novelraw Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Nadia pushed Geeta’s hands away. “Don’t. You took the worst of the pain away already.”
“It’s my job,” Geeta insisted lifting her hands toward Nadia’s still aching head.
She met the other woman’s tired gaze. “Stop, Geeta. How do you think I’ll feel if I let you heal me, and you fall over dead as a result?”
Geeta sighed. “I just hate when I know you hurt, and I can help.”
She reached over and squeezed her best friend’s hand, then relaxed her head back against the pillows they’d scavenged from her chambers. After Gregor and Jon had left with Pell, the two-timing viper fish, they’d sent the water back to the underground lake, grabbed dry clothes from her chamber, dragged pillows and blankets into the gate cave, then collapsed in the nest they’d made at the base of the gate to recharge on the a’mi emanating from it.
She looked over at her sleeping nephew, sprawled across the gate cave’s two wooden chairs in borrowed clothes about two sizes too big, his long legs hanging over either arm of one chair, his back stretching across to the other where his head and shoulders rested on the second cushioned seat.
“I’m still finding it hard to believe we’ve found him,” she whispered to Geeta.
“Soon he’ll be in Diomere where he belongs, thank the gods.” The older woman looked at Nadia. “But will he be returning alone?”
Nadia closed her eyes, so afraid to hope despite Gregor’s words before he’d left. A knock sounded from the round door of her chamber. Reis sat up, face weary, as Geeta went to answer it. Her a’mi stirred as soon as Geeta opened the door, telling her exactly who was on the other side.
She sat up slowly as Gregor stepped through the door, his gaze scanning her from her ratty hair down to her bare toes. “You’re well?”
She nodded, unable to look away, the a’mi pulsing off the gate seeming to grow stronger with his presence. “A few more moments here and I’ll be good as new.”
He looked up, studied the gate curiously, then back to her. “Good.”
“Now that the threat to our Prince has been dealt with, I think it’ll be safe for me to take him to my home for a good meal and sleep in a real bed,” Geeta said, biting back a smile.
Nadia nodded, barely sparing a glance for the nephew she’d spent so much of her life hunting. The door closed with a soft click and they were alone. Nadia curled her legs under her to stand.
“Don’t.”
She raised a brow, irritation pushing aside some of her uncertainty. She stood and realized her head no longer ached.
Gregor sighed. “You’re going to make things difficult for the rest of our lives, aren’t you?”
“Be careful what you wish for,” she said, biting her lip.
Gregor crossed the cave to stand in front of her and took her hands. “I’m sorry I doubted you.”
Her brows climbed her forehead. “I made it hard for you to do otherwise, Gregor.” When he shook his head, and opened his mouth to protest, she lifted a hand to his cheek. “But if you need it, then I forgive you.”
He released a breath. Hope swelled in her chest, and it was her turn to hold her breath.
He rested his forehead against hers. “The dreams were real. What we did. The secrets we shared.” She nodded and he wrapped his arms around her. “I love you, Nadia de Quinones. Please tell me you feel the same.”
Nadia closed her eyes and inhaled, trying to ease the pressure in her chest, knowing she had to tell him what loving her would really mean. “Before this goes any further, I need to tell you about heartbonding an A’mi.”
She tried to pull away, but he tightened his arms. “No. Tell me what you think I need to know, but don’t pull away.”
She stiffened, saw the stubborn set of his chin, and huffed out a breath. “Fine, but we’re going to discuss your highhanded tendencies in the very near future, Gregor.” She ignored his answering smile and settled into his arms. “A heartbond is when one’s a’mi recognizes its other half. They search out each other, first, in dreams. It’s something coveted by most A’mi. You humans would call it true love. But it’s more than that. A heartbonded couple are connected at the most basic level. The bond strengthens them both, but it also has two great weaknesses. If one dies, so too will the other follow.”
Gregor frowned. “Even if one isn’t A’mi?”
“Yes. If we complete the bond, my a’mi will fill us both. You’ll become A’mi, manifesting your own abilities which I’ll be able to access, as you’ll be able to access mine.”
His eyes widened. “And the other weakness?”
“Our connection to Mondami is what keeps those of us with a’mi alive. Without it, we enter a’mi starvation. Geeta, Jon, and I have been without that connection for years. Geeta is very close to succumbing, only the small amount of a’mi trickling through this gate is keeping her alive.”
His arms tightened around her. “You have this access in Diomere?” he asked.
“The remaining active gate is located there.”
He lifted his head to study the gate behind her. “Unless we figure out how to activate this gate, giving other, more dangerous, A’mi the chance to come through and possibly endanger the people of Thuno.”
Nadia’s heart clenched. She’d somehow found a man worth her trust. One who cared for the wellbeing of those around him. The last of her doubts faded. She shuddered as the last part of herself, which she’d held back, opened to him.
