Page 19 of Fool's Bargain

Tonight couldn’t come fast enough.

9

Ione

“Where the hell is that meathead?” I griped, staring across the beach at the setting sun. Dorian was late, which wasn’t unlike him, but for the last few months he’d been habitually on time. I wasn’t sure whether to be worried or relieved, because if he was late, it might be because he’d finally found a nymph he could settle down with.

I dug my feet into the sand and crouched a little, throwing a few punches at the dummy tied to the stake in the middle of the ring laid out at the edge of the Haven’s forest. The sea stretched behind me and waves crashed in time with my hissed exhalations as I worked through my routine.

My three teachers worried me sometimes, but I couldn’t really blame them for their odd behavior. They’d returned to the Haven more than a year ago after being trapped as prisoners by our old enemy—a nymph who had been one of us at one point before the madness took over. They never shared exactly what she’d done to them, and only Theo bore any visible scars, yet they all had haunted looks I understood all too well. Despite eons of torture, they still manned up and did their duty to our home. Something Ireallycouldn’t fathom myself.

That they could even rise to the occasion of fucking another nymph after enduring Meri’s torture astounded me, yet they did. They were champs, especially after Calder, Neph, and Llyr had all found mates, leaving the other three to step up and share their seed with all the baby-hungry women who’d waited centuries for sons. There were more than enough females of the race, but until we’d destroyed our enemy, there hadn’t been a male born in the Haven in around two thousand years. Normally nymphaea were encouraged to mate before breeding, but in light of the need for more male children, that requirement had been temporarily suspended, and any male of the higher races was welcome to help spread the love, so to speak.

Thank Dion I didn’t have to go throughthatordeal. I shivered at the thought of motherhood and praised the nymphs who wanted it. Becoming a Thiasoi soldier was my way of honoring Pithys’ death, but the plus side was that it meant I never needed to worry about that expectation. No male seed would ever taint my womb.

I bounced back on my feet, rolling the tension from my shoulders and flexing my hands before tightening them into fists once more. Training for this had become my life. Dorian knew that, damn him. The other two had been on time for our sessions and the trio was always on the same wavelength where I was concerned. They were eerily attuned to each other, but that made it less surprising that they hadn’t settled down with a trio of nymphs.

“They’re probably off fucking each other somewhere and didn’t invite me because I have a vagina,” I muttered before snorting a laugh. It wasn’t a huge stretch, but it still stung to consider. They’d become more than just my teachers over the past year. They were my friends, so I hoped they’d tell me if they’d taken mates, especially if they’d decided to make it official between the three of them.

I was the only one of the current class of Thiasoi trainees being trained by the men. I wasn’t sure why three of the oldest, most powerful Thiasoi had decided I was worth their trouble when everyone else in the order shunned me. I’d stood a little too close to the fire during the war and still carried the scars. What the others didn’t get was that theonlyway for me to heal was to follow in Pithys’ footsteps. We may not have been blood-melded mates, but she’d been my life. Her pain had become my own at the end, leaving me with a futile need for vengeance that I feared I’d never lose now that the enemy who’d hurt her was dead.

No surprise that my damaged soul made me undesirable—as a lover or even a sister-at-arms—but I saw the same need in the eyes of my three satyr teachers every day. They understood the sacrifice. They also understood the unrequited need for vengeance that hung like a shadow over my heart, tainting me for any other lover. Did they they also share the thoughts I’d been having lately, that finding a mate might be the only way to cleanse myself of that darkness? I didn’t believe it for a second—I would only spread my darkness if I tried to share it with someone else—but it didn’t stop the compulsion to try, because I know Pithys would have wanted me to.

My teachers might be redeemable though. They had the look of men who’d waited too long to mate already. I didn’t miss the glances at the nymphs who threw themselves at them, the men’s “Is this all there is?” expressions, and the weary tolerance as they dove into yet another orgy with only half-assed enthusiasm. Seeing them in action in their primal forms was still a thing of beauty, but their performance had lost some spark in the year and a half since their return.

The only time I saw them excited about something was when we trained. They genuinely loved working with me, teaching me, and I hopedthathadn’t waned too, because they were incredible teachers. I spent most of my days with them, meeting Kyril at dawn each day for morning meditations on the bluffs overlooking the beach, then Theo after breakfast for blade training, and Dorian after lunch for hand-to-hand combat training.

But during today’s meditations, I’d acquired a weird knot in my belly, and along with it a song that wouldn’t get out of my head. It had been part of a vision deep in the flow of the River that lingered like a warm touch on my skin, throwing off my meditation and generally disrupting my morning. That was when the first spark of hope had flared within me, and the dark futility of my life had felt less all-encompassing. It had terrified me. After more than a year of believing I had no future outside the Thiasoi, suddenly I wanted more, and I wasn’t sure whether I deserved it.

I’d asked Theo to move up our session because I’d hoped to talk to him about it. He was the most straightforward of the three. He wouldn’t talk in metaphors like Kyril or joke like Dorian. He’d be honest with me about the possibilities, tell me what he thought this feeling meant.

Only I’d chickened out beyond asking if he’d ever had such a feeling and then thrown the focus back on him and the other two. Their issue was as obvious as a blade through the gut. They needed to get out and find themselves some proper mates. My little bellyache didn’t seem that significant when I thought about how long they’d been around already without one. While I’d had a mate and failed her by being too chickenshit to seal our relationship with blood.

