“Are you…are you sure?” Onyx sounded relieved, and although that made her a little sad, she couldn’t blame him. If she failed to match this evil creature’s power, if she failed to win, Onyx wouldn’t stand a chance.
“I have a feeling there will be some doors ahead of us. I’m going to use the doorway stone again and send you back to my room. You’ll be safe there, and I need to say hello to Athene in private.” Hello, and, possibly, good-bye, she thought. But she didn’t want to say it out loud. She was worried enough as it was, and she really didn’t want to add a possible jinx to her chance of surviving this next trial. After all, Hephastae had mentioned the possibility of death, and there had also been her vision from the wine. But she didn’t have a choice.
She turned to the left as she walked out of the cave and headed forward in the direction of the magical pull she was feeling, in the direction of the goblet. And, possibly, in the direction of her death.
It took her about a twenty-minute flight (after all, why walk when you can fly?) to reach the place where she was sure the goblet was located. This must have been where the heat she’d felt had been coming from, too, because the temperature made her feel as if it were a hot, dry day in the desert as a tall, menacing-looking castle came into view. The sky was dark above her, and she wouldn’t regret leaving this place for a few blessed minutes. In terms of regrets about having to return here, though…
In that moment, she was desperate to hold Athene in her arms, and perhaps to also make love to her once more. Before she found the goblet. Before she met up with the horned man. Before…before she died?
Chapter Twenty-three
Terra placed the doorway stone in front of the castle’s large doors and placed Onyx beside it. Then she grabbed the handles of the doors and pulled them open, her feet off the ground as she opened a doorway to her room back at the castle. Once Onyx was inside, and after one last hug with him, she shut the doors and then opened them again, this time walking through them and into Athene’s room, where she lay sleeping in her bed.
Trying her best to be light on her feet, she walked up to Athene—her first love…the love of her life—and watched her sleep for a few moments. Athene was lying on her side, her hands nestled against her head and her beautiful hair flowing out behind her on the pillow, a river of lustrous gold that came close to glowing in the moonlight. It was almost a shame to wake her, to move this perfect vision who lay underneath the covers in front of her, but Terra was still very aware that she might never speak to her again. So wake her she did, reaching forward and brushing a few strands of hair off Athene’s face.
“What?” Athene’s voice was thick and sleepy, but she seemed to wake right up as soon as she saw it was Terra who had woken her. “Terra! You’re here!” She grinned, her eyes still a little more shut than usual, but her voice sounded fully awake and full of life.
“You sure came to quickly.” Terra gave an uneven smile, one side of her mouth going all the way up as Athene shot up and enveloped her in an incredibly tight hug. She’d thought for a while that you could sense how in love with you someone was by the way they touched you, and she could always feel immense love in every touch of Athene’s hands, be it a passionate one or something more subtle, like when Athene held her hand while they watched a movie on her bedroom TV.
“Long time no see, huh?” Terra joked.
“It feels like it’s been a lot longer than it actually has,” Athene told her. “Waiting here without a clue of what you’re up to—I get scared, you know. I’m pretty sure you haven’t been coming up against anything very dangerous, but still, I can’t help worrying just a bit.” She pulled back from Terra then, and bit her lip. It wasn’t the sexual variety of a lip-bite—it was the nervous type. Terra had always loved that she did it at both times—when she was immensely turned on or when she was nervous.
She cupped Athene’s chin and kissed her, hard. The kiss spoke of their many months together. It was a kiss that spoke of her love for this woman, this person…her love for Athene. She pulled back after a few long minutes, and now it was her turn to look concerned. “I have to tell you something, Athene. Something really bad, something you won’t like.” She told her about Hephastae, about the horned man, and finally, Terra forced herself to tell her that this might be the last time they saw each other.