She forced herself to breathe past her suddenly pounding heart. “I love you, Gregor Cyrene.”
A smile stretched across his face. She lifted her mouth to meet his in a kiss which sent desire shooting through her body.
He pulled back. “You won’t regret it.” He kissed her again before pulling her in tighter against his body.
The gate pulsed behind her, and she addressed his worry. “You love me, yet I’m A’mi. I think we can agree that good and bad exist everywhere. If it looks as though things will be the way they were before, the Gate Keepers will close the gate.”
His smile faded. “How can we be sure the Gate Keeper will close it on our say?”
Following instinct, she threaded her fingers through his, and raised their clasped hands, pressing them against the gate’s softly glowing pillar. A strong wind blew their hair back from their faces smelling of the dampness of fallen leaves, yet fresh and alive like green growing things.
The gate’s voice filled their minds. The Sankta Hogo-sha must take their places. Complete the key. Complete the bond.
With each word it spoke she was filled with a surge of power so intense that, like a bolt of lightning in their blood, it bowed both their backs. Knowledge filled them both, their lives stretching before them. Now he fully understood the heartbond, what he would gain, what he would lose. When the gate released them, they fell to their knees on the pillows breathing hard.
He turned his head, his pale amber eyes glowing with an inner fire. “We’re to be the next Gate Keepers in Thuno.”
She frowned. “Yes, but I’m unsure how we bond ourselves to the gate so we can control it.”
Gregor pointed to the symbols carved into the gate. “Those are the symbols for the five elements.”
Nadia jerked her gaze from the gate to Gregor. “You know of the five elements of a’mi?”
He met her gaze, a pink tinge coloring his cheeks. “My brother and I used to spy on Asha’s priests when we were kids. One night, I saw them burning scrolls and books in some dark ceremony. I was appalled. My love of reading was second only to my love of pretending to go on A’mi adventures with my brother. After the priests left, I saved as many of the texts from the fire as I could. One of them, a scroll in a glass tube that hadn’t broken when the priests threw it on the fire, contained a translated copy rolled inside the original. It was a story about a human king and the beautiful Mer princess who saved him from drowning. I used it and its translation to teach myself the A’mi language.”
“That’s some hobby, Gregor.”
He smiled wryly. “More like an obsession.” He looked back up at the gate. “A scroll I recently acquired is about the Arenatou Gate. It tells of the five Gate Keepers, who each belong to an element. The Gate Keeper that belongs to Arenatou controls Air.”
“My strongest element is Water,” Nadia said and reached to trace the upside down triangle symbol for her element.
Gregor lifted his hand to hover behind hers. “For the Arenatou Gate, the scroll said Air must touch Air together.” He glanced at her. “Do you think for Thuno’s Gate Water must touch Water together?”
Nadia pulled her hand from the symbol as words bubbled up and out of her. “Do you accept my heartbond? As Keepers, we’ll live a very long time. We’ll watch friend and family die. We’ll control the flow of peoples between this world and that of the A’mi. Do you accept the gate’s burden with me?”
He laced his fingers through hers, joining their hands. “Forever,” he swore.
This time when their lips met, her a’mi arrowed into him, tying them together in an unbreakable bond. Before they could catch their breath, her a’mi urged her to lift their joined hands to the gate, over the symbol for water. Bright light burst from the columns, enveloping them in warmth. A thick cord of light shot from the gate, split in two, and attached to each of them, then met, split again to meet back up between them, creating a complete circuit. The golden cord faded from sight, but she could still feel it there, connecting them on the most basic of levels.
I can’t believe this is all real. I’m heartbonded to an A’mi, one of the mysterious Mer. She’s so beautiful. I want to reach over and push that robe off her shoulders, to run my hands over her smooth as silk skin. To taste her.
Nadia blushed as Gregor’s thoughts sounded clearly in her mind. She imagined his hands on her naked flesh and shivered. Nadia. His voice deepened, making her melt, as he too caught her thoughts.
Gregor turned and pulled her by their joined hands until they knelt on one of the pillows thigh to thigh, stomach to stomach, chest to chest. He reached up with his free hand and pulled the belt to her robe. It unraveled and he pushed it off her shoulders.
He shook his head once when she reached for his clothing. “I want to look.”
Breasts swollen, pulse throbbing between her legs, Nadia gave Gregor what he wanted. His eyes shimmered more gold than brown as they lingered on her lips, her throat, the furled buds of her nipples, the glistening curls hiding her sex. Biting back a moan, she watched his finger trace the path his eyes had just taken, until they fluttered over the pulse of desire.
“Gregor.”
His gaze flicked to hers, then back down, a sensuous smile pulling up the corners of his mouth. He leaned forward and kissed her, his tongue stroking deep into her mouth as his fingers repeated the slow, teasing path over her other breast. Pulling back, his hands each moved to shape a breast, then without warning, he lowered his head and sucked one sensitive nipple into his mouth.
