Chapter Fifty: Link Forged

It had been a long time since I’d felt so sore from anything other than fighting for my life. I’d somehow managed to outlast my women last night, but it had been a close run thing. It didn’t help that we were at least trying not to keep the camp up all night, so all of us had been holding back. Well, all of us minus Rhallani.

She’d seen Noelle sinking her teeth in me and wanted to give it a try, and since I had at least three dark rings where her teeth had dug into my shoulders hard enough to leave bruises in an attempt to orgasm as quietly as possible. Pretty sure she’d cost me a health point or two during the night, though I was up to full now. I definitely wasn’t complaining though, even if I felt stiff from head to toe.

There was another part of me that was stiff, and I’d barely started to wake up before I realized that the warmth I felt around my cock was a set of lips and a tongue. Almost as if she’d realized I’d woken, whoever was pleasuring me took me all the way to the base, and I groaned as the tightness of a throat wrapped around me while a long tongue lapped towards my sac.

I cracked bleary eyes trying to figure out where everyone was. The softness I was laying on was much too fleshy to be a pillow, and I realized I’d fallen asleep with my head in Tiana’s chest. Her arms were entwined around my neck, and as I shifted slightly she murmured and wrapped them around me even tighter.

So not Tiana. Serena was to my side, one of her legs wrapped around mine and her head resting on my bicep. Not her either. Then I saw Rhallani on the other side, curled up with her back pressed against me and wrapped tightly around my arm pressed between her breasts.

That left one. Noelle paused when I lifted my head enough to look down at her, bobbing up and down on my shaft with no sign of a gag reflex whatsoever. Her eyes watered slightly, but overall she seemed relatively unbothered by taking my entire length despite our difference in size.

“Good morning,” I rasped, my voice hoarse from how dry my throat was.

She let my cock pop free of her mouth so she could catch her breath. “I was the only one who had not gotten to taste you yet,” she said, her eyes lowered, “but Rhallani said you would not mind.”

“She did, did she?” I felt Rhallani curl tighter around my arm. She made an upset noise when I extracted my arm from her grip and palmed Noelle’s cheek. The Malachai closed her eyes and leaned into my touch with a hum before lowering her head to take me in her mouth again. The second the head touched her tongue she let out a low moan.

I slid my fingers into her hair, dragging my nails along her scalp, and her eyes rolled back into her head. She bobbed her head faster, her lips sliding along my entire length, until I could feel release approaching.

“Noelle,” I said, my voice strained.

She wrapped one hand around my shaft and the other around my thigh just when I started to pulse in her mouth. She pulled back just enough that I was unleashing rope after rope right onto her tongue, her eyes locked on mine while she swallowed every drop.

She sat back, her tongue shooting out to make sure nothing remained on her lips, and smiled. “I very much like your taste.”

I guided her up so she could lay on my chest and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Well the feeling is mutual.” On some level I’d always known Noelle had never had a partner that cared at all for her pleasure, but I hadn’t really processed it until I’d gone down on her and she’d had orgasm after orgasm. “I’ll make sure to get a good taste again soon.”

“Mmm, yes,” she said happily, curling into me.

Rhallani stretched out like a cat, letting out a high pitched sound that caused Tsuki to raise her head blearily where her and Ryoko were curled up a few feet away. She saw that we were all still piled together, though, so she nestled back into her sister.

“Essence?” Rhallani inquired.

I checked. “Sixty-eight. Biggest jump we’ve ever had in a single day,” I noted.

She made her thinking noise before hunting down her journal. “Probably because we were all more interested in being with you than just fucking you. So more people means more Essence, but it looks like there are diminishing returns. Maybe connecting to multiple others at once is less efficient than a one on one connection?” she mused.

I sat up, gently sliding my arm out from underneath Serena’s head and untangling Tiana’s arms from around me. “That sounds reasonable.” I ran a hand up Noelle’s back while she explored Rhallani’s bite marks with wide eyes. She shuddered when I got to the base of her wings, so I took a moment to massage her a little. “Should be enough to safely attempt a Link.”

