by Eric Vall
“Great question,” I replied. “The Baroness told me there were several people at that meeting with the nobles who would have her, or me, or both of us killed if they found out we were uh … fraternizing.”
“How many would have you killed?” Deya asked curiously.
“I don’t remember,” I admitted. “Something like ten for her and seven for me, or five? I was kind of distracted at the time, but it was enough to be concerning given that I love you guys, and that would be bullshit.”
“We love you, too,” Shoshanne murmured, and her warm eyes softened as she sent me a sweet smile.
“Okay see? That is all I need,” I told the women, “and I can’t in good conscience get involved with someone who could bring so much murder down on us. Not with everything we have, or … could have, or not. I don’t know, what I mean is us being alive for the foreseeable future is ideal for a lot of things that could take place. I’m just putting that out there.”
“Agreed,” Cayla said with a sage nod, and Aurora did her best to keep from giggling.
Then Deya took a deep breath as she raised a slender finger in the air, and we all looked over and waited.
“Okay,” the beautiful elf began, “maybe we can’t for certain trust the Baroness doesn’t want to get us all killed. Yet.”
Now, Aurora did giggle as Deya sent her a smirk, and I cocked a brow.
“However,” Deya went on, “I think we can trust she doesn’t want to get herself killed. So, you should act based on that.”
“How do you know she cares about not getting herself killed?” Aurora asked as she narrowed her eyes.
“Oh, she doesn’t care,” Deya clarified. “That’s obvious just to look at her, and it’s quite elven, but to want to die is different. She does not want to die, but she admitted her attraction to Mason could bring this on. I am very familiar with this dilemma, so I can say with certainty the Baroness thinks he’s worth the risk. Now, he only has to decide if she is worth the risk.”
“Huh, that does kind of feel logical,” I mused, “in an uncomfortable way.”
“That’s because it’s very elven,” Cayla sighed as she sent me a pointed look, but Deya gave a frank nod.
“And we already know the Baroness hangs out with elves, so she would get that logic,” I pointed out.
“Exactly,” Deya agreed.
“Plus, she’s a baroness,” Shoshanne added. “You’re a baron now … it will be cute if we all live.”
“I just want to see you have sex with her,” Cayla sighed. “I’m sorry, I know I should be more cautious, but that’s where I’m at. She’s very beautiful and I just love her skin.”
“Yeahhh,” Aurora agreed. “The Baroness is genuinely scary, but I saw the way she looked at you at the castle, and it made her less scary for some reason. She looked kind of … sweet, in a deadly way. Like she would get many people killed, but probably not you. Not on purpose, anyway.”
“Well, alright,” I chuckled, and I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. “We’re all in agreement then. Meeting adjourned. I’m gonna go handle this, I’ll be right back, and we’ll do dragon riding and saving babies and all that.”
I hopped up from my stool and headed for the door, but then I backtracked for a moment as I turned back to my women.
“To be clear, I’m not going to Serin to handle her, I’m going to put forth a business proposition to handle the possessed mage attack thing. This whole conversation was just precautionary.”
“Right,” Cayla said as her eyes glittered with amusement. “Well, just make sure to handle that proposition nice and deep.”
Then the princess sent me a wink, and all four of my women burst out laughing as I turned for the door without responding.
Chapter 16
I paced outside the torchlit entrance of the Oculus for about ten minutes before I finally decided to go in.
My women had almost completely eased my mind where the Baroness was concerned, but the second I was in the car and on my way to Serin, the love I felt for them came crashing down on me, and I decided elven logic was horse shit.
The fact was, no matter how much Cayla wanted to see me fuck the Baroness, or how certain Deya was that she could relate, my women invested their trust in me as much as I did them, and I couldn’t stomach the idea of making the wrong choice. I just wanted to destroy the Master, finish my moat, and lock down Falmount to keep our family safe. So, no matter how hard it was to resist the Baroness, I knew I couldn’t waltz into bed with her like it was nothing when all of this was on my plate.
