Flame of Cytherea: Cytherean Chronicles book 1 Page 12
She shook her head, it was more than that. He trusted her to guard him, trusted her with his life. Although she had known other men, including her brother, that gave weight to her opinion, no one else before had trusted her to that extent.
She had also sensed that despite how wonderful last night was, he had held himself back, as if afraid to hurt her. Even their second time together she had been so tight, he must have been concerned he would hurt her, strain her center to the point of pain. Her mother had also warned her of that possibility, if a man became to rough and how to treat the pain.
In short, he was the best man she had ever met, and she had no plans to let him go, ever…
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Sally did learn something about herself this afternoon. Despite being barely above five feet tall she did not cow easily. In fact, her new outgoing nature that had been a surprise to her the last few days, turned into a feisty stubbornness that she could not back down from when confronted.
They had left the first town shortly after lunch and reached the second town in late afternoon. When they discovered the enemy missing and unsure what it meant, Justin and Anton had started arguing about what to do. Apparently Justin was confident enough to push it, but not sure enough to pull out his veto power through the oath and just order it done.
Anton wanted to split off, take most of the powerful talents and go after them with a group of about seventy five at high speed, to catch up before they could combine the troops and set another trap or escape back south.
Justin on the other hand argued that if they did that, the bulk of their soldiers would be all but helpless to a small enemy band of strong talents, especially that enemy mage, although he did agree they needed to go faster somehow. Finally, Sally had enough of it.
“Stop it both of you, you’re going in circles and getting nowhere.”
When Justin and Anton both glared down at her, instead of shrinking back her back stiffened and she held her head high, glaring up at them in return. Perhaps it helped a little, that she knew they were frustrated at the situation and not her, but either way she had been proud of herself at that moment.
She continued, “Why not just increase the pace of the whole group.”
Anton looked at her witheringly, but she held his gaze as he said, “Because the soldiers will tire too much. It’s too dangerous and makes us more vulnerable to ambush.”
She snorted. “Did you forget the person you are arguing with is The Flame of Cytherea? He can just turn restore on full for five minutes every hour to keep the soldiers fresh.”
They both lost their glares at that point and started to gape.
She said innocently, “What? Doesn’t that address all your concerns while still gaining the goal of faster movement?”
She struggled to keep a straight face as she heard Nicci’s tinkling laughter and Nora muttering something about men making things to difficult under her breath.
She thought for a moment the prince would blow his top, but finally he just shook his head ruefully, and started giving orders to move out at double time march. He also ordered the scouts to range ahead double the normal distance…
Chapter 15
Justin was exhausted. It had sounded good when Sally said it, but now he was just plain worn out from channeling all that magic all day. The last village they passed had assured them they were only ten or so hours behind, which meant they had closed the distance between them by half and should reach the enemy sometime tomorrow if nothing changed.
He was also pretty sure they wouldn’t have time to set up such an elaborate trap, not with them on their heels like this. He thought back to the argument and wished something wasn’t holding him back on approaching Sally, it had been hot the way she stared them down. He was willing to wait though for whatever needed to happen first, the one thing he understood was timing was everything to a relationship.
He was almost positive she would say yes now, but he was also pretty sure it would be detrimental to a real relationship.
He wondered if he was selfish, wasn’t three enough? Well, yes, more than enough really. That didn’t mean he didn’t have room for another love though did it? Especially one set up by the goddess. He also wondered what would happen next, once the enemy was removed from Abelaweth, but he didn’t think too hard on it, wanting to stay in the moment. He didn’t want to make mistakes.
Luckily after some time he was able to restore himself with a light use of his magic, he knew he would need it based on the looks Kat and Nora gave him. He left it to them to decide and found himself being dragged off by Nora. It was a long night between the both of them and he’d be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy every moment of it.
Early the next morning they discovered the enemy’s response to their pick up in speed. They had picked up the scent of smoke a few miles away and were filled with dread as they increased their pace until stopping when they could see it. They all slowly walked in to the burned out town. People were huddling in what was left of the burned out buildings. Kat looked freaked out, and I guessed it was because the next town was Nerin.
He couldn’t imagine what was going through her mind. The enemy’s ploy regrettably worked, the prince ordered the soldiers to help and he wasn’t going to give a heartless order to continue. As he went through the town, healing burns, sword wounds, and people just plainly beaten he watched in amazement as the earth talents built large buildings out of the ground itself.
The soldiers with lesser talents were not idle, they swept through the town helping to move any food or items that had survived the fire. The building was very basic and clearly just temporary shelter, but it would do until the townspeople could rebuild. It was during this sweep they found something horrible.
He struggled with his anger when he saw the dead. He wanted to let the rage out, he wanted to chase them down and kill them, especially the one who gave the order.
