Page 71 of Humans Don't Have Horns
I feel the weight of my tears on my eyelashes as I watch him through them. How cruel it is to find your soulmate only to need to separate. And that is what we are, whatever bitter path it will lead us down. I nod my agreement, too emotional to speak. Daton holds my face in his hand and kisses my tears, then presses a final kiss to mylips. He takes a knife and makes a small cut at the bottom of my palm. Then he cuts his wrist in an alarmingly deep cut that makes me gasp. But he doesn’t even flinch at the pain. He says the oath, and I repeat it.
“I bind myself to you by blood and honor. Not even death can unbind us from each other.”
Then, instead of using a goblet, he puts my hand in his mouth and his wrist to my lips. As I feel him gently suck my blood from my palm, I suck the cut on his wrist. But his blood doesn’t taste like blood. It doesn’t have that metallic taste I know from my own. Instead, it tastes like honey and power. It tastes like magic. Not a flicker of magic which you can sometimes sense while chanting a healing spell, but a flare of it. So much magic that I feel my pupils dilate at the rush of it in my veins, and instead of sucking his blood briefly as he did with mine, I grab his hand with both of mine and pull it closer to my mouth. I go feral as I suck that thing I cannot name; I know only that it is a maelstrom of the most potent thing I’ve ever tasted. He doesn’t resist me, and a groan of deep pleasure escapes me. I can feel his body hardening to it.
I can feel my bruises heal, the split in my lip is gone, and the pain disappears from the deep wounds in my arm caused by the demichad. An alarming ecstasy is waking inside me, and I feel it has taken complete control of me as all I want is more of this intoxicating magic. There is so much power in it, more than could be imagined. Daton chuckles at my frantic eagerness and finally pulls his hand from me.
And I realize that the Mongans’ power doesn’t lie in their horns but in their blood. And that this is more than simply strength, more than youth. I don’t understand exactly what it is, but I realize just that: that I don’t know or understand what Daton is. And as I look in his starry eyes, they are dazzling. No Puresoul could ever know this. It would be awful if they realized that the horns were nothing compared to the blood. And Daton understands this perfectly. He can never play ignorant, never claim he doesn’t understand the taboos he is crossing with me.
“The power.” I swallow hard. “It’s not in the horns at all.”
His unharmed hand reaches for my face. His fingers lightly graze my lip that was split before, then my jaw and cheek that were bruised, then my neck that bore the marks of Nikanor’s fingers. All healed, all as they were before my brother tried to kill me. My left arm healed from the demichad attack. Daton’s eyes follow his fingers, assuring all have healed. All have healed by his blood.
“The horns have nothing to do with the power,” he concedes. “We die when they are amputated because of their location. But they are only the mark of our sins.”
My jaw falls open. Since I can remember, the church has claimed the Mongans’ horns are a mark of their sins against Sun. But that can’t be right. “I don’t understand.”
“My people were punished an eon ago when they fled to Amada. In those days, the Mountains of Doom were nothing but high hills. They fled to this land barren of magic. We are all refugees, really. Our ancestors, with the help of the stars, raised the mountains as a barrier in their escape. So that the evil they fled from could not follow. The darkness that spreads on that land is so great that it leaves no room for honor. The Mongans fear that darkness so much that all the oracles have refused to even go near the border of the old land, the Mountains of Doom. When they chose to turn their back on their callous home, their magic was stifled by the horns.”
“But you worship the Goddess!” I exclaim incredulously. “You are hunted for it. You paid everything for it. And she is the one who marked you?”
Daton huffs at that. “The Goddess is vengeful. All gods are, as you yourself have learned through Amada. The Goddess punishes her children for any disobedience. And in the last hundred years, she has inflicted on us the greatest punishment. She hid her face from us, hid herself from our prayers and pleading. Left us to the mercy of the Shavirs. And still, she is our god. She is our creator. And she left us the echoes of the stars. She could have taken them as well.”
I frown. “But Sun shines on his followers. Why would you worship someone who punishes you in this life?”
