by Eve Langlais
Kirion released her arm and grasped her hand instead, threading their fingers together. “I have not had a more intriguing invitation in millennia,” he said with a small smile. “Can you at least tell me which region we shall be visiting?”
Miriel smiled. “I believe I shall leave that as a surprise,” she replied teasingly, marveling at her own audacity. Yesterday she would have sooner cut her own arm off rather than speak so freely and familiarly with the supreme king.
Then she pulled him through The Rift before he could comment. Her eyes were almost immediately assaulted by hundreds of colored lights, and Miriel couldn’t help but let out a laugh in absolute delight. She had hoped that it would be this particular scene that would greet them. She turned to her companion excitedly, but instead of wonder, Kirion’s expression was alarmingly stone–faced and unreadable.
“Miriel…this is…” His tone was laced with something akin to shock had it been anyone else speaking as his eyes slowly took in the forest of multi–colored lights before them.
And it was a forest–or at least a sizeable grove. They were currently standing along the entrance to a spectacle she had walked through over a dozen times over the past twenty years.
Miriel’s chest clenched painfully in the beginnings of panic. His reaction was far from what she had expected. Had she just made a huge mistake in bringing him here? It was almost as though seeing something that he obviously didn’t understand had changed his entire demeanor to that of someone who had just witnessed an utterly unexpected danger.
She squeezed his hand uncertainly. “It’s all right. There is no danger here.”
“This is not the human realm,” Kirion stated, his eyes remaining fixed on what was, for him, a scene that was totally alien.
“It is,” she insisted. “Just–not the one anyone has ever seen. At least not yet.”
“Not yet?” he echoed, looking down at her with a frown.
Miriel shook her head. “I am explaining this all wrong.” She gestured behind them. “That doorway was not made by my father or, I suspect, anyone else.”
Understanding flashed in his eyes. “A natural tear in the fabric of reality, then,” he hazarded.
“That is what I believe, as well. I stumbled upon it twenty years ago. It is a doorway that only appears on the day of the winter solstice. At first, I was as confused by all of this as you are now, but after exploring the wonders of this place, I came to understand over the years that this is indeed the human realm–only a human realm far, far into the future.”
Kirion’s eyes narrowed sharply before he turned, his hand tightening around her own as though fearful she would run off, and walked up to one of the nearest trees that lined the edges of a pathway just large enough for a carriage to navigate, its limbs and trunk wrapped with strings of seemingly hundreds of tiny lights of red, green, blue, and white. Their boots barely disturbed the snow–covered ground, a consequence of a Sidhe’s inability to manifest completely within the human realm, one she had often lamented in the past.
He reached out his free hand and cautiously touched one of the blue lights. When it did not burn him, he grasped it between his thumb and index finger and lightly squeezed, his eyes scrutinizing.
“It is glass,” he said finally after a long moment of silence broken only by the soft whistling of the wind. “However, even with my hand only half–manifested within this realm, I expected to feel at least a tinge of heat as this oddity burns within with energy.” He released the light and turned to look at her rather intensely. “You have seen humans here in this place? It was they who illuminated the trees in this strange manner?”
Miriel nodded and then pointed to the north. “There is also a human town nearby, less than a mark away by foot. You need only visit it to see that their progress is eons beyond all the human settlements I have ever witnessed while entering into the human realm through the usual doorways. This spectacle before us was done in celebration of their own version of the solstice. They have lined many of their structures with these lights as well. The humans call it ‘Christmas.’”
“I do not sense anything other than the local wildlife.”
“It is probably well before dawn here. Each time I have stepped through The Rift, it is never the same day, never the same point of time during the day. There were times when I stepped out into the full light of midday. While The Rift within the Inbetween only opens during the winter solstice, what lies beyond is always a surprise. The only consistency has been that it is always within a few days of the solstice on this side.”
“Why is it that you have not told your parents about such an extraordinary discovery?”
“I feared they would forbid me from returning, and my yearly visits to this place have become dear to me.”
Kirion sighed. “They would be right to forbid you. The pathways opened naturally between the two realms are always unstable, dangerously so. Each time you step through is a time you risk becoming trapped here.” He turned his gaze back to the beautifully illuminated trees, and his expression softened. “However, I can understand what draws you to return.”
Miriel squeezed his hand excitedly. “Then allow me to show you more. This is merely the beginning of a path that leads to several displays of the humans’ creations. I have witnessed many humans over the years either walking or riding a wagon along this same path and delighting in this visual spectacle as much as I.”
As they walked, a light snow began to fall. It wasn’t long before the tiny flakes morphed into a thick flurry. She imagined that if any of the humans could see them now, they would only appear to the human eye as shadows walking hand–in–hand beneath the falling snow. She couldn’t decide if that would make for a romantic or unnerving sight.
A few flakes tickled her nose, and Miriel couldn’t help but laugh in delight. “I love the way the snowflakes feel fluttering against my skin here in the human realm,” she confessed at Kirion’s questioning look, “no more substantial than a cool breath.”
The king’s lips quirked up slightly. “Not only snow, but I can very much see you delighting in a sudden downpour.”
