Page 32 of Trial of Three
He lets out a small choked sound when I lock my ankles, my fingers digging into his trembling arms.
Thrust, thrust, thr—“River!” The name escapes my lips as the deepest thrust yet makes my sex clench like a vice around the male’s cock. An unbearable abyss opens inside me, beckoning me closer, each new movement sending a shock wave from my sex to my roaring core. I moan. “Stars. River.”
The male’s gaze finds my face, his gray eyes glazed. His chest heaves with ragged breaths, his sweat-slicked muscles so bunched, it’s a wonder they’ve not split the skin. River’s mouth opens, the beginning of my name forming on his lips, before he jerks his face away, tipping it toward the bloody wall.
Before I can react, before I can think, his hand frees itself to cover my sex. Deft fingers slip through my hot wetness, finding my swollen apex. Circling it once, twice, before grazing it with a single, exquisite stroke that raises a scream from deep inside me.
Sex clamping around River’s pulsing cock, I topple over the edge of reason so hard that my body arches, the bed seeming to fall out from under me. As I settle, River’s beautiful face constricts with a fierceness that echoes through his body.
Suddenly, another sensation pins my body to the bed as River’s magic flares inside him, filling my core with its echo just as his cock fills my sex. I feel heavy with earth, the power within me pushing against River’s. The two phantom forces of our magic spin like a pair of dancers across a floor, counterbalancing each other as they twirl faster and faster.
“Leralynn.” My name slips from River’s lips on a whisper. Warmth fills my chest just as his warmth spills into my belly so wonderfully that I hear myself whimper, only to—
I realize with a gasp that River’s hand remains on my sex, his skillful fingers still stroking me despite the release that just racked my body. His magic tugs at mine, demanding that we continue our dance, dive back into that spin that’s too fast for either to manage alone. I shudder, yet he strokes me again, ruthless in his resolve.
I writhe beneath him, my swollen bud screaming with the smallest touch of his fingertip. With the aftershocks of pleasure still racking me, I’m too weak, too sensitive to do what River’s teasing demands. And yet... yet... my body responds in spite of itself, my magic rousing alongside my need.
“I can’t!” My words are a croak of desire, an exquisite tightness so deep it hurts. “I can’t. Not again. Not—”
River pauses, and for the first time since we started, his gray eyes truly penetrate into me. His want, his care, his command, all pierce through me in a single thunder of truth. Holding my gaze, River runs his thumb across my bud one last time and I scream a second release so hard that I can’t find my breath.
I’m shaking when River pulls free of me a few moments later, my body so weak and light that I wonder how I don’t float away from the bed.
Sitting up beside me, he industriously wraps my shoulders in a warm coverlet, settling me into a cocoon of comfort against the headboard. I wait for the male to say something, to explain that final gaze where our bared souls touched and melded. The one that still burns in my memory.
Reaching out, River brushes a strand of hair from my face, his fingertips lingering on my skin. The scent of earth fills me, the male’s heady musk dominating all else in the room. “Leralynn,” he whispers again, my name a mere breath on his lips.
My heart stills.
A bell marks the time outside, the sound shattering the silent illusion like a hammer striking glass. River is off the bed at once, sliding into his clothes so quickly that I only manage to get as far as my pants before the male is striding to the door.
“There isn’t much time before we go, and you are exhausted,” River says over his shoulder, tucking the loose ends of his sash around his waist. “I’ll have someone wake you up when it’s time to leave.”
My world blinks as the door opens and shuts, leaving me alone on one side and River on the other.
* * *
I don’t remember makingit back into bed and falling asleep, but Shade’s gentle brush of fingers along my face comes all too soon. Rising quietly—lest my shaking voice give away even more of my nerves than my scent no doubt already does—I dress in the supple leather armor Shade hands me and join the others as we walk back to the elders’ chamber.
This time, the whole council is there, standing before their dais. I glance at my males, waiting for... something. A hug, a word, a nervous smile. Four calm, experienced warriors look back at me. As if everything that need be said has already been uttered. Probably two hundred or so years ago.
I raise my chin.
“When you are ready,” Elder Beynoir intones in the deep voice of a quint commander as he holds out a blindfold.
Shade steps forward, pausing long enough to grip my arm. “When you are left at location in the Gloom, stay put. I’ll find you by smell.” He gives my arm a final squeeze, his golden eyes steady with command. “Now go to Elder Elidyr.”
The three long steps across the chamber’s gleaming floors feel like an eternity. My heart hammers, my sweating hands rolled tightly into fists. But I’m not crying. Not even a little. That counts for something.
“Take a deep breath, young one,” Elidyr says gently, his hands wrapping a blindfold around my eyes. Despite my pounding pulse, the male’s smell of hay and horses, together with his calm voice, adds a measure of comfort. “I’m going to bring you through the Gloom to your trial site. Have you moved through folds before? They let us travel greater distances more quickly. A corridor of sorts.”
I nod, remembering the passage Autumn once used to bring me from Slait’s border into the palace.
“Excellent.” Elidyr sounds pleased. “We will be making use of several of these on our way to the destination. You are unable to step into the Gloom yourself?”
I nod again, proud that my muscles are not shaking.
A solid hand presses between my shoulder blades. “That is not a problem. I will take your hand now and we will step together, all right? I’d like a verbal response, please.”
