“You still must be punished,” Neph said, moving to stand between Nikhil and Vrishti and crossing his arms.
Llyr nodded, ready to accept his fate.
“What?” Vrishti said. “Why? He really hasn’t done a damn thing wrong.”
“He disobeyed my order. It should not have mattered how she tempted him. He is a Thiasoi soldier, and he was given a task which included the command to keep his hands off our daughter. Failure was too big a risk to take.”
The ursa shaman’s teeth clenched and she jabbed a finger into the Dionarch’s chest. “Don’t you dare try to disguise the fact that you’re punishing him for taking her virginity. That was her choice! And from the sound of things, one she was perfectly in command of making at the time! She did it to complete the ritual. Why, then, should we punish him for that?”
Neph’s jaw clenched. Nikhil tightened his grip on Llyr’s throat, glaring at him. “Because she is innocent. She may not know better, but he certainly does.”
Llyr opened his mouth to object, but Nikhil squeezed and he couldn’t take in any air, much less speak. He shut his eyes, hoping the other man would cool down. Likely nothing he could say would change his mind, anyway. Humans never did quite grasp the conventions of the higher races.
“That may be, but disobeying a Dionarch’s order is still a grave offense. He must be punished.”
Nyx pushed through the crowd that had gathered with Nereus close behind. She placed a hand on Vrishti’s arm. “We will do no more than necessary. Trust me.”
No more than necessary. If Llyr had any breath, he’d have snorted at that. He knew what his punishment entailed and didn’t look forward to it.
A flare as bright as sunlight blasted his eyes and he clenched them shut with a wince. When he opened them, a beautiful woman stood before him, cloaked in fire and flanked by two men who could not have been more different had they tried—one a deep ebony with ultraviolet threads of fire beneath his skin, and the other bordering on transparent. He thought he recognized the woman, but it wasn’t until her light faded that he knew her.
“Nikhil, let him go,” Neela said, touching the angry man on the hand. A sizzling noise and the scent of burning flesh bombarded his senses. Nikhil cursed and abruptly released him.
“He needs to pay for what he’s done, Neela. She’s only a baby.”
“She’s a grown woman.”
“She’s a year old! And he should know better!”
Neela pressed her lips into a tight line and gave Llyr an apologetic look. He didn’t quite understand why this woman . . . one of the three women Deva called her mother . . . should come to his defense, but he was grateful nonetheless.
“That may be true, but she is not a normal creature. You and I both know what Meri’s experiments can do to someone. Just because she is dead now doesn’t mean we have escaped all the repercussions of her acts. This very ritual was evidence of that, as is Deva.
“The second Deva was taken from my womb, we lost the chance to control her fate. Last year we learned that she may not even have a fate, due to her origins. Yet I have seen her desire grow to find a place for herself. She is older in spirit than her true age suggests. If you spent more time with her, you would see that.
“Next time you see her, just look into her eyes. She is a creature made of all our souls even if she lacks her own, and somehow her creation gave her wisdom far beyond any a woman as new to the world as she is has a right to. Yet she has it. She made this decision. Don’t blame her for it, or anyone else for loving the amazing woman she has become. And be grateful that she was allowed to make the choice herself.”
Llyr decided he probably loved this woman almost as much as he loved her daughter. When Nikhil finally did step back, he wrapped his arms around her.
“Thank you,” Llyr said gruffly, barely conscious of the steam spilling off him into the air.
Neela laughed and pushed away. “I’m hurting you . . .”
“Nah, it’s just steam. I’ll survive. I would rather hug you than what I’ve got to do now, any day.” Taking a deep breath, he turned to Neph. “Let’s get this over with.”
He stepped onto the path, resolute, then stopped and turned. Neph was speaking softly to Vrishti, who had Belah and Neela at her side.
“Is everything all right?” he asked.
With a solemn look, Neph nodded and the three women turned to go. “They are going back to the palace to wait for Deva. Perhaps she will return for them. It seems all the men in my daughter’s life have failed her today.”
* * *
Llyr’s feet felt heavier with each step into the damp, dark cavern. It might have been an effect of the magic protecting the Diviner’s lair from intruders, but he knew better. Punishment for his kind meant a bodily sacrifice to the creature who lived in this dark, secluded grotto cut into the stone of the Haven itself.
He would survive, but not without cost.
A moment before passing through the final barrier into the Diviner’s cave, he let his primal shape take over. He would obey every rule given to him from here on out, even if it killed him, and that included arriving in his true form to accept his punishment.
The incline leveled off as the passage opened up, and Llyr was nearly blinded by the sparkling of brilliant gemstones that covered all the walls. The cavern itself was half again bigger than he remembered, and he couldn’t help but stand and gawk at the beauty.
The others entered behind him in their various shapes until the massive room was filled with dragons, bears, nymphs, and satyrs, and a handful of falcons hovering in the air or perched on the nearest set of horns of their companions.
“What the hell happened to this place?” he asked. The only thing that looked the same was the shadowy mist at the far end of what was now an even bigger pool. Slithering noises filled the room along with the sounds of small waves lapping at the smooth stone edge of the pool.
