two men had years of history I could only begin to understand. Vali's lips were soft on Cel's, tentative in a way I wasn't used to seeing from him. Vali could be gentle with me, but he was also prone to going into beast mode when he fucked me, and the same was true of his relationship with Alec Gaius from what I could tell. When Vali's tongue darted out to lick at the seam of Cel's lips, Cel opened his mouth and practically purred for Vali.

  "Woman, get your clothes off already," Ronan grunted from across the room. I gave him a lazy smile, loving the way Gale's face looked stuffed with him. I unfastened my tunic and stripped, all while my eyes darted around the room. I couldn't decide what to watch, so fascinated with each and every one of my men.

  My eyes flew back to Vali and Cel, watching them as they stripped off one another's shirts. Vali's corded muscles were a stark contrast to Cel's sleekly defined body. Vali's olive skin next to Cel's golden was particularly striking. When Cel's hands went to Vali's belt, I resisted the urge to shove my hand between my legs.

  After all, I was in a room full of men, who if I knew them at all, would all be inside me in some capacity or another that night. I couldn't get myself off before we even got started.

  "Give me that pussy, Little Bird," Vali murmured when he drew away, and Cel kissed a path down his chest to get on his knees before him. He shoved Vali's pants off, and Vali stepped out of them as I crawled up onto the bed.

  I'd intended to get on my back and spread my legs, like I usually did when the guys made it obvious they wanted to taste me, but I never made it that far. Vali's hands snatched me around the waist, and he groaned. "Gods, Cel."

  I glanced over my shoulder to look down, my eyes connecting with Cel's as he stretched his mouth wide around Vali's length. My eyes snapped forward when Vali's hands wrapped around my upper thighs, and he wrenched me toward his face. My hands flew out to catch myself on the mattress as he spread my legs a bit, and he buried his face between my thighs from behind.

  The different angle made it feel like an entirely new experience, and the way he groaned against me whenever Cel did something he particularly liked vibrated through my cheeks. His tongue tortured my clit, alternating between that and thrusting into me slowly. He built my climax slowly, and when I finally shattered on a scream, he climbed up onto the bed behind me and pushed into me with one fast shove through my tender flesh while I was still in the middle of an orgasm. I clenched around him, my head flying back to scatter my hair over my back. Vali grabbed it, wrapping it around one of his fists as he pounded into me sharply. My eyes opened when a hand caressed my face.

  "I'll never get over how beautiful you are, Little One." It was not lost on me that Cel found me so beautiful when I was getting nailed, but he also told me I was beautiful constantly. Hearing that from a man like Cel, who was just so classically beautiful, cou
ld do wonders for a woman's ego.

  He kissed me, then pulled back and stepped out of his own pants. My mouth watered at the sight of him hanging heavy and hard in front of me, and I wanted to reach out for him. Vali was too controlling over my body though, using me in a way that I couldn't move. Cel grinned at me, climbing onto the bed in front of me so his thick cock bobbed in my face. He wrapped a hand around it, stroking it once. Then twice. Teasing me.

  "Do you want my cock, Little One?" he asked with a smirk.

  I nodded, though it was a miniscule motion. Vali's hold on my hair, while it didn't pull, was too much pressure and restricted my movement as he pulled out and snapped his hips to bury himself back inside me.

  "I need the words, Kaia." The bastard grinned at me, and I narrowed my eyes, but gave him what he wanted.

  "Yes! Yes I want your cock, Marcellus," I whispered. He groaned, running the head over my lips as he fed it to me. I took as much as I could, swallowing around him to take him into my throat the first time he drove in.

  "Gods, baby girl," he moaned, drawing back. He pressed back in, and I did the same thing again. I nearly gagged consistently, with Vali affecting my ability to control the depth when his hips shoved me forward on every push through my walls.

  "Fuck! Enough," Vali hissed behind me, and wrapped an arm around my waist to lift me up to a kneeling position. "On the bed," he ordered, and Cel nodded and laid down. Vali slipped from me as he lifted me up, sitting me on Cel's lap to straddle him. It didn't take a genius to know what they wanted, so I rose up and shifted so that Cel slid inside me as I moaned a deep sound when he hit the end of me. I was getting addicted to that little pinch of pain that came from sex with Cel.

  The click of a bottle opening sounded behind me, and cool liquid dripped down between my cheeks. I rocked my hips on Cel, taking him in and out as Vali's fingers slid down the path the lube had gone. He pressed a finger to my rear entrance, and groaned when he slid inside the dryer heat of my back end. He added another finger, stretching me as I rode Cel slowly. The bottle was tossed to the headboard, and the head of Vali's cock pressed to my ass. He slid in slowly, and I dropped my head forward on a groan. When Vali's hips hit my ass, he paused for me to adjust.