Athene was crying by the time she had finished sharing this information, but instead of saying anything, she put her lips back on Terra’s. As they kissed, she slowly and gently stripped Terra of her clothes. Athene had been sleeping naked, so as each piece of Terra’s clothing was removed, she was also treated to a view of Athene’s beautiful, absolutely perfect body, her skin pale and gorgeous in the moonlight. It was a lovely contrast against Terra’s darker skin, the rich, deep brown of hers complementing Athene’s pale, porcelain arms, thighs, and torso.
Each of these completely perfect parts of her lover’s body was now pressed up against her own arms, thighs, and torso, Athene’s body wrapped around hers in a tight, lover’s embrace. But hopefully not a lover’s parting, Terra thought with more than a touch of desperation. Hopefully this would not be the last time their bodies would be locked together like this.
Terra tried not to think about this possibility as they kissed, though, and she almost succeeded, as Athene found her wet cunt with her right hand and began to thrust her fingers inside her hole. This time, they didn’t need magic—no flowing silk, no flowing ink, just flowing fingers, flowing in and out of Terra and then in and out of Athene, as Terra’s fingers found Athene’s opening as wet and as ready as her own…if not more. They both reached deeper inside each other, Terra first, and then Athene following suit. Then they were both curling their fingers forward, finding their partner’s delicious, raised spot deep inside their cunt, and each woman massaged the other’s with her fingers as they kissed and wrapped themselves around one another.
Terra couldn’t help thinking, then, that it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if this moment were to never end…if she could just keep fucking her lover, thrusting her fingers in and out of her, thrusting her body against Athene’s forever. She didn’t want to leave her, didn’t want to go back to the castle, and she didn’t want the pleasure of being touched in such an intense, passionate, loving way to go away, not even for a moment. She knew Athene was thinking the same thing from the way she clung to her—desperately—and from the way her fingers seemed hungrier than ever before—hungry for her to come, for her to gush all over Athene’s palm and thighs.
But it had to end, despite what either of them wanted so desperately, and soon Athene was making small noises against Terra’s lips, small moans and pants, sounds that grew louder and louder until she came, screaming, against Terra’s mouth. No bubble popped up then, no bubble to block their sounds, and she and Terra called out into the night as they both came so, so hard. Their passion had thoroughly soaked the sheet beneath them, soaked into the mattress, and had also splashed against their thighs and legs and hands and arms…
And then, Athene’s bedroom door slammed open, and Cer stood there, her face first full of shock, and then full of fury. “What is going on? Athene, what are you doing with her?”
Before she could give it a second thought, Terra jumped out of bed and grabbed her clothes. She shut her eyes tight and heard Cer rushing toward her, heard Athene begin to try to explain, and thought to herself, please, please, please work!
Then she couldn’t hear Cer anymore, or Athene, either, and so she risked opening her eyes.
She was back in front of the castle, wearing her clothes again. No doorway stone had been needed this time, it seemed. Her powers had grown yet again, and she hoped they had grown enough to help her find the goblet; to help her kick the horned man’s ass; and to help her get back home, then try to explain it all to Cer in a way she would understand. She didn’t think she had a chance in hell of accomplishing that last part, based on the look on Cer’s face as she had rushed into her daughter’s room. But perhaps Cer loved Athene eno
ugh to want her to be truly happy…which would mean wanting her to be with Terra.
But she needed to put on her battle-face now. So she squared her shoulders and kicked the doorway stone away from the door. Then, using her powers, she slammed open the two heavy castle doors and started inside. She was either going to her doom or to be with Athene forever, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out which she was hoping for as she stepped into the castle and shut the doors behind her with a swift wave of her hands.
It was dark inside, but not so dark that she couldn’t make everything out well enough. The place was stuffed full of what looked like close-to-priceless treasures. She’d known Zeus and Cer were well off, but if this place was theirs, they were much, much more than merely “rich.”