“We helped the Diviner renovate a bit after Meri collapsed the tunnel last year,” Calder said. “Which means she’s been in a good mood all year, so that could either be wonderful or terrible news for you.”
The slithering grew louder and Llyr took a deep breath, forcing himself to step closer to the edge.
A resonant voice reverberated through the big chamber, sounding as though it came from all sides. “To what do I owe thisss pleasssure today? Are you all ssharing your Equinox ssselebration with me for once? Ssshall we have an orgy here?”
Calder shivered beside Llyr, despite the thick fur that covered his legs, and Llyr’s skin pricked into goosebumps. Neph stepped forward to greet the Diviner, his hooved feet echoing on the wet stone.
“The Thiasoi named Llyr has disobeyed my order today and requires discipline. Once that is complete, if it is your wish for any of us to remain and celebrate, we will happily do so.”
The water’s surface rippled and several thick tails appeared, their tips slipping past the lip of the pool and curling back and forth as though seeking something. Llyr swallowed thickly, remembering his initiation as a Thiasoi and what those tendrils did to him then.
“Only a year returned and a satyr has disobeyed his massster? How unfortunate.” One of the tendrils found its way to Llyr’s feet and tickled a slow path up and around his ankle. “What do you have to say for yourssself, Llyr Xanthosss? Wasss she worth it?”
Llyr took a deep breath and stepped into the pool. “Every second with her was worth the punishment ten times over.”
“Then thisss shall be easy for both of usss. Come to me, child.”
He dove in and was immediately surrounded by dozens of slippery tails. They twined round his arms and legs, carrying him across the water’s surface, teasing and exploring his entire body along the way. Then they stopped and he found himself lifted up until a pair of huge, feminine arms held him against soft breasts. He gazed up into eyes so brilliant blue, he wondered if she had a piece of sky in her soul. The lovely face that looked down at him smiled, displaying razor-sharp teet
h.
“I am one-third dragon, after all,” the Diviner said, then laughed, and the tiny silvery snakes that coiled and writhed around her head seemed to quake with their own mirth.
As if to demonstrate that part of her, she pursed her lips into an O and blew out a breath. Dense, white mist coalesced around them both. At his look of confusion, she whispered, “Thisss is between the two of usss, I think. Calder was right, I’m in a good mood. Neph doesn’t need to know what I’m about. Besidesss, he did just offer me an orgy, ssso I may take him up on that.”
“What are you going to do with me?” Llyr asked with gruff uncertainty. It felt odd to be held the way he was, cradled like a babe in her arms, but to a creature as immense as she, he was no bigger than one.
“Sssimply help you sssee . . .” With that, the tendrils reappeared, wrapped around him and pulled him abruptly beneath the water. He barely had time to catch his breath before he was submerged, but that wasn’t the end.
Her tails caressed him with the gentle touch of a hundred lovers, driving his desire to a swift peak, then slowing. They tickled and teased around his cock, keeping it hard and aching painfully for a release despite the drawn out and very satisfying conclusion he’d had after making love to Deva. Then he remembered he had not made love to her and cursed himself.
“You could have had a deeper meld with her, had you taken your time,” the Diviner said, her voice as potent a caress inside his mind as her tendrils were all over his body. “You could have given her a piece of your sssoul—something she craves more than anything else.”
“There is a way to give her a soul?” Llyr asked, latching onto her words despite the unbearable pleasure she inflicted on him once more.
“Fate’s hounds are blind to her and cannot hunt her a sssoul mate. But there are some that may still see her without Fate’s influence. Without the hounds, the mate mussst come first, for a sssoul can only be shared through a melding of true love. Had you made love to her at the end, you could have granted her a piece of your sssoul.”
“I cannot be her soul mate unless she has that, can I? And there is no chance of Fate putting her in my path again if his hounds can’t see her.”
“You must work for her love, Llyr Xanthosss, as must all who wish to share in the Chimera’s power when she awakensss fully. And ssso you must work to find her if you wish to make amendsss. But you have an advantage there, don’t you?”
With that, her torment grew so acute he lost his hold on sanity for several moments, his body torqueing in the grip of all her tails. The tip of one was coiled around his cock, stroking him, another around his balls, tugging and teasing, and a third was buried in his ass, thrusting. She stopped right when he was poised at the edge of release, and he let out a vile curse.
The Diviner laughed and resumed her torture along with the mental lecture. “I am part dragon, and you did come here for punishment. There is just one more thing you must know . . .”
Llyr twisted in her grip, chasing more direct contact and wishing he hadn’t said the things he had to Deva to make her cry. “What is it?” he growled.
She didn’t the answer at first, but her torment increased. Her grip on his cock tightened and she pushed deeper into his ass. He climaxed with a roar, his head flying back, horns hitting writhing coils of flesh. Somehow she succeeded in pushing his orgasm to its very limit, semen erupting from his cock in violent spurts until his balls ached. His cock still spasmed for several more seconds after he was entirely spent and almost to the point of begging for mercy.
Nearly delirious from the torture, he soon found himself cradled again in her arms, oddly content within her soft embrace. Her breasts were a cushion beneath his cheek and he sighed, but tensed when she spoke again, this time her voice completely clear as it echoed through the big cavern.