But that was not his purpose. He was a protector, and although he had failed miserably here, his anger would hurt his ability to wield his talent. He slowly calmed at the thought that his anger was a betrayal to those he must protect, a betrayal to the dead that he couldn’t. But he could protect those that would bring justice to the evil that had done this. He took one last look at the pile of bodies, every small child in the village, then turned away looking for a way to help.
It took about three hours to get things set, and after they sent off a flying talent to the capital to ask for aid for the village they continued on. Nerin was untouched when they reached it and they simply kept going, not even stopping to ask about the men they pursued. He did glance at Kat, and her face looked both relieved and guilty. He didn’t bother to ask, he didn’t have to.
They ran into the evening until it got too dark out, then made the camp by firelight. After what they had seen that afternoon, none of them including him was in the mood for sex. They made their beds, all of them quiet and reflective. It was not a restful night, every time he tried to close his eyes and sleep he saw the horror of it behind his eyes. He was not the only one.
Halfway through the night after waking for the fifth time, he reached within and touched his magical talent. As he felt the love of the goddess cradle him and fill him, he was able to drift off into a deeper and untroubled sleep.
He woke up feeling a little better, as if something had been lifted. He kissed all the women good morning, including Sally but on the cheek, but they all looked melancholy. He hoped they would come out of it, he was still upset by it as well, what they had seen in that town was monstrous. He tried to talk to each of them as they jogged a double march all morning, but they were mainly lost in thought.
He couldn’t even get them to smile, and he felt something was wrong, but couldn’t identify it. It was almost as if they’d fell into some kind of fugue. He ran out of time trying to track down his concern when they caught sight of enemy soldiers marching in the other direction. All the soldiers around him, and the four women who were supposed to gu
ard him, screamed in outrage and ran forward.
Something was very wrong, they would never leave him like that.
It struck him finally that he had felt better after embracing his full power, while running he had only been radiating the restoring part of his gift to conserve energy. Perhaps there was more to the burned town than he thought, more to it than just slowing their progress. Hoping he wasn’t wrong about it he reached for his full abilities and sent them out in an explosion of white protective fire. Their charge forward halted as the animal like screams turned to one of confusion.
They had been spelled somehow, most likely a spell left with the pile of young dead children, subtle enough not to be noticed through the horror and anger they felt at that act. Even worse, the two hundred soldiers had turned, and over a hundred more from each side started closing in.
He wondered for about two seconds how the enemy had all their soldiers here before it struck him as obvious. When the enemy commander saw them following he must have sent a quick talent ahead to force march the rest back toward this way. They must have met here in the middle and waited for the Abelawethans.
They still outnumbered the enemy by about five to two, but breaking the spell had left them confused and he wasn’t feeling all that confident.
The sky clouded over and it started to rain. The clouds were out of his reach so he ran over and shook Sally hard.
“Wake up! You are the only one who can stop this!”
Lightning struck.
He flew back forty feet and fought not to pass out at the pain, if he hadn’t been holding his talent, all his magic, both he and Sally might have died. As it was his body was slowly recovering, and the strike seemed to wake Sally up and the sky started to slowly clear.
He heard a roar next to him at the same time Nora appeared, he almost cried in relief that they seemed more like themselves now. Angry, but in control of themselves.
The enemy soldiers seemed focused on him but that strategy seemed to backfire. If they weren’t burned in a swath of flames from an angry Nicci standing over him protectively, they were taken out by compressed air shots from Nora. If they were lucky to get by both they found themselves on the wrong end of a huge tiger claw, their heads ripped off in one impossibly fast swipe.
He was ready if one got through, but the women were fierce and none broke through their three layer defense.
The fight was short and ugly, and they lost close to two hundred of their number due to the poor beginning. He shuddered. If he hadn’t figure it out and cancelled the enemy magic…
He saw Sally, still standing in the same spot, in a struggle he couldn’t see. He spoke softly trying not to break her concentration.
“Where is he Sally, I can’t hold my magic much longer.”
She pointed to the south and he turned and ran, his aura of power leading him. When he got out about fifty feet, he heard a brief scream of pain, then nothing. He turned, and Sally had a satisfied look on her face.
Sally said, “He wasn’t far enough away this time, not from my range. I held him there as he tried to fight me off, once your aura cancelled his magic…” she trailed off and shrugged.
No one wanted to stay there, and everyone was concerned about the other towns, so they marched off again after disposing of the dead, to the next town where they made camp outside it. They would stay there until scouts verified the condition of the other towns. A few scouts who had flying talents volunteered to check on the other villages. He also thought there were more soldiers coming south.
Between the adrenaline and almost losing them he was feeling much more amorous that evening. He grabbed Nicci and she smiled as he led her behind the blanket and into privacy. She was still amazingly tight, but without fear, and extremely enthusiastic. He led her into many different positions and she seemed eager to try them all in one night.