More than anything, talking with my women helped me realize having my life threatened over the Baroness wasn’t my biggest concern. Being betrayed by her was a whole different story, though, and I needed absolute assurance she wasn’t going to intentionally throw me or my women under the bus.
Still, Deya said the Baroness must think I was worth risking her life over, and without knowing anything about the obscure woman, I had no idea if this translated into any kind of loyalty. All I knew was the Baroness walked a dangerous line without seeming to care one way or the other, and even the heads of the Elven Houses put their questionable faith in her.
Where the hell that left me, I had no idea, because the Elven leaders were a bunch of backstabbing and dirty dealing shit stains.
So, I stared at the stone gates of the Oculus while I considered how many people were relying on me to handle the threat of the Master and storm his fortress, and then I shoved my libido aside, took a deep breath, and parted the gates to enter the Oculus.
Repairs were still underway in the underground city, but since the Terra Mages had gathered the shattered glass from the library to begin sorting through it, several mages were strolling around and resuming their studies as best they could.
The Defenders working on the repairs nodded to me as I passed, and when I saw Markus helping a few of them decipher the ancient schematics of the Oculus, I paused to listen in for a moment. He was at least ten years younger than them, but they listened carefully to every word he had to say, and I could tell he genuinely enjoyed sharing his knowledge with others. He was exactly the kind of instructor the Order could put its trust in, and I was about to go over and see how he was doing when something much more distracting caught my eye.
Pindor was strolling down the street ahead of me, and I did a double take as I realized he was holding hands with the Ignis Mage beside him.
“No way,” I chuckled, and I quickened my pace a bit before calling out to the young Terra Mage.
Then Pindor turned, and Mina sent me a little wave.
“Hey, Mason!” the Ignis Mage giggled, and both Pindor and I were grinning from ear to ear while I did my best not to completely fanboy over the two of them.
“Hey, Mina. You look like you’re having a lovely day.”
“Always.” Mina smiled. “I heard you almost died again.”
“Yeah, I’m alright, though,” I assured her, and I turned to Pindor. “I was hoping I’d run into you. There’s something I wanted to talk to you about. Got a minute?”
“Sure,” Pindor said with a shrug, but he didn’t move or unwind his hand from Mina’s.
He must have noticed my trepidation with speaking in front of her, though, because he eventually cocked a brow and glanced sidelong at the Ignis Mage.
“You can tell me whatever you wanted to say,” the kid assured me. “It’s only Mina.”
Mina sent Pindor a dimpled smile as she cozied up to him a bit more, and I crossed my arms and nodded even though I had a feeling he was going to regret this.
“Alright,” I muttered, “I met your uncle the other day.”
Pindor’s ears instantly went beet red as his brows shot up, and I grinned shamelessly while he fumbled to respond in a natural tone.
“Oh!” the kid managed. “That’s … okay! We’re kind of heading to the library to study, though, so I’ll just … we’ll catch up later, yeah?”
I nodded. “Yeah, we will.”
Then Pindor practically dragged Mina away, and I chuckled heartily when I heard the kid desperately distracting her with some rambling nonsense like he wasn’t in line to inherit one of the largest fiefs in Illaria.
At least he and Mina were on good terms again, though, and I silently congratulated myself on being the best fucking mentor in the realm as I turned to head deeper into the city.
I didn’t really know if the Baroness would still be lingering around here, but I figured if she was, I only needed to find a corner of the city with enough shadows in it to draw her out. It might take a while, but since her element was darkness, it seemed logical she could sense things through shadows in the same way I could through my own elements. I wasn’t sure whether the Baroness would recognize my presence specifically, but given her habit of following me pretty regularly, I had a feeling she might.