Her hands fisted in his hair as her back bowed, giving him even better access. He switched breasts and her body rocked into his, unable to remain still as the waves of pleasure washed over her. Nadia felt her desire dripping down her thighs, sure she’d never been so wet. Gregor raised his head, his nostrils flaring, and she knew he could smell the heavy musk of her desire that surrounded them like a cloud.
Releasing his hand, she pushed his jacket off his shoulders and reached for the hem of his shirt. He lifted his arms. She pulled the shirt over his head and tossed it aside.
Gregor smoothed her hair behind her shoulders and let his smoldering gaze roam over her nakedness. “You’re so beautiful.” He ran the back of his hand over her stomach, between her breasts, and around to the back of her neck. “So soft. I want to taste every inch of your skin, leave my mark so you know who you belong to.”
Breath catching, she laid her hand on his thigh and smoothed it up to his groin. She cupped him through his pants, making him jerk, then gently squeezed. “So long as you remember who it is you’ll belong to. I will cut the fingers off any who dare lay a hand on what’s mine, and gouge the eyes from any who dare stare too long.”
Gregor laughed out loud then yanked on her neck, making her fall with him onto the pillows scattered around them. Their mouths fused, tongues dueling in a battle as old as the gods. He kissed the corner of her mouth, her jaw, and her neck. He nipped her neck and returned to her mouth. She kissed him back, hot and wild, sending another wave of sensual heat through her blood. She was lost to him, rubbing and arching against him in wild abandon. A groan burst from him, vibrating through her, sparking sensitive nerve endings until her moan joined his. He caressed down the curve of her waist, over the crease of her leg.
Nadia shivered and bit him gently on the neck. He groaned again. Ravenous, she kissed her way up his throat, along his jaw, to his mouth. His hand slipped between her thighs and cupped her sex. She moaned, sensation flooding every nerve ending in her body until it throbbed between her legs.
His finger entered her and she saw stars. Her back arched. Another finger joined the first and Nadia was sure her body was going to come apart. She ran her hand over the bulge at the front of his pants, feeling the heat emanating through the fabric.
She pulled at his waistband. “Need these off. Now.”
He chuckled and flicked the swollen pearl of flesh between her legs, stealing the breath from her lungs. As pressure built low in her stomach, her hands found their way to his hair. He flicked her clit again. Her hands spasmed, clenching his hair in her fists as flames began to lick at her from inside. He curled the fingers inside her, stroking a spot that sent the flames higher.
She was a mindless mass of writhing flesh, an instrument he played to perfection. He stroked that spot again, the heel of his hand pressing against her clit. The pressure built until she wasn’t sure if she wanted to pull away or press forward. He ground his hand on the little sensitive nub while vigorously stroking that spot inside until the pressure and flames erupted into a volcano of sensation that had her crying out his name.
She collapsed back on the pillows, spent. Gregor pulled his hand from between her thighs and rolled away long enough to rid himself of his pants. He moved between her legs, his mouth lowering to one of her breasts and sucked the tight tip into his mouth. Nadia moaned as the pressure returned.
She lifted her hand, and closed it around the erection brushing her hip. He groaned. He laved her sensitive nipples. She smiled and moved her hand up and down his length, over the sensitive tip.
He lifted his head and pulled her hand from his erection. “Next time. Right now I need to be inside you.”
His words brought a fresh rush of moisture between her thighs. He nudged her legs apart, held both her hands above her head, and looked deep into her eyes as he slowly pushed inside her. Nadia moaned at the stretching sensation, the pressure building with each inch he slid into her soaking channel until he pressed against her womb. The love he felt for her shone from his gaze, pulsed along their bond, adding fuel to the blazing inferno inside her. A tear leaked down her cheek. This was a man who’d never do as her father had to her mother. Honor was in his blood. His brow creased in concern.
Nadia held his gaze. “I never dreamed I’d find someone like you. I love you.”
He smiled and slowly eased out of her. “I’ve loved you since the night I kissed you on the catwalk of that seedy tavern.”
He covered her mouth with his and surged back into her. The pressure built as their tongues dueled and he pounded into her, his chest rubbing against her sensitive nipples with each thrust. She teetered on the edge of a cliff. Each thrust pushed her further toward the edge.
He ripped his mouth from hers. “So hot and tight. So good.” His words came out in growl. “I look forward to doing this to you for the rest of our lives.”
The breathless cry of her release as their bodies slid against each other only increased his pace until his every muscle stood out in sharp relief across his neck and shoulders. He pounded into her once, twice more then with a groaned curse, threw his head back as he came in hot, thick spurts inside her. Their bond to the gate snapped fully into place with a surge of power so strong that both of them reached the peak again.
The gate’s voice echoed through the bond. It is done.