I hissed when my fist connected with solid wood. I’d worn a thin spot into the dummy with my punches. Shaking my hand, I groaned because the weird tension in my midsection hadn’t abated and that pretty song in my head just kept going. I couldn’t leave the Haven until my training was complete and I was officially inducted into the Thiasoi ranks. But tonight was the solstice, so if there was ever a perfect time to travel, this was it. The Haven’s portals were normally heavily warded to restrict who came and went, but several nights a year, we could move between the Haven and the human world at will, no magic glyphs or chants required.

Except I’d never been to the human world before. My teachers had, and part of their training was supposed to include a handful of visits that would begin after the start of the new year, with my graduation ceremony happening on the spring equinox just after the final visit. But with this ache inside me, I didn’t think I could wait. After my failure to talk to Theo, I’d hoped to appeal to Dorian to take me through the portal tonight after our training session, counting on his disinterest in the orgies to compel him to accept the excuse I offered to skip out for a night. I desperately needed to see if this strange urge would abate by leaving the Haven, even if it was only for a few hours. I may not believe I’d earned the right to a mate, but I was damn sure going to find her if she was out there.

I picked at the worn canvas that covered the batting inside the dummy, sighed, then rested my forehead against its shoulder, staring at my feet. The sheer tunic I wore was soaked through with sweat, clinging to me like a second skin that tightened as it dried, lighting up the nerve endings across my breasts. I could take it off and go for a swim, try to wash away this itch, but I doubted it’d abate. Closing my eyes, I started humming the incessant song, then sang it to myself, my hand drifting down over the vaguely humanoid shape of the dummy and envisioning the woman from my vision.

She was dark haired with fair, olive-tinged skin similar to my own, covered in intricately inked designs. Aside from those unique markings, she resembled a nymph in so many ways, but not one I’d ever met. Her eyes betrayed that she wasn’t like me though. They were pale blue-gray, fringed with long black lashes. She’d gazed up at me as I hovered over her, breath hitching with wonder at the depth of the desire flooding me like nothing I’d ever felt. In my vision, I wanted to both stare at her beauty forever and devour her whole.

I’d returned to full consciousness during the meditation half shifted, my core wet and throbbing, and shot a fearful glance at Kyril, hoping he hadn’t seen me lose control. He’d still been deep within his own meditations though, and I’d sat through the rest of my morning beside him, tormented by images that were as clear as if they were memories.

I let myself get lost in that vision again, closing my eyes and summoning the image of her. Her hair was long and sleek, wisps of soft bangs falling across her forehead, which she pushed back with slender, graceful fingers. Her heart-shaped face was vivid in my mind, with dark eyebrows arched over her eyes. Her full, soft lips glistened when she darted out a tongue to lick the bottom one as if she were filled with a hunger that matched my own. I got lost staring at the images etched into her skin, a mesmerizing flow of colorful designs that drew my eyes from her collarbone down her arms and farther. Her breasts were full and pink tipped, pristine and smooth, framed by brilliant ink designs I wanted to trace them with my fingertips to discover their meaning.

I want you so much, she murmured in a throaty voice that was music to my ears, reverberating in the same key as the song I couldn’t get out of my head.

“Dion save me, I want you too,” I said out loud. I dug the fingers of one hand into the dummy, lips grazing the rough, salty canvas as I cupped my breast and squeezed my nipple. My clit pulsed in response and I dropped my hand between my thighs, delving beneath the hem of my tunic to touch myself while I pictured her. In my head, it was her I gave pleasure to, her gasp that filled my ears, and her wetness my fingers sank into.

I rocked into my hand, biting into the dummy as I worked myself, fingers pushing deep and sliding out to rub in fast circles over my engorged clit. For all I knew Dorian could show up in the middle of this and assume I’d started the solstice festivities early. I didn’t really care what he thought, or if he joined in. Another set of hands was always welcome, and when the idea crossed my mind, he appeared in the fantasy, sliding in on the other side of my dream woman as if he belonged there, his deep blue eyes glinting with mischief over my lover’s shoulder.

My body heated more, and fresh fluid slicked my fingers at the image of my teacher’s hands cupping my lover’s breasts and his mouth at the back of her neck.

Take her, Ione. She’s ready. He turned his lips to her ear and added,Aren’t you, lover?

She rasped a desperate affirmation, arching into me. Dorian’s attention gave me leave to move down her body, seeking the source of that delicious aroma. Dorian lifted her leg for me to lean in and press my mouth to her core. I tongued her clit, flicking just to tease, to hear her moan in pleasure and beg for more, then tilted my head to trace her opening with the tip of my tongue. Her flavor washed across my taste buds as if my fantasy were real and I swallowed the saliva that collected in my mouth.

Shivers of pleasure cascaded through me with every stroke of my fingers. I drove myself to the brink and slowed, opening my mind to that dream and diving in. Somewhere amid my lover’s breathy moans, more bodies appeared alongside Dorian’s. There was no logic to it, and yet we all somehow fit around her. It made sense for Kyril and Theo to be there too. As if in every new exploration of the human world, the three satyrs were my guides, but I wanted them to be satisfied too. I wanted to see fulfillment in each of their eyes instead of the painful memories and that constant want for something that was beyond their reach.

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