“Fate’s hounds are on the hunt, drawn to the scent of the magic of the bloodline. The god’s blood makes the bloodline easy to track, and the hounds will hunt down every creature linked to it unless they are stopped.”
Llyr’s blood went cold as her tails drew him away from her, leaving him standing chest-deep in the water staring up at her. “Then we must go protect them all like we promised. How do we control the hounds?”
“You don’t. Deva is the flame. It is her magic that draws the beasts which only she can see. But some are wild, broken free from their master’s leash. They will wreak havoc if they are not tamed. They don’t know the damage they cause . . . the deaths of the bloodline that are imminent.”
Llyr’s mind spun, his adrenaline spiking with the need to carry out Neph’s original missive: To protect Deva at all costs.
“I don’t care about them! Deva’s more important. We’ll keep her here in the Haven, safe. The beasts will never find her.”
“Oh, will you?” the Diviner said, bending down and staring him in the eyes until he felt dizzy and seasick. “And where do you suppose she is now?”
For the first time since she’d drifted away, Llyr tested their link, seeking her out. But it was stretched thin and faint, as though several magical barriers stood between them. He had no sense of her location or her state of mind. All he knew was that she was not in the Haven, nor in any of the higher realms.
Then he remembered her alarm just before Nikhil had arrived. Her insistence that something was wrong with the bloodline already, and she had been right. If she was connected to them so closely, what must they mean to her?
“Oh, Gaia. No. Please tell me she didn’t go out there alone!”
“The flame and the beasts will find each other, Llyr Xanthos. Unless you find them first.”
Fate’s Fools
Fate’s Fools Book One
1
Deva
The ursa claimed that when they went on their pilgrimage as young adults, they did this thing they called “soul searching.” I’d always wondered what this meant. Were their souls vessels that needed to be emptied like old luggage and rifled through to find clues to their true paths? Or were they missing their souls and the pilgrimage was how they found them?
I’d never asked anyone else this question because I kind of already knew the answer—their soul searching was a journey to understand the souls they already possessed. I liked to think my own pilgrimage was the same thing, except I was probably fooling myself.
First of all, I wasn’t really on a pilgrimage. I ran away from home, and my family was probably looking for me.
Secondly, I didn’t have a soul, which was a double-edged sword. It meant I was nearly impossible for my family to find, but it also meant I was missing the one thing that could probably have told me where I belonged in the world, and was fairly certain my quest wasn’t going to lead me to it.
Ever since I left, I’d been going through the motions of this so-called “soul search,” but I hadn’t really learned a whole lot about myself that I didn’t already know. I was an infinitely adaptable creature and a quick study, yet the powers I was born with were still wimpy as fuck. Three weeks into a self-imposed exile from the life I’d known, all I’d really learned were things related to the human world to which I’d fled.
Humanity was both amazingly resilient and heartbreakingly fragile at the same time. I finally understood why the higher races were so drawn to them. Why the dragons used to collect human mates and hoard them like treasure.
That particular instinct wasn’t exactly dormant in me. Thanks to my somewhat unorthodox origins, I was magically linked to a special segment of humanity infused with divine blood. And thanks to that blood, there was something distinctly magical hurting some of the humans of the bloodline.
My deepest instincts urged me to protect them. Whether it was my dragon nature at work, or a trait of one of the other four races in my blood, I kind of wanted to take half the bloodline home with me just to keep them safe. That would have solved a lot of issues, but it wasn’t exactly feasible to show up in the Dragon Glade or one of the other sacred homes of the higher races with a whole pile o
f humans in tow.
Even if I could go home. One of the few things I’d learned about myself was that I was stubborn as hell. I was part human, so that resilience and tenacity was there, but I was also immortal, and therefore not so fragile, at least not on the outside. I couldn’t leave the human world until I’d figured out what was hurting the people I was linked to and why, even if it meant keeping watch over the one thing they possessed that I didn’t: their souls.
The irony was not lost on me.
I’d spent the bulk of my introduction to the human world within the sterile hallways of hospitals, achingly aware of the suffering of every soul. But that was where the victims of these magical creatures had wound up, each one falling into mysterious comas for days on end. So far I’d only been able to observe events, powerless to do anything but hang around and wait for something to happen. Without a clue as to the reason for the attacks or what these creatures were, I had no way to stop them, so it was a waiting game.
Another thing I’d learned in those three interminable weeks was that human food was disgusting. I peeled the piece of bread back from the sandwich I was about to eat and narrowed my eyes at the blob of . . . something . . . beneath.
“What is this?” I poked at the brownish substance and scrunched my nose. A low chuckle carried from the next table in the hospital’s desolate cafeteria.
“Catch of the night,” my dining companion said. “Canned tuna salad is my guess.”
I darted a glance at the man, heat rising in my cheeks at the realization that I’d spoken out loud. My heart skittered at his striking gray-green eyes, a contrast to the warm brown of his skin, which was no less vibrant for the weariness in his bearing, his unkempt hair, and his scruffy chin. He lifted his own sandwich in a little salute and took a bite, eyes twinkling.
Fate's Fools Box Set Page 8