Tiana groaned, sitting up and once again wrapping her arms around me from behind. “Can’t we go back to bed for a few more hours? I was having the best dream…”

I lifted her palm so I could press my lips to it and she laid a trail of slow kisses down my shoulder. “If we want to deal with this Soul Link business before everyone else wakes up then we can’t.”

From the way Serena sat up I figured she’d been awake since before Noelle had started blowing me. She looked at me with some hesitance. “Are you really sure I should be the first one we try this on? Rhallani was the first to find you, after all.”

Giving me a peck on the cheek on the way, Rhallani clambered over us so she could throw her arms around Serena. “You’re his priestess, babe. There’s no telling what kind of perks are going to come from this link, but if we pro-con it out then tying him to the healer is the most logical choice. Plus,” she pressed her cheek to Serena’s, “you care about Zaren just as much as I do, and only one of us has the training to stay with him in a fight.”

Rhallani flashed a smile at me. “I can wait as long as I need to. Neither of us is going anywhere, right?”“Right,” I responded, trying to ignore the uneasiness in my gut. The one that was always so convinced everything was about to go to shit.

Serena took a breath. “Alright, what do you need from me?”

I mentally pulled on [Forge Soul Link]. Every active skill came with the inherent knowledge of how to activate it, and this one was thankfully no different. “Move over, Angel,” I said. Rhallani slipped to Serena’s side and I placed my hand over her heart. I could feel it hammering in her chest underneath my palm and gave her a smile. “I’ll offer my side of the Link. You should feel something when I do, and you’ll have to focus on that feeling and willingly accept the other side.”

She nodded once, then placed her hand over mine. “Okay. And Zaren?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you. I know you said I wouldn’t be getting rid of you if I took my class, but this feels so much more…”

“Permanent?”

She smiled softly. “In a good way. Even if it can never be undone, I want this.”

That was good enough for me. Rhallani was right about not having any idea what effects a Link might have, but I had a dozen ideas that made me eager to forge one with each of the girls that had all wormed their way into my heart.

I closed my eyes and reached out with a sense I felt like I’d always had but never known about. The same sense that told my gut who was and wasn’t trustworthy. The part of me that seemed attuned to finding the monsters who wore the skins of men so well. With it, just like I would with my [Dark Sense], I directed this new sense towards Serena.

I knew the moment my soul brushed up against hers, and it seemed she did as well. A soft gasp slipped out of us both at the touch, and I smiled. She was so warm. Strong. Her soul was a little battered around the edges, but otherwise it was perfectly whole. Not only that, but glowed with the golden light of divinity, and I knew that was Allura’s influence from her priestess class.

I was dimly aware of the other souls in the room, but hers shone so brightly that they were eclipsed. I could also tell that her soul was slightly depleted, and I knew it had to be from the dream/memory she’d been forcefully yanked from. She was almost fully recovered, but not completely.

Then she let out a shuddering gasp and I opened my eyes. Tears were streaming down her face, though her own eyes were closed. “I didn’t know. I had no idea.”

My gut clenched. If I could see and sense her soul, then it only made sense that the reverse would be true. “Didn’t know what, Serena?” I asked softly.

She just shook her head. “I can feel it. Like I’m running my hands over your scars, but in my head. It feels…” She took another long breath. “I’m okay, I just wasn’t expecting…”

I managed to swallow past the lump in my throat. “Do you still want this?”

Her hand tightened on mine. “Of course I do. If what I’m feeling now is just echoes of what you’ve been through, then I can’t even imagine how strong you had to be to make it this far.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I activated my skill. I felt my soul reaching out to hers again, but this time there was a question that couldn’t be asked in words. An offer and a plea. A second later, I felt her soul shift in response. An eager acceptance. A desire to comfort. To soothe.

She let out another shuttered breath, but I barely heard it. Pain exploded in my chest, like someone was trying to dig my heart out with a rusty spoon. A grunt escaped me before my body locked up, then the pain grew.

I could feel the bond being seared into me. Like a flaming poker was being shoved under my ribs. The tent and its occupants fell away, leaving me with nothing left but agony. I couldn’t tell if it lasted a second or an hour, only that in that moment I was certain it would never end.

