FIVE CHAPTERS FOR TODAY!!
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Malich lay sleeping on the floor like a newborn baby, his office in tatters now that they’d christened every surface with her bare arse, and his lineage completely emptied from him. He had an appetite that matched her own and her heart was his for the taking, but she’d never simply tell him that. It would make things too easy.
Arya watched him sleep, his blue electric currents dancing about him every once and a while. He must be having a nightmare, but what could arguably the most powerful man within the planes have to fear?
She ran her fingers through his fine curls, wondering how it came to be that a man as exquisite as he had found her. She wouldn’t allow herself to think of what would have become of her if someone less forgiving had stumbled across her. She was found by Malich because she was meant to. Perhaps the Gods had given her to him as fulfillment of a promise. Perhaps it was the reverse and it was shethe Gods owed a promise to, for the things to come.
Arya had gone into that water in the darkness a corpse and came out of it the likes of a God. That much she knew. Her blood felt different in her veins and her power, which was mainly muted before, raged to be unleashed now. But it was as foreign to her as feeling love, which she still wasn’t sure she felt.
The Seelie Court called to her in her dreams now. She could still smell the dirt, feel the light from its skies and taste the salty mist of the waterways. All of it filled her senses, overwhelmed them. She ached to go back, to explore. Or perhaps what she thought of as an ache was the magic, beckoning her home.
“You watch me as if you suspect I might stop breathing,” Malich’s deep voice interrupted her thoughts. She smiled and crawled over to where he still lay naked, nestling herself into his arms.
“Something is coming,” she told him. She could feel it. The moment she’d burst through the surface of that water something had awakened. At first she thought it was Drakor, but after taming the beast, she knew the origin of that feeling came from elsewhere.
Malich swallowed hard. He knew something and he wasn’t telling her. Again with his godsdamned secrets, she sighed. Arya was no fool. She knew he kept things from her, things he felt she didn’t need to know. She hated it. He wanted her fully open to him and yet he could put up walls and facades whenever he wished. Even if she did love him he’d never know it. Perhaps then he’d understand how it felt to be kept in the dark, unaware.
“Well whatever it is, we’ll conquer it together,” he smiled, “but first you’re in dire need of lessons on etiquette.”
“Sod-off,” she gave him a gentle slap across the face and climbed to her feet. “I don’t want to change who I am for those vultures.”
“No one is asking you to change, just be a bit more refined.”
Arya narrowed her eyes at him. “Where’s the fun in that? Would you really have me be a beautiful fool, like Sen and every other royal female within the courts?” She asked, clothing herself.
“Ah, so you’ve finally come to terms with your beauty,” he smirked.
“Do not change the subject lover.”
“Soon to be your husband.”
“Maybe,” she curled her lips into a sly grin of her own, “but a husband wouldn’t keep secrets as you do.”
“A word,” Mekhi came storming into Malich’s office, ignoring the stark naked Majii and Arya’s half naked form. His eyes were turned to the floor and remained there until they’d both clothed themselves completely.
“Speak your peace brother.”
“Preceptor Nyx, he’s…he’s dead.”
Both Arya and Malich’s heads whipped in his direction. Dead?A preceptor? One with the sort of gifts Nyx contained could not be killed easily. Now Malich’s secrecy made sense. He was trying to protect her because he knew she was the only one who could deal with such a matter, save Alara. Perhaps Alara wasthe assailant. She’d welcome the opportunity to return the favor of slitting Alara’s throat if she were. She owed preceptor Nyx that much at least.
Turning to Arya, Malich says, “Excuse us my love.”
“Am I not your equal or soon to be?” She asked. It was a challenge for him to either admit his intentions or stop keeping secrets.
“Submission to me only,” he promised, “Arya please.”
And there it was, the proverbial line in the sand. He’d rather make his intentions known than give up his secrets. She’d be in submission to only him, and he’d leave her shrouded in darkness in order to protect her from things unknown. Arya left the room, but she let him know she wasn’t pleased.