So, I glanced around every corner as I headed to the edges of the Oculus, where the light from the craterlike ceiling wouldn’t reach, and I watched for any particularly dim lit side streets. It wasn’t long before the static presence of the many mages working around me sent a rush of energy through my veins, though, and I was itching to be of some use while I was here just wandering around anyways. So, I sparked my Terra Magic to bring the schematics of the ancient city to mind, and I set to work repairing any damaged structures I came across while I scanned the side streets for a shadowy alcove.
I managed to restore seven buildings and three bridges before I passed a dim alleyway between two shops, and I slowed to a stop while I finished adjusting the grade of the street someone had misaligned by a few degrees.
It was a slender and crooked alley closed in on three sides by the well-worn brickwork of a few buildings that survived the attack, and I furrowed my brow as I checked the street ahead and behind me.
It was completely deserted at the moment, so I turned and slowly made my way between the buildings as my nerves started to feel a bit jittery. I couldn’t shake the sense I was the bunny wandering into a fox den, and part of me hoped the Baroness was miles away from here as I brought myself deeper into the shadows of the alley.
Then I waited there while my heart pounded in my ears with every passing minute, and when the sounds of the city suddenly started to fade, I glanced over my shoulder, but I already knew I’d see nothing but shadows there. An eerie veil of darkness undulated at my back now, and the entrance to the alleyway was completely obscured from sight while the wall ahead of me billowed a dense black.
I was barricaded in the Tenebrae Mage’s enchantments now, and I knew no one would even hear me if I screamed my head off. Then I recognized the same exotic scent wafting around me, and the memory of Onym smiling to himself just before the Baroness stabbed him through the heart flashed to the forefront of my mind.
“I swear to the gods, if you stab me right now … ” I growled, but I didn’t even finish the threat before the Baroness abruptly appeared at the edge of her shadows without her usual strutting out of nowhere show.
She had her hands up as she stared intently at me, and something about her expression was incredibly familiar, but I couldn’t pinpoint what it was.
“I’m unarmed,” the Baroness assured me, and she slipped her fingers around a fold of her sheer black dress to pull it aside and expose her legs. “See?”
Then she turned full circle while my gaze locked on to her perfect, ebony ass, and she waited there near the shadows until I nodded. When she came forward, though, her two-toned eyes scoured every inch of me, and her tense frown immediately put me on edge.
“You’re okay,” the Baroness said after a moment.
“Of course, I am,” I replied. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“I saw you,” she informed me. “You were broken on the ground. Your skull was bleeding. You … you fell from the battlement.”
I furrowed my brow at the tone of her voice because it wasn’t as careless as usual, and her gaze was so direct, I had trouble understanding what she was really getting at. Everything about her contradicted what I’d come to expect of the secretive woman, and my pulse quickened as I scrambled to figure out what was off about her.
“I did,” I allowed, “but if you saw me fall, then you must have seen me walk away, too.”
“Your women had to help carry you, though. You could hardly stand, you looked like …”
“Like death,” I finished for her with a chuckle. “Yeah, I know. I felt like it, too, but like I said, I’m fine now.”
I shrugged, and the Baroness nodded curtly before she fussed with the folds of her dress a bit. Then she straightened up and forced a cold expression, but she didn’t look dangerous at all. Whatever was different about her countenance made her usual mask completely unconvincing, and she was guarded in a whole different way now.
“You could have just followed me like you always do if you were … concerned,” I pointed out.
“I had other things to attend to,” she said and tried for a careless shrug.
“So,” I mused, “you thought I was seriously hurt, and then you finally stopped following me?”
The Baroness’ ebony cheeks suddenly took on a strange opalescent sheen I’d never seen before, and they almost shimmered as the muscles in her jaw twitched with irritation.
That’s when I realized she was blushing, and I finally caught on.
As lucrative as a person like me was in her line of work, this wasn’t remotely why she’d followed me all over Nalnora and back. The only thing that had changed since I saw her last was she watched me drop six stories to the ground, and the fact that she looked as worried about me as Shoshanne made it pretty clear what was going on.