Even he didn’t have that much endurance. But he got through as many as he could. Even the powerful magic gifted to him by the goddess could only take him so far before the body gave out.
Many hours later, and so many orgasms they had lost count, he held her close…
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Nicci rested her head on his chest, his heart beat slowing down after their last round. She had been unsure about that last position, she liked to look in his eyes, see his face. Run her nails down his chest. But he had put her on all fours and mounted her from behind. She had decided after the first five seconds she had a new favorite.
The feeling of how amazingly deep he got, and the angle of his long strokes into her body, had led to her bucking back hard into him with each stroke. She shivered. She wanted to do it again. She smiled mischievously; she had wondered what it would feel like if he ever didn’t hold back, now she knew…
She didn’t think anything would make her feel better than she did right now, in his arms, completely sated. She kissed his chest, then rested her head back on it. She loved the feel of his arms around her, his fingertips drawing lazy circles on her back.
She felt him kiss the top of her head before he asked, “I love you Nicci, will you stay in my arms and sleep with me tonight?”
As she said yes, she knew she had been wrong, very wrong. He had made her feel better, much better, than she had moments ago. She was beaming like an idiot when he led her out. She just couldn’t help it and couldn’t remember a time where she’d been happier. She blushed as Nora and Kat snickered before they moved apart enough for both of them to lie down.
She lay down against him and sighed in contentment as sleep took her.
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Kat was thinking about the future. Now that the invasion seemed to be over she wondered what would happen. Would they settle down? Or was there more for the Flame of Cytherea to do?
She missed her inn and wanted to go back someday, but realistically she couldn’t expect a princess to move to a small village. She doubted Nora would want to do so either. So that would mean either they share him, and he moves back and forth, or she follows. She didn’t like the idea of leaving her tavern for good, but she hated the idea of not seeing Justin for long periods of time.
She decided to talk about it with Nora and Nicci sometime tomorrow, it was something they should discuss together. For all she knew Nicci would be loathe to go back to the castle she grew up in, from what she knew of it, Nicci felt like she had grown up a prisoner.
She also wondered about Sally, he hadn’t even slept with her yet, but she knew he cared for her. She wondered what was holding him back but daren’t ask. Their relationship wasn’t any of her business, at least, not until they had a commitment, and then her only business was negotiating his time.
She closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep…
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Nora was having trouble getting to sleep. After Sally had killed the mage she had tracked where he was and made sure of him, cutting off his head. She was glad no one had seen, she had been crying while she did it and not entirely in control of herself.
None of the other women seemed to have the same reaction. Once Justin broke the spell and they snapped back to reality, she knew it hadn’t hit them as hard. She loved Justin, and swore to herself she would never leave his side, would always be there to protect him. Like she hadn’t been for her sisters, when she had simply slept through their slaughter.
How could she sleep while those she loved were butchered?
Somehow, against her will even, she had found a new family, and a man to love, a good man.
And a fucking piece of shit asshole gets her to forget her promise with a damn spell? It failed to make any sense to her. She was terrified by that fact. And although none of them had died, it was apparent to her she had failed… again.
What if she wasn’t so lucky next time?
It was a long time before she fell asleep, unshed tears gleaming in her eyes.
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Sally’s mind wasn’t on the battle at all, it was on her sex life with Justin. The problem of cours
e being that it was non-existent. She was feeling a lot more confident about who she was. It had just taken time. She thought that had been what he was waiting for, but still she waited.
She knew who she was, she also knew what she wanted, him. And she was tired of waiting for him to ask. She decided if he didn’t ask her by tomorrow afternoon, she would ask him herself, and damn tradition.
She felt much better once she made her choice, after all, either way, she wouldn’t have to wait anymore, and if he said no, she could move on. She closed her eyes and fell into a deep peaceful sleep.
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Cytherea looked down pensively. She was worried and knew she should have more faith in the people she helped bring together.
“What disturbs you so daughter?”
She smiled, wondering that she had ever hated the presence behind her.
“I just worry too much, Justin still has far to go, if he is willing, and they face trouble ahead that will strain their relationship. Justin has worked hard to develop strong ties, and I hope that will be enough, but their time together has been so short. Being tested by enemies is easy, the actions of those closer to home however…”
She smiled wryly when he said, “Trust in love daughter, surely you of all would agree…”
She did trust in love of course, but it became an issue when love pulled someone in two different directions…
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Oh god he thought as he woke up with a warm hot mouth working his length. He wasn’t sure why Kat woke him up every morning with a blowjob, but he sure as heck wasn’t going to question it. He clamped down his lips on a gasp as he felt her swallow down on the tip of his manhood. When they were alone she teased him mercilessly, holding him on the edge seemingly forever.