“I have been known to do that a time or two,” she agreed with a smile. A slight curving of the path caught her eye, and her smile widened. “Oh! We are here!”
Momentarily forgetting that it was the supreme king she had by the hand, Miriel eagerly tugged Kirion forward around the last corner, and the illuminated trees gave way to a sizeable clearing full of the illuminated creations she wanted him to see. She then paused and turned her gaze back to her companion, excited to see his reaction.
Perhaps it was the result of thousands of years of habitually schooling his emotions, but the only reaction he showed was a slight widening of his eyes as he took in the scene before him. Various scenarios had been brought to life through the art of wires and multitudes of those tiny, multicolored lights. A few steps ahead, wire frames wrapped in strings of white lights in the unmistakable shapes of several deer were in the process of bending down as if to graze on the plant life peeking through the snow at their “hooves.” A few steps from the deer, a cluster of mini trees created entirely by wire and lights seemed to twinkle similarly to the stars across the night sky.
Kirion released her hand and cautiously stepped towards one of the deer and silently watched as its head slowly dipped to the ground and rose back up over and over.
“How is this accomplished?” he asked as Miriel stepped up beside him.
“I am–not certain,” she replied. “I have never seen them erected, only occasionally moved.”
The king nodded and then his gaze fixed onto something beyond the wire trees. Miriel turned her attention from him–and nearly burst out laughing when she realized the object that had caught his attention.
“That is a representation of a figure the humans call ‘Santa Claus,’” she offered, unable to completely keep the amusement from her voice. “Apparently, he brings gifts to all the human children every year during their Christmas celeb
ration.”
Kirion turned to her, his expression now clearly perplexed. “That does not seem possible.”
Miriel shrugged. “Perhaps it is just a story.”
“Perhaps.”
They spent the next few moments just walking around and taking in all the various colorful creations. Occasionally, the king would ask her a question, but otherwise, he observed everything in silence. Miriel didn’t mind. It was more than enough to be able to show him all of this. In fact, she was especially pleased that he was the first from the elven realm, other than her, to see this. When he had voiced a desire earlier to spend more time with her, he had probably never imagined that they would spend it marveling at these human creations.
“Here the final proof lies before me,” Kirion suddenly said as they stood before a row of red and white hooked sticks, looking at her with eyes that seemed to pierce down to her very soul.
“Proof?” she repeated in confusion as she instinctually squirmed beneath his gaze.
He slowly cupped her face between his hands and rubbed his thumbs gently over her cheeks. “That you were once human.”
Chapter Six
To have her deepest secret presented to her so bluntly was so shocking that all Miriel could do was freeze, her mind stuttering to a stop in a mixture of panic and fear, but not only that, she was stricken.
He will no longer want me.
Walking together among the light displays, feeling such joy at being able to share one of her few treasured activities with King Kirion made her realize just how much she had allowed him into her heart tonight. A human was no kind of partner for the supreme elven king, no matter how much she now looked like an elf.
“Please do not be angry, Your Majesty,” Miriel begged. “My father only wished to protect me from censure. I know we should have told you especially, but–”
Kirion abruptly leaned down and silenced her with his lips. Miriel was so shocked that she remained still and unresponsive, her mind unable to comprehend what was happening. He drew away after only a few soft caresses of his lips, but he continued to cradle her face within his hands.
“I am not angry, Miriel,” he said quietly. “I knew from the moment that you and Elion stood before me yesterday in the throne room that you had a human soul.”
“You…knew…”
He nodded. “It is not widely known, but I can easily read the souls of others as though they were the souls of my own children.”
“Then why…” Miriel trailed off and lowered her eyes, unable to go on.
The king lifted her chin and commanded firmly, “Look at me.”
She reluctantly complied. The weight of those ancient eyes as they gazed upon her was almost too much to bear, but she forced herself not to look away.
“You think yourself unworthy of me?” he guessed. When she remained silent, he released her chin and gathered her into his arms. “Did I not already confess how much the essence of your spirit has drawn me to you? I thought of little else but you from the moment we parted in your garden. Knowing that you were once human only strengthened my desire to know you, to experience the world through the eyes of someone who was more than Sidhe.”
He sighed and hugged her more tightly against his body. Surprise and uncertainty kept her arms hanging loosely at her sides. “For one who has lived as long as me, your uniqueness is something I desire almost as desperately as my desire for a child, else I fear I may soon stagnate. No one else could be a worthier partner.”
“You should not think so highly of my potential,” Miriel whispered against his chest. “I shall only disappoint you.”
“That you truly believe so is the very reason why you will not.”
The king’s tone held a strange note, and Miriel lifted her head to look up at him questionably. The intense look in his eyes as Kirion stared down at her made her shiver in both apprehension and something like excitement. No one had ever looked at her with such intensity.
“It has been perhaps centuries since I truly desired anything or anyone,” he said. “I wish to show you just how much, here beneath the falling snow surrounded by this visual wonder, if you will allow me.”
