Page 79 of Garden of Poisoned Delights

“It might be easier for you,” he said, then stopped. “You don’t have to do anything, Iason, but it might help if you didn’t think of me as a person so much as a tool, or a…something to use between you.”

Iason raised his brows. Dehumanizing people was something he tried to avoid after a lifetime of hunting light mages for the Archmage. He wasn’t sure he could see Lazaros as anything other than himself—the kind, slightly overwhelmed young man who’d offered Iason forgiveness that he still wasn’t sure he’d earned.

“Oh, I see,” Levi said, stepping forward. “Like this, you mean?” He grabbed a fistful of Lazaros’ hair and yanked him to his knees. Lazaros dropped with a cut-off groan that echoed in the small chamber, and his face flushed pinker still.

“S-Something like that,” Lazaros said.

“I didn’t know toys could talk,” Levi said, with a wicked smile. Even Lazaros’ neck was burning. Levi jostled him a little. “I used to get sacrifices like this, people who liked not being people when you took them. He has the same look in his eyes—or it does?” he added, looking at Lazaros. Lazaros bit his lip so hard that Iason thought it might bleed, then nodded jerkily. “See? Just a toy. Not as pretty as you, maybe.”

Iason rolled his eyes at Levi and took a careful step closer. Lazaros looked under already, watching them as Iason came close enough to touch. They were still outside the sigil, but Iason could feel its effects more strongly now, the heat coursing through him as he locked eyes with Levi.

“If he’s a toy?—”

“It,” Levi said.

Iason wasn’t about to call him that, even if Lazaros wanted it. “Then we can use him when we want to.”

“That’s the point,” Levi said, and let go of Lazaros’ hair as Iason dragged Levi closer. Levi was wearing a silk chiton that barely covered him, sliding over his skin like water, and Iason could feel his hard cock as they pressed together. Levi, too, was clearly affected by the spell.

They kissed lazily, Lazaros kneeling quietly beside them as Levi slipped off his chiton and started tugging at Iason’s clothes. It was odd to do this in front of someone else, but it helped that Lazaros was so still and quiet, and the heat running through him from the sigil eased some of Iason’s nerves.

“We could use its holes between us,” Levi said, biting at Iason’s neck, “like an offering at a temple.”

“I don’t get those.” Iason could have sworn he heard Lazaros whimper, and glanced down to find Levi had his free hand clenched in Lazaros’ hair.

“You will. You can ignore them if you want, but if it’s willing and warm, well.” He pushed Lazaros onto the sigil, which pulsed with power. He backed into the sigil himself, dragging Iason with him, and Iason withdrew slightly as Levi pulled Lazaros between them. He slipped a finger in Lazaros’ mouth, and Lazaros’ jaw went slack, his chest heaving, eyes unfocused.

“It’s just a hole,” Levi said, and Iason felt Lazaros shudder as Levi pulled Iason in for another kiss. Lazaros was pressed between them, and Iason felt hot breath on his skin.

Levi grabbed Lazaros’ head with both hands, and Iason kept his gaze fixed on Levi as his cock slid over Lazaros’ tongue. He even acted like a toy, mouth open, letting Levi guide his head back and forth along Iason’s cock, and Iason grabbed Levi and bit down hard on his ear.

“That’s right,” Levi said, smiling indulgently. “It’s still just us.”

* * *

It had been some time since he’d had a proper offering.

Levi did not, as a rule, spend much time in his shrines. Sometimes he and Iason would shift forms and race through the waters toward the mainland, and they’d see a small pile of shells on the coast with a fish, or an offering on an outcropping with some netting holding it tight against the slick stone. But these weren’t for him, Levi, they were for the Leviathan. Levi lived in a coquina house with his man and their adopted daughter and a water dragon who slept in the tub. Leviathan, the Tempest, was the storm. Levi was both, though for the first time in his long existence, he found the balance between both seemed perfectly settled.

And that, likely, was due to his bond with his companion. Iason was the wind, the kind that whipped storms into frenzies or soothed heated brows on summer days, brought rain to water crops or funnel clouds to destroy them.

At the moment, though, Levi was thinking less about the ephemeral and complicated companion bond and more that Iason looked lovely when he was being pleasured, and while he’d never think that of himself, Levi could see the truth of him. Shallow pools were pretty enough to look at, but in bright enough sun, you could see everything there was to see in mere moments. The deep ocean, now, that was something different. Beautiful creatures swam alongside terrifying ones, working together to create a perfect, balanced ecosystem. That was how Levi thought about Iason—it was everything that went into the shape of him that Levi loved, all the razor-sharp teeth and camouflage and predator’s instincts just as much as anything beautiful and delicate, like sea glass or the coral that closed at a touch.

Iason might never understand how Levi saw him, but obviously, he wasn’t the only one to find Iason attractive. Lazaros was clearly enjoying being used like a toy and Levi suspected he would have enjoyed it even without the thick, heady swirl of magic on the air, so saturated that Levi could taste it at the back of his throat. It wasn’t dangerous, but it was a sudden undertow in an otherwise calm sea, and there was a prickle of awareness at the base of his neck that told him that it would be for the best to clear this strange aura sooner rather than later. It felt like an old amphora from a shipwreck, gasses building and building until eventually the pressure would be too much to contain.

Levi let the magic swirl, a distant storm gathering on the horizon, and pushed Lazaros to take more of Iason’s cock. Iason made a sound, a groan caught behind his teeth, and Levi remembered how it had been with them in the beginning, how difficult it’d been to make Iason let go—and how satisfying it’d been, when he’d broken. He didn’t think Iason was trying to be quiet for the same reasons as before, but he still wanted him to enjoy himself. “Mmm, don’t be quiet, wizard, let me hear you. When I give you a gift, you should let me know you like it, don’t you think?”

Iason’s eyes flashed at him, but Levi responded by gently easing Lazaros even closer, letting the younger man choke on Iason’s cock. This time, Iason didn’t hold back his moan.

“That’s better,” Levi purred, fingers tugging on Lazaros’ hair, and he could hear a moan from him, too. He was so distracted by how lovely it was watching Iason, hearing him moan while Lazaros choked between them, that it took him a moment to feel the difference in the magic that was swirling around them.

“I think it’s working,” he said, focusing, and ah, yes, the magic was a slower pulse now, like a heartbeat easing into sleep. The magic still felt powerful and potent, but the ebb was encouraging.

Also encouraging was the flush on Iason’s face, his breathing going faster as he fucked Lazaros’s throat, and those were signs Levi recognized all too well. “I like this,” he said to Iason, no longer thinking of the magic, “watching you fuck a toy. Does it feel good on your cock when it chokes?”

“Fuck,” Iason said succinctly. “Fuck, yes.”

The magic’s pulse ebbed again, but gradually began to increase in speed. Iason was close, but this wasn’t enough to completely break the spell, and Levi knew it wouldn’t work with just this alone. “We need more.”

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