She didn’t want to hang around the palace, so she winnowed herself to the alumni living quarters. The moment she did Lumi went storming past her on the warpath. “What did I miss?” Arya turned to Rayu.
“Where is the little shit?” Lumi seethed, scouring every room. Rayu and Arya followed. “You better hide because when I find you I’m going to slice off your manhood!”
“Do I even want to know?” Arya asked.
Curling his lips into a sideways grin Rayu explained, “It appears Jax earned those high marks that gave him second place, dropping Lumi to third I might add, by confiscating a pair of her underwear after she opened herself to him.” Arya’s mouth dropped open. “She overheard him telling Ihsan about it and he’s been cowering in hiding ever since.”
“Never a dull moment within these walls,” Arya chuckled.
“And what of the walls at the palace?”
“Secretive. Nothing but wall-to-wall secrets of which I’m sure the Majii believes is for my good, but it’s more than likely not.”
Rayu replied rather suggestively, “You and the Majii aren’t the only ones quarreling. Thanks to the iceberg adorning your ring finger and preceptor Ihsan’s adverse reaction to it, he and Navi seem to be having a bit of a lovers quarrel. Perhaps you can help him kiss his woes and make them better.”
Arya eyed her slippery-tongued friend. “Why Rayu, I do believe your affinity for gossip and your ability to stir things up a bit can rival any old dame,” she smiled, then erased the smile as quickly as it came, “But be careful of that which you speak or one might lose his tongue. His royal highness has eyes everywhere, and ears.”
Rayu understood the warning in her words and inclined his head in gratitude. Her smile returned and she padded to Ihsan’s quarters. She wanted to check on her former flame and told herself she was simply returning the kindness he’d shown her in the darkness.
She still remembered the words he spoke to her as she lay there dying. She couldn’t speak, but she’d heard.
When she entered his chambers she froze. He was in the process of changing. A girl with more of a moral compass would turn away and leave, but she couldn’t. She took in the sight of him, allof him before he noticed her watching. She searched for some clever lie to tell him but her tongue wouldn’t work. Oh Gods this man was beautiful, and blessed. His smooth dark skin only accentuated that body of his…the body Arya used to dream about unveiling with trembling fingers.
“Most women would turn away to find a man in this state of undress,” Ihsan’s lips turned up into a sly grin.
“I’m not most women, and you have no idea how often I dreamt of seeing you like this,” she boldly replied. Fear flashed across those deep brown eyes of his. He quickly crossed the room, not bothering to clothe himself, closing and locking the door behind her. Now she was the one afraid. “I should go.”
“I won’t stop you if you wish to leave, but you may not get another chance like this.”
His words stopped her feet from moving. She knew she should but he had her curiosity. Arya swallowed hard, “Another chance?”
Standing behind her, he whispered into her ears, his lips grazing its lobe causing her to bite down on her bottom lip, “I’m going to kiss you. Take from it what you wish, but I will not be denied at least that much. If he should find out and wish to put me to death because of it, so be it, but I am no longer content with regrets. I will have only one when we are done here.”
She turned around to face him and trembled at his close proximity. Surely he had the shackle marks of a slave rooted at his wrists, but he was anything but. His eyes bore down into hers, devouring her whole. Suddenly there wasn’t enough space within the entire world to quench the thirst she had for him.
“I cannot betray him. You know what he’s capable of.”
“Aye, that I do,” Ihsan nodded, “but perhaps just this once I’d be willing to suffer for it. For you.”
Arya stiffened. She battled with her memories of his torture at Dax’s hand and the magnificent man standing before her now. He hooked his hand underneath her chin and lifted it until they’re eyes met, until he found surrender in her eyes. Ever so delicately he placed his lips against hers, shattering her resolve. He could’ve taken her in that moment, but he didn’t. Instead, he backed her up to the door, opened it, and promptly kicked her out.
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