Page 16 of Fool's Bargain

“Nymphaea fever?” Kyril asked.

I grimaced. Nymphaea fever presented when someone’s soul mate was alive but out of reach. If that was the case, we needed to be on guard. Nymphs in the throes of fever had a terrifying tendency to mount any creature with a dick.

“She’d never forgive herself if she gave into the urge with a male.”

My brothers and I shared equal looks of concern.

“I don’t suppose we have any spare ursa on hand to help her, do we?” Dorian asked. “If she’s sinking into mania, we’ll have to stall her training until it’s handled. If it’s a male at the root of it...”

He gave me a grim look and I considered sharing what she’d said to me earlier today. If she’d really heard a call from Fate and wasn’t heeding it, she was in serious danger of a manic break. Unfortunately, the only solution to the problem would disqualify her from joining the ranks of the Thiasoi.

Thiasoi maidens remained virgins for their entire lives due to the boost their untapped fertile power gave them in a fight. But that put them at greater risk for mental instability if they ever developed a deep emotional bond with another, or if Fate bound their souls to a mate, particularly a male. The well of untapped power was a ridiculous quirk of physiology of the females of our race. Simply having intercourse with a male and reaching climax together while being penetrated released a surge of magic that could overwhelm her lover’s mind, if he was unprepared. Holding on to that magic indefinitely gave nymphs the advantage of a deeper connection to the River once they were initiated by the Diviner, and it became a failsafe of sorts if they were ever captured by a male enemy. That was one of the reasons the females of our race had survived while the males had been rendered all but extinct while our old enemy had roamed the earth. The satyrs didn’t have such defenses, and were much easier to seduce to boot, but the females’ resulting magic had to be carefully managed lest it grow unstable.

“She’d never give in,” Dorian said.

“Wherein lies the issue,” I said.

“Fucking double standard if you ask me,” Kyril griped. “They’re still more powerful than us even when they’re not virgins. If they want to fuck a man, they should be allowed to.”

“That defeats the purpose,” I said. “Their virginity is a secret weapon. It’s what makes them so dangerous. But we shouldn’t speculate. We don’t know if that’s what the issue is here. We should just talk to her. As her teachers, it’s our responsibility.” I paused and glanced around at them, then added, “And as her friends.”

And likely as heronlyfriends, considering how her class had shunned her. None of the female Thiasoi instructors would take on a student so green. At least that had been their excuse. But Kyril, Dorian, and I had known it was for a less benign reason.

When Ione’s lover had died, Ione had wielded the blade that killed her. It had been a mercy killing—Pithys had been captured by the enemy and corrupted, her mind no longer her own. Ione had had no choice but to end her lover’s suffering. As closely melded as they’d been, Ione had to have seen some of the darkness Meri tortured her victims with, not to mention feeling the slice of her own blade as it speared her lover’s heart.

She’d never have admitted it out loud, but there had been whispers that if they’d only committed deeply enough to each other for a blood meld, Pithys would have been strong enough to resist the mind control.

The three of us understood all too well the sacrifices required to survive that darkness. We carried our own scars as well, inside and out. So there had been no question that the three of us should take on her training ourselves.

“Do you think she’d be honest if it’s one of us she’s pining for?” Dorian asked.

His worried frown conveyed what he wasn’t saying. If there was a nymph in the Haven for any of us to fall for, we’d have found her. Our visit to the Diviner’s caved-in former home made it obvious all three of us wanted the same thing: a mate. If our protégé was in love with one ofus, we were in trouble because we didn’t return her feelings. No matter how heady that moment of affection had been earlier, it didn’t mean I was in love with her. And that right there was the core of the dilemma. If Fate had called her to a soul mate, she’d wind up wrestling with her obligations to her lover’s memory and might not heed the call. But if Ione descended into nymphaea madness over unfulfilled or unrequited love, she could become as dangerous as Meri herself.

“I have a feeling it isn’t about any of us.” At least I hoped that was true, but that didn’t solve the problem.

“I’m seeing her later,” Dorian said. “I’ll talk to her.”

“We should talk to her together. Safer that way.” I reached for the low bush I’d draped my wrap over. My hand hit resistance, fingertips tingling as if I’d just pushed into the cascade of the waterfall itself. “What the—”

I was pulled under, the world pivoting away, an unseen current shearing through me.

8

Theo

Ilanded in an unfamiliar place, dizzy from the sudden displacement of adriftI hadn’t initiated. If I’d traveled myself, I’d have been steadier on my feet. Beside me, Kyril and Dorian materialized too, and I relaxed a little.

“What the fuck just happened?” Dorian asked. “And where the fuck are we?”

We were in a room with a decadent carpeted floor. Opulent furnishings surrounded us, including a long, L-shaped sofa with a low, glass table before it. Other furnishings of matching richness filled out the place—large paintings graced the walls alongside shelves filled with books and artifacts. A set of thick draperies covered one entire wall, and the sounds of splashing water echoed from somewhere beyond. My insides twisted uncomfortably, a sensation I knew but wasn’t prepared to believe.

Darting to the curtains, I tore them open. Bright sun blasted in, but that wasn’t the reason for our collective gasps of shock.

The windows I’d uncovered looked out onto a huge rooftop courtyard in the center of which was a large, round pool. The water churned as if some enormous pair of beasts was fucking, water sloshing over the edges and wetting the flagstones all the way to the windows.

But there weren’t two enormous beasts in it. Only a man and a woman—or what appeared to be a man and a woman, but they may as well have been beasts.

The pair were at the very center, suspended halfway out of the water as if it were only a couple feet deep, though the bottom was at least six feet beneath them both. The woman had her arms clenched around the man and rode his cock like a champ. But below her torso, where her legs should have been, were dozens of long, flowing, tentacle-like appendages, a collection of tails. Her tails coiled around the man’s legs, hips, and waist, and one of those tails probably penetrated him from behind as thoroughly as he penetrated her.

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