The large hall—or entryway—had an incredibly high ceiling, almost impossibly high. Beautiful curves were carved into the walls on either side of Terra, their dips and valleys filled with large opals and other semi-precious stones. Chandeliers hung from the ceiling with dozens of lit candles in each of them, and tapestries were hanging along each wall. Terra looked at each of the ornate weavings as she walked forward. They all showed witches and wizards using magic to cure people of illnesses, to stop humans from fighting one another, and a number of other honorable acts. Terra was saddened as she realized this must have been what the Magic Ones used to be like, in the distant past, before things changed and they became lazy, greedy, and uncaring. Maybe, if she made it through this test, and Cer and Zeus accepted her into their family (yeah, right), she could do a thing or two with her new abilities to help the world, instead of only helping herself get what she wanted…and, she thought, needed. In other words, Athene.
But was she going to make it through this final trial? She’d know soon enough, that much was certain, because the whole palace was filled with heat. The temperature in the entry-hall was causing little beads of sweat to form on her forehead as she continued walking down the hall’s length with surprisingly steady steps. She might have been scared, but this was her only hope of being with Athene. And if she reached the goblet first, she’d be saving Athene from a life with that asshole Eros.
Those two thoughts filled her with more bravery than she’d previously thought she had. But as she left the hall and began to hear small, creepy scurrying noises, some of that bravery flew away and left her with a touch of fear in its place. Where were those noises coming from? More important, were they going to be a threat?
As she tensed her arms at her sides, her left hand brushed against something small and cylindrical sticking out of her pocket. She placed her hand around it and pulled it out: it was the spyglass Sun and Moon had given to her. Lifting it to her right eye, she closed the other and stared through it, stifling a cry of fear as she finally saw what was making the noises.
Foot-high, skeletal creatures were inching forward, heading straight at her. Smoke drifted off them, because they were all covered in flames. Much worse than that was the fact that they were closing in on her. Low growls were coming from each of their wide, scary mouths, and it seemed that the horrible creatures knew she had noticed them now, because they sped up their movement in her direction. Some of them dashed across the walls, some of them had bat-like wings and flew, and some simply ran on their little sharp-clawed feet.
Terra remembered her power over water then. But how could she put out the creatures’ fires, if no water was nearby? So she shut her eyes—it was a risky move, but one that felt necessary—and raised her arms, one hand pointing left, the other to her right. The ground began to shake, but she didn’t open her eyes. Either this would work or it wouldn’t, and opening her eyes wouldn’t change which side the coin of chance landed on.
Then she heard a low, rumbling sound, which turned into the sound of rushing water, and she finally opened her eyes when she heard a few high-pitched shrieks of pain. Beautiful, dark-blue water was flowing straight toward her, and it seemed to be accomplishing exactly what she had hoped it would. As it flowed forward, it splashed over the horrible little fire-creatures, and she smiled just a bit as she heard their cries of pain and distress. One after another, each of them was submerged in the water, and their flames sizzled out and they disappeared. She could see the remaining creatures without using the spyglass now; she could see each creature as it disappeared from the room as the water continued to rush forward.
It finally slowed when it reached her, and she leaned down, stroking it gently and thanking it in its own wet-sounding tongue. How she had learned to speak “water” she didn’t know, but it seemed to delight at hearing its own language, caressing her fingers with small, cool kisses. She reveled in the feel of it flowing past her and around her lower legs. Its touch was gentle and lusciously soft as it brushed against her skin. And then it was gone, and the hall was empty, the floor even dry to the touch, she discovered, and so now it was time to continue. But instead of putting the spyglass back in her pocket, she raised it to her eye again, because she remembered what Moon had told her: that it would help her find things that did not wish to be found. Things like evil fire-creatures, of course, and—possibly, hopefully—things like missing goblets.
Chapter Twenty-four
The pull she’d felt, the one that had led her to the castle, seemed to have vanished by the time the water was gone, because hell if she knew what direction to go in next. “Fuck,” she said softly, and her voice echoed in the high-ceilinged room. Shit! If the horned man hadn’t sensed her coming—which he probably had, given the evil little fire-shitheads—he’d certainly heard that loud noise!