Then, as suddenly as it had started, the pain receded. It left behind echoes, as if my body was suddenly uncertain of what to do now that I was no longer being burned from the inside out, and I managed to open my eyes. I was on my side, curled up with all six women who’d been in the room leaning over me with expressions ranging from terror to intense concern. Serena still had tears running down her cheeks, but she didn’t seem nearly as affected as me.

“Ow,” I said through clenched teeth, and they all relaxed. I took a peek at Serena’s soul once more to see how it had changed. The only notable difference was a thread that connected her soul to mine, so thin I could barely see it.

I groaned while they helped me into a sitting position. Every muscle in my body had been clenched tight and they were not happy about it. “How long did that last?”

“Fifteen minutes, give or take,” Rhallani said, her hands searching my body for anything wrong.

“What happened?” Serena asked.

I shook my head. “Seems forging a Link between two souls isn’t a painless process. It’s like the pain that comes with expending Soul Essence but amplified.” I rolled my neck and felt Tiana’s hands on my shoulders, her fingers digging into my knotted muscles and drawing out a groan that was decidedly sexual sounding.Serena took my hand in both of hers. “You just went down, and we could tell you were in pain. I thought…I was scared that…”

“It wasn’t your fault,” I assured her. “And if the Link ends up being half as useful as I hope it is, then a little pain is more than worth it.”

She nodded, and Noelle buried her face in my chest and wrapped her arms around me. Her hands trembled slightly, so I ran my fingers through her hair. It was finally getting long enough for me to do so, and I think we both enjoyed that quite a bit.

“Well,” Rhallani asked excitedly, once she was sure I was alright, “what does the Link do? How much Essence did it use?” I could hear the unasked question of whether we could forge another, but when I looked at my pool I knew that wasn’t going to be on the table.

[Soul Essence: 38/110]

“So,” I asked, “do you want the good news or the bad news?”

“Good,” Serena said.

“Bad,” Tiana said at the same time.

I chuckled. “Well, my pool is ten higher, but it cost thirty to forge the bond.”There were sharp intakes of breath all around. “Nearly a third of your soul expended at once,” Rhallani breathed, “no wonder it hurt so bad.”

Tiana rested her chin on my shoulder. “But if the hundred is the normal capacity for your soul, does that mean it won’t hurt if you use the excess?”

“That’d be nice,” I grumbled, rubbing my chest over where the worst of the burning had been. I pulled up my interface and found a new section that listed my Links. Serena’s was the only one listed, and unsurprisingly it was at level one. When I examined the link closer, I got:

I shared the information with the others and Rhallani beamed. “That means, once we’ve got everyone linked up, you’ll regen even faster!” Then her face fell, but only a little. “You know, in a couple of days. Once you’re closer to max, of course. Assuming you’re okay with, you know, intense pain.”

I nodded, then looked to where Tsuki and Ryoko had been observing silently. “You won’t be expected to form a Link if you don’t want to.”

It was hard to tell if she was relieved or not, but Tsuki just nodded. “From the sounds of it, you don’t know much about the Links. Perhaps when more becomes clear we can revisit it.”

I gave her a small smile. “Sounds like a good plan.”

She stood and Ryoko followed. “We’ll start helping pack up.”

Serena stood as well, and Rhallani followed. Noelle gave me one last squeeze and I kissed her head before she did the same. “You stay here and catch your breath for a moment,” Serena said, her expression still worried. “We’ll go take care of things and find you some food.”

I nodded. Tiana kissed my cheek, then stood as well. “Rhallani next, then Noelle, then me. Can’t wait,” she said with a wink.

They quickly got dressed—three of them merely summoning armor—and left me to dress myself at a considerably slower pace. I’d definitely be stiff for the rest of the day, but it was worth it. Even now I could feel the connection between me and Serena. The slightest of tugs between our souls. I wondered how it would change as the Link grew stronger. If I’d become more aware of her, or if she’d be more aware of me.

Once I’d dressed and banished what I could to our storage, I left the tent and started to secure it back to the side of our wagon. I’d just started rolling it up when Vivian emerged from her tent next door, as immaculate looking as always. She’d either recovered her old scarf or found a new one, so once again only the skin above her chin was showing. She set a poorly packed bedroll on the ground when she saw me, smiling wide as always.