Now, I couldn’t help the slight grin that came to my face.
“You’re in love with me,” I realized, and when her cheeks shimmered even more, she abruptly looked down, and I knew I’d landed on the truth.
How I’d overlooked the possibility seemed ridiculous to me, but the woman’s body language betrayed how vulnerable she felt now that I’d called her out on it. Which made me wonder if she’d ever felt like this about anyone before. Considering she carelessly toyed with the likes of Onym and the head of House Orrel, I was inclined to think not. She couldn’t possibly conduct her business if she cared about anyone but herself, but here she was, still following me and actually blushing while she struggled to appear unconcerned.
So, I reached out and gently tipped her chin up so she had to look me in the eye, and she honestly looked scared to admit it, but she didn’t have to. It was clear she wasn’t the sort of woman who walked around falling in love with anyone, and I had a feeling she was even more confused than I’d been all this time.
Especially when she abruptly backed away in embarrassment, and she reached toward the shadow beside her to pull a smoky black tendril over and twirl it between her fingertips. The sliver of shadow curled around her slender fingers like a feather while she avoided my gaze, and I tried not to smirk as she cleared her throat and focused on the shadows instead.
“When I sensed you here, I assumed you had something you wanted to speak with me about,” the Baroness muttered in a clipped tone. “What is it?”
“I wanted to ask for your help with something,” I replied, and her two-toned gaze flicked up to mine.
“Really?”
“Yeah,” I chuckled, but I came over to brush the bit of shadow out of her hands rather than continue.
The strange smoky curl dissipated the moment I touched it, and the Baroness’ cheeks shimmered as I brought myself even closer to her. She struggled to keep her eyes on me, but when I slid my hand around the cinch of her waist, she didn’t pull away, and I could feel a shiver course through her at my touch.
So, I leaned in close to bring my lips against her ear, and her heart rate doubled the moment I murmured her name.
Then Nulena melted into my hold, and her fingers locked around my jaw as her lips found mine. She clutched me against her with trembling hands while she kissed me deeply
at first, but when she started nipping lightly at my tongue, her passion suddenly took over. It was like her arousal went from zero to a hundred in seconds flat, and there was nothing tentative about the way her thighs hitched up around my waist while she clawed at the roots of my hair.
I managed to pin her against the brick wall before I toppled over, though, and she still had her teeth locked on my bottom lip when I finally resurfaced to get a look at her.
Nulena’s breaths were coming heavy and fast now as her breasts threatened to burst out of her black corset, and her heated gaze burned straight through me without reserve.
So, I tore her off me and flipped her around, and I wrenched the little clasps of her dress open to expose the delicate curve of her spine. Then I pulled the corset lower, and the Baroness braced her hands against the wall as I slowly stripped her down right there in the darkened alleyway.
Every inch of her made my loins burn with a vengeance as I followed the slender curve of her waist to her ample hips, and when I let her dress drop to her ankles, the sight of her perfectly honed backend drew my hands like a magnet. She was as velvety to the touch as I’d always imagined while I dragged my palms up her plush thighs and taut ass, and when I slid my hands around to her chiseled abdomen, I honestly couldn’t decide if I wanted to travel higher or lower from here.
She was built like a goddess in both directions, so one hand instinctively began kneading her heavy breasts in my palm while the other slowly blazed a trail south, but when my fingers curled around her completely sleek mound, I nearly collapsed against her as a groan escaped my lips.
Still, the Baroness’ eyes flicked back to me with uncertainty, and I couldn’t even find the words to reassure her. I needed her more than I could even express at the moment, and I fumbled to wrench the buckle on my belt open as a carnal hunger surged through my veins.
Nulena gasped when she felt the heat of my erection between her thighs, and I only had to tip her hips back to slide the head of my cock into her dripping wet tunnel.
“Ohhhhh,” she mewled like a cat, and I knew I couldn’t possibly get as much of her as I wanted in this position.