Well, onward was her only option at this point, so onward she went. The huge room she was now entering was just as beautiful as the hall had been. Scattered around the room were at least twenty tall, straight-backed, black-lacquered chairs with velvet, tasseled cushions on each of their seats. The chairs were placed around huge oval tables, made of dark wood with beautiful turquoise- and ruby-colored inlay around their rims. She let her fingers brush against one of them as she walked past it and felt the pleasurable vibration of magic singing against her skin. As she lifted her hand, the table shook slightly and rose toward her hand, almost as if it didn’t want to part with her.
“Stay, Mr. Table, stay,” she said with a grin.
Terra heard a harrumph, then, and practically jumped out of her skin. “It’s Missus table, little lady. Mister Table is to my left.”
“Sorry, Missus Table.” Terra stifled a laugh. This was her first conversation with a piece of furniture, after all, and definitely her first conversation with tetchy furniture! “I apologize for not getting your gender right.”
“Ah, well, I suppose you couldn’t tell, being a witch and all. It’s nice to have someone new around, though, I must say. Especially someone who didn’t threaten to burn me to ashes if I didn’t tell him where the goblet was. Not that he was able to, mind you. We’re protected from destruction, just like the goblet is.”
“Can you help me find it, then?” Terra looked down at the female table and waited.
“Hmm. You may have just soaked me with water, which I did not appreciate, but those little beastly things that were headed straight at me probably would have made me even more uncomfortable. So…I suppose I owe you a debt, Witch, and that debt I will pay you. Put that spyglass on top of me, and I’ll pass some of my knowledge of the castle into it.”
Terra did as Missus Table asked, gently placing the spyglass on her surface. The spyglass wobbled briefly as soon as she let go, but when she reached back down to steady it, the table spoke again, saying, “Don’t touch it, or it won’t work!” in a very grouchy tone.
“Sorry!” Terra told her.
“All right, Witch,” the table said a few moments later, and Terra watched as the spyglass floated up a few feet and stopped right next to her eye. “I’m done. Just follow its path, and look through it when it stops. I’d watch out for that horrible horned fire-bastard if I were you, though. He’s not the nicest person I’ve ever met, th
at’s for darn sure!”
“So everyone keeps telling me,” she told Missus Table.
The spyglass began to float forward then, and Terra followed it. She had to walk quickly, as it seemed the spell didn’t care in the least that a human could only move so fast. Soon enough, she had to break into a run, following the spyglass along a twisting path from room to room until she almost ran into it when it stopped, suddenly, in front of a small, nondescript door.
“Spyglass marks the spot, I guess,” she said to herself. Hopefully it was only to herself, because she knew—between her echoing voice in the room full of tables and the pounding sound of her feet across the castle’s floors—that the horned man with the power of fire couldn’t be too far behind.
Terra tested the doorknob, and what do you know, it wasn’t locked. She felt it turning to the right in her hand from almost no pressure at all. Terra eased the door open, a not-nearly-quiet-enough creak coming from it as it swung open into the small room beyond it. The room held a desk, behind which was a large, square window. Moonlight streamed through the window, painting the whole room in shimmery silver.
Terra plucked the spyglass out of the air and placed it in front of her eye as she stood in the doorway, and there it was—Zeus’s goblet—sitting on the table. It was the color of the light filling the room and looked like it was made of mist, its edges blurred and its body almost transparent.
“Eureka!” Terra shouted happily, and then she shrieked as she felt a burning-hot hand grab her by the neck and lift her up off the ground, flinging her at least ten feet down the hallway and away from the room.
As she passed through the hallway at a nauseating speed, she heard a loud sizzling sound and then realized she was levitating, seemingly from her own powers. But the sizzling sound wasn’t coming from her. It came instead from a figure across the hallway from her—the horned man.
Under Her Spell Page 18