“Oh, Ren!” she said, far too cheerily. “Good morning!”

“Vivian,” I greeted her with a nod.

She watched me for a moment before she started packing up her own tent. “I hope you got plenty of rest after yesterday’s excitement,” she said. I paused and raised a brow at her. There was an unmistakable twinkle in her eye. “I thought your skill on the battlefield was commendable. I had no idea you possessed such…stamina.”

I coughed, feeling some heat rise to my face. “Yes, well…it’s uh…”

She giggled. “It’s alright. I’m hardly going to fault you or your harem for celebrating surviving a fight like that.”

Yeah, I had no idea how to respond to that, so I chose not to. “Need help?” I asked instead, making sure to gesture at the tent she was trying unsuccessfully to pack up so she didn’t get the wrong idea.

Something about her gaze told me she knew exactly what was going through my head, but she didn’t press the issue. “I would love some help. It’s a very impressive design, but I’m afraid I’m not so used to packing my own tent.”

In my opinion, she was leaning into the helpless noble act a little too hard, but I still didn’t call her out on it. After all, I was hardly what I seemed on the surface. Someone traveling between cities could have had any number of reasons for keeping things close to the chest, and no matter what she did or said I couldn’t shake that part of me that was certain she wasn’t my enemy.

That still wasn’t enough to blindly trust her, though, so while I reached over to help her with the tent I called on what I was going to dub my Soul Sense. The moment I did, I fumbled the canvas with a curse. She gave me an odd look, but I was too busy staring (mentally) at her soul.

It was bright and powerful, just like Serena’s, though without the glow of divinity. However, where Serena’s soul glowed with warmth, Vivian’s felt more like a furious inferno. Still unused to the sense, it took a moment for my proverbial eyes to adjust, but once they did I had to fight to keep my face expressionless as my new abilities filled me in on what I was looking at.

Her soul was undoubtedly scarred, but not like mine. Whereas I carried layers of scars from years of torment and war, her soul had suffered from a single horrific event. Something bad had happened to her, and I instinctively knew she had barely survived it. Physically or mentally I wasn’t sure, but my senses told me I was looking at the soul of someone who had fought their way back from the edge of oblivion.

That wasn’t all, either. Looking at Vivian’s soul, I immediately knew she was a force to be reckoned with. A conclusion immediately reinforced by the surge in my Primal that was gone almost as soon as I felt it. She must have realized I’d observed her in some capacity and treated me as an enemy for a brief moment, but no longer than that.

I cleared my throat again, giving her as much of a smile as I could. “Sorry, I’m still waking up.”

Her expression didn’t so much as flicker. “No worries! After yesterday—and last night,” she added with a wink, “I can hardly blame you for being a little out of it.” She stepped back to allow me to finish securing the tent. “I wanted to apologize, by the way. I made an offer to Rhallani, not fully understanding the…dynamic between you and your servants.”

“No harm done,” I said lightly. “I understand most Patrons are pretty shit, so I can’t really blame you.”

She giggled again. “Yes, I suppose they can be. Still, it’s rare to see a Patron so protective of their charges. I saw you on the battlefield when she was injured. I’m glad I’m on your side.”

I felt the same, but I wasn’t going to say that aloud. Something about her soul convinced me that she wasn’t the enemy I’d feared, so I’d keep her confidence for a little longer. I did have to wonder just how much she heard both last night and this morning. The tents were made of a thick canvas that would muffle a good amount of the sound, but not all of it. And if she had a skill to boost her hearing…

But after seeing her soul, I was even more convinced she wasn’t a threat to me, which made absolutely no sense. My senses, both old and new, told me that this woman was dangerous, but my gut was adamant that she wasn’t a threat to me or mine.

“Well, if you need anything else, don’t hesitate to ask. Something tells me the rest of the journey isn’t going to be any less hectic than what we’ve already dealt with.”

Her brows drew together. “Well, that’s ominous. Either way, between you and my lovely guards, I trust that we’ll make it to the capital just fine. I look forward to seeing just what else you’re capable of, on the battlefield or otherwise.”