Slowly, Miriel raised her arms to encircle his waist, returning his embrace as her mind whirled. To give herself so intimately to another–it was something she thought she would never experience, afraid that a touch alone would reveal her humanity. Although she had always been curious about the act, itself, she was almost shocked at how much she did want it, wanted to experience it with him. It seemed fitting that her first erotic experience could be here, a place where they both physically existed equally within the two realms.
“Yes,” Miriel replied simply, and his answering smile was just as beautiful and mesmerizing as before.
Kirion released his hold on her waist and raised his hands to unclasp the broach at her neck in order to open her cloak. He slid the cloak from her shoulders and spread it out onto the snow–covered ground between the row of flashing candy canes and a large snowman that was illuminated brightly from within each of the three segments that composed its body. Then Miriel was suddenly lifted and tumbled onto the cloak, his lips hungrily seeking out her own before she could do more than gasp.
There was no reservation in the supreme king’s kiss, his tongue plunging into her mouth even as he swallowed her gasp. This time her tongue moved to slowly tangle with his, if a little tentatively. The new sensations made her shiver, and she gripped his shoulders tightly as he loomed over her, desperate for something to hold on to as she began to drown in so many new sensations and unfamiliar emotions.
One of the king’s knees pressed between her oddly splayed legs, coaxing her to open them wider, before he pushed the skirt of her dress up and moved in to settle his body between her thighs with a firm, aggressive thrust of his hips against her now–naked groin. She could feel his warmth even through his formal robes, and a sense of both nervous excitement and contentment washed through her.
It did not matter to her that they were virtually exposed here among the Christmas displays to anyone who happened to walk by, two shadows moving in the throws of passion. At that moment, the world only consisted of the tickling snowflakes falling down upon them and Kirion.
His lips moved down her chin to the base of her neck as his hands busied themselves with unlacing her bodice. She let out a surprised moan as Kirion’s mouth fastened onto her pulse point and sucked hard. She found one of her hands lifting of its own accord from his shoulder to run through the golden hair that spilled over his shoulders and tickled her face, the delicate strands gliding over her fingers more softly than silk.
Miriel soon felt the cool air against her breasts as they were finally freed from behind that thick, restrictive material. Kirion slid the palm of his hand teasingly along the curve of her left breast until he was cupping it in a firm, possessive grip, his fingers kneading. He moved his mouth down to the other, latching onto her nipple and proceeding to torment the rapidly hardening nub with both teeth and tongue as she writhed and gasped beneath him.
The king was moving so fast and aggressively that Miriel couldn’t think straight. This close, the strength of his aura was also nearly overwhelming, enveloping her entire body until it felt as though she was being embraced by two men.
“Kirion,” she half moaned, half pleaded, her fingers tightening their grip on both his shoulder and within his hair.
He raised his head, his eyes half–lidded with unmistakable lust that quickly melted into concern in reaction to something he must have seen in her expression. He cupped her cheek gently. “Did I hurt you?” he asked.
Miriel offered him a small smile and shook her head. “The power that naturally flows from your body can be somewhat overwhelming at times,” she admitted.
Kirion surged up to kiss her lips softly. Already she could feel the pressure surrounding her lessen significantly.
“Better?” he asked, his mouth barely a breath away from her own.
Her lip
s brushed over his briefly when she nodded, making her tremble as a burst of sensation flooded the hypersensitive tissue. Then his mouth was pressing against hers firmly again, and her mind promptly became hazy with pleasure as he slowly began to grind his still–clothed hips against her naked groin. Miriel’s arms wrapped around his neck and her thighs instinctually tightened around his hips as the soft material of his breeches rubbed deliciously against the center of her pleasure until she was wet and lifting her hips up in abandon to join him in his sensuous dance.
All too soon, Kirion stilled his hips, causing an involuntary noise of protest to burst from her lips. Miriel might have been embarrassed at her total loss of control had her mind not long been reduced to mush.
Kirion snaked a hand down between their bodies to where she throbbed between her legs, his fingers ghosting over her clit, making her instantly arch up against his hand in pursuit of more of that delicious friction.
Miriel tore her mouth away from his with a gasp. “Please–Kirion–I need…!” she begged, squeezing his neck desperately.
Kirion’s lips quirked up slightly, and then he abruptly thrust two of his fingers deeply into her passage. Miriel threw her head back with a cry at this new sensation. She clenched her inner muscles around those digits as he slowly, carefully began to twist and thrust them in and out of her, his thumb rubbing firmly over her clit in slow, deliberate circles until she was nearly out of her mind with pleasure.
His lips were at her throat again, kissing and sucking at her damp flesh aggressively, intent on marking her as his even as he continued to pleasure her to the brink of climax. When Miriel finally tipped over the edge, it felt as though the tremendous pressure that had been building within her groin had literally exploded. She violently shuddered as wave after wave of pleasure crashed through her body, inundating her senses so completely that she was unable to breathe for what felt like an eternity.
And still Kirion continued to thrust his fingers into her, softly kissing her along her cheeks and lips until her arching hips collapsed back down to the ground. With one final lick and kiss to her mouth, Kirion removed his fingers and sat up in order to push his breeches down just far enough to free his engorged member.