“Honor is not rewarded in this life. The worst of men sit on gold thrones while those who are just and right crush under the weight of the honorless. You already know this to be true, fina.” I shake my head, reluctant to accept this explanation. But Daton cups my face in his hand, and there is lamenting in his eyes. “There are so many things I haven’t told you. I could never bear to think that our time together would be so short. I should have been braver in this as well.”
And only one thought forms in my mind as I search his face. “I didn’t imagine the stars in your eyes.”
He smiles at my words. “No, fina, I couldn’t hide them from you. I can hide nothing from you, my love.”
“You shouldn’t have done this. The Puresouls can never know. The repercussions of—”
“You won’t tell.” His eyes are full of love and trust. And the fucking stars, apparently. “It is done. There is the power of the stars in you now. It will protect you. It will give you many years of youth.”
My eyes widen in shock. What has he done? “Daton,” I gasp.
“It is done. Look how you glow.”
To my horror, I realize I do glow, and he does as well. It is as if we shine with moonlight. “They will notice,” I say, filled with apprehension, but he shakes his head.
“They can’t see it. Neither could you until now.” He threads his fingers in my hair and tugs. It’s gentle yet enough for my eyes to rise so I can see only his face, so my mind can focus only on him now. “You will come back to me. Maybe you’ll be old by then. Have grandchildren, even—”
“No.” I’m shocked at what he implies he’ll accept of me.
“Listen to me, Lian.” And it’s the warlord’s voice now ordering me. “You will do whatever the fuck you need to do to stay alive and come back to me.” His face is rigid with pain and determination. “Swear it,” he orders me in a rough voice. “Swear it,” he demands harshly and tugs my hair a little bit harder, his other hand pressing to my nape.
I realize that I’ve only started grasping the depth of this oath between us. “I swear to come back to you,” I acquiesce.
His lips crash onto mine, and I taste his blood, and mine mixedwith the salt of my tears. He kisses me hard as if trying to devour the very essence of me before I leave for Aldon. His tongue swirls against mine. One hand grabs the back of my head, the other my ass, pressing me to his hard body. Gone is the gentle caress and kissing of last night. Gone is him holding back. I wanted him undone. I wanted him uncensored. Well, I got what I asked for.
Daton shoves my dress upward, and I raise my hands so he can quickly take it off me. I gasp for air as his mouth finally leaves mine for the seconds it takes him to pull the dress off me. Then he does the same with my undergarments. I struggle with his pants and finally release his length. I grab the silky hardness of him and squeeze and am rewarded with a deep, feral growl and his hardening and growing even more under my touch. He doesn’t even bother to get out of his pants as they fall to his ankles. But he takes off his shirt with one swift movement of his hand. “Mine,” he growls again and again against my lips, and I answer him, “Yours,” each time. My body ignites with want, but my soul is molten by the oath we made. I never thought I could love someone so much. I never thought I could feel so loved.
Daton raises me with both hands, and I wrap my legs around him. I groan loudly as he drives himself into my body with no warning. He enters me as if he would die from waiting a second longer, and I treat him the same because I feel so complete when our bodies are one. He lifts and lowers me onto his cock. It’s my turn to growl possessive words at him, because gods, he makes me possessive. So as he fucks me, I tell him he’s mine and mine alone, and I swear it makes him purr in an inhuman way to be claimed like that. I grip at his obsidian-black hair and tug with one hand, then wrap my other hand around one of his horns and stroke the length of it. He trembles under my grip and snarls with desire. His mouth never leaves mine. Tongues licking, teeth clashing. It’s brutal and savage and messy. And it feels so good, so right. We fuck like two animals, and it’s sacred as well. We are entwined in blood, flesh, and soul. My nails dig into his flesh until I draw blood. My thighs clamp around him, and my inner muscles clench as I scream my release into his mouth.
Ripples of pleasure and ecstasy sweep through my entire body,and I feel his climax next. His muscles tense, and his hold on me grows even stronger. He comes so strongly with no inhibition, and he grunts words of love for me in my ear while I try to adjust my breathing.
I know now that home was never a place. It’s your soulmate when there are no barriers left.
The End