She turned and strode towards her guards with a wave of her fingers and a sultry smile. I watched her go with a frown, wishing I was as confident as she was.

# # #

We didn’t even make it to noon before something else interrupted our journey.

We got the caravan moving no problem. Vivian hopped up on our wagon and immediately struck up a conversation with Cynthia and Elisa, so I took the chance to track down each of my girls and quickly bring them up to speed on what I’d learned about Vivian. I hadn’t realized just how much I would be able to learn about a person so it was hard not to feel like I’d violated her privacy on some level, but she was clearly hiding something so I wasn’t too torn up about it.

The others agreed to keep an eye out, but I could tell some of them were a little let down. They’d all grown to like Vivian in the few days since she’d shown up on the caravan, and Rhallani and Noelle both seemed a little hurt at the deception, but agreed with one another that they never once got any bad vibes from the strange noble.

Rhallani insisted she was fine, but I was adamant about her spending the day riding. She only argued a little, so I figured her arm was still bothering her a little. Every time she shot a sad look at the golem my heart broke a little. I hoped I could find some way to fix the poor construct, but considering where we found it I wasn’t too hopeful. It would probably be easier just to build a new golem than to try and repair whatever method Karn had used to make such a unique golem, and I knew Rhallani wouldn’t want that.

Serena, though she didn’t say much, spent most of the day walking at my shoulder. I could feel her sneaking glances at me, something always on the tip of her tongue, but she always stopped short. Whatever was going through her head, I was willing to let her take as long as she needed to figure things out. Whether it had to do with the Link, whatever she’d sensed when our souls touched, or the mood I’d been in, I had no idea. A part of me was more than a little nervous to find out.

Thankfully, Rhallani’s new class once again proved to be an incredible boon. Festus swooped down once again, but this time with much more somber news. A wagon was pulled off the road ahead, but the corpses of its owners were clearly visible from the sky. After a brief conversation, it was decided that Serena, Lana, Yen and I would take a closer look. The rest would be on alert for any ambushes.

It was pretty clear what had happened, even from a distance. I could see arrows sticking out of the wagon and deep gashes in the corpses of the three people and two horses laying dead on the ground. Festus assured us that nobody was around, and from the look of the ambush I wasn’t surprised.

“They were attacked in the middle of the night, looks like,” Yen noted.

I yanked one of the arrows out of the wagon. It was poorly made, but the rusty head would more than do its job. A closer look at the injuries that had killed the people—three humans who seemed to be on the upper side of the middle class—and I could tell that they were killed with weapons that weren’t of much better make than the arrows. Some of them looked like they could have been made of claws, too. Then, when I rolled a middle aged woman over and saw that her throat had been ripped out by something’s jaws, I knew.

“Gnolls.” I’d seen a notice about them at the guild. Seems this poor family had run afoul of them.

“Are we in danger?” Serena asked, looking green.

I shook my head. “I doubt it. Gnolls prey on smaller groups, usually at night, and our caravan is too big for them to worry about. As long as we don’t get split up or go off on our own at night, they won’t come near us.”Lana and Yen relaxed, but Serena’s brows drew together. She started going through the campsite. “Zaren, there are five bedrolls. Not three.”

I grimaced. “The gnolls have them, then. Gnolls aren’t exactly known for mercy, so there’s a good chance they’re already dead” The tracks led off the road and into the nearby woods. “We’ll want to make sure we camp on the other side of the road from the trees, too. They’ll be looking for easy prey, not well guarded caravans like ours.”

Serena just shook her head. “They took those people! We have to help them.”

“I agree,” I told her, holding up a hand to calm her, “but we have to be careful about it. From the information I found in the guild, the gnoll problem is getting a bit out of hand. A few parties have already left to deal with it and never returned. There’s no telling how far into the woods they are, and if they’ve got enough gnolls to be killing and taking travelers then we’d need most if not all of our guards to deal with them.”

I stood and looked around the camp, but I could already tell most everything of value was long gone. “I’ll talk to Pierce and Korey, see if they’d be willing to spare Al to try and find their nest. I’ll see what I can do when night falls, but for now…” I shook my head. “We’ll do what we can, when we can. Sometimes that’s all you can do.”

She looked sick to her stomach, but thankfully she nodded. “Alright. I’ll trust you, but…”

I put a hand on her shoulder. “If we have to, we can get Korey and the others close enough to be safe and double back. From the direction of the tracks, we’ll be heading closer to their camp anyways.”

What I didn’t say, because Yen and Lana both were listening intently, was that we still hadn’t run into the group that was hunting us. Hunting me. I couldn’t split our guard without opening us up to whoever I knew to be waiting for an opening. If they eyes on us, then we’d be up shit creek without a paddle.

But I’d no sooner thought the reasons than she relaxed. She gave me a nod and a brave smile. I turned back to the other two. “Let’s get back and tell the others.”

“Are we going to…leave them like this?” Yen asked.

“We can give them a burial,” I told them, “but we’ll wait until the caravan is closer. Gnolls rarely attack in broad daylight, but I’d feel a lot better if the others were nearby. Plus, we can use the extra hands to dig them faster.”

I got nods all around and we turned and headed back to the caravan. Reactions when we told everyone what we’d found were pretty similar to Yen and Serena’s, but Pierce agreed with me about proceeding with caution. It made my gut twist painfully to know that somewhere out in the forest innocents could be at the mercy of gnolls, but there was no guarantee they were still alive. It wasn’t outside the realm of possibility that the gnolls had taken the two missing people for food, and that they were already dead.

I was pleasantly surprised, however, that when I pitched trying to find signs of their nest that Vivian volunteered Reese’s expertise in tracking. Something told me she’d be much more pleasant to work with than Al, and I’d seen how handy she was with a bow. The girl rarely said much, but she moved with a quiet confidence that told me she knew what she was doing.

The mood was somber as we got going again. Like I’d promised Yen, we stopped to give the poor souls a proper burial. It was sped up when Rhallani summoned a wolf that came up to my chest—startling the shit out of half the caravan—that helped us dig.

She was quite proud of herself for that.

After we finished the burial, she had her wolf run around and visit everyone while we got moving again. When it wasn’t in attack mode, it was actually pretty cute. To me, at least. Not many of the others agreed, since it outweighed most of them. Mai understandably hated it, and Rhallani learned very quickly not to let her wolf go anywhere near her unless she wanted to witness a Nekomata panic attack.

I asked her what his name was, but she said she was still trying to think of the perfect one. It hadn’t come to her like Festus had, so she’d elected to wait. Her summon did a lot to lighten the mood, though, and I think we were all pretty appreciative of that. Still, after a while, we had to return to Festus. His scouting abilities were just too good to be without for too long.

We found other signs of attacks throughout the day. In one instance nothing remained but some blood and remnants of a fight, another we found two dead horses, and the third there was a pile of dead, naked gnolls. Hunchbacked bipeds with long, hyena-like snouts and pelts. Looks like whoever they picked a fight with knew how to handle themselves, and we had six less gnolls to worry about.

We didn’t bother with a burial for the creatures, electing to put some more distance between us and them before we set up camp for the night. Unfortunately, where we eventually ran out of sunlight and were forced to stop for the day, the road curved towards the wooded area we knew the gnolls were hiding in.

We put a good distance between us and the road, making sure that if the gnolls wanted to come at us they’d have to cross a good amount of open ground to do it. Once we were settled safely, the usual members of the caravan went to their usual places. Ryoko and Garm cooking, first watch getting settled, and me in the impromptu training pit that always ended up being the entertainment for the night.

I worked with Noelle and Tsuki for a bit, but we didn’t go for long before Serena rather suddenly asked for a spar. It had been a while, and while I was still a bit sore from this morning’s events I wasn’t in pain from my injuries, so I saw no reason to turn her down. She seemed flustered when she asked, though I wasn’t sure why. Her relief when I agreed was visible, and so we took our spots while everyone settled in for the show. Her with her spear, me with a hand-and-a-half sword that would give me both the mobility and reach to keep up with her.

This time, I summoned a tendril for us both and commanded them to wrap and dull our blades so we could go full speed without worrying about hacking each other’s limbs off. What little warming up we needed was done when we were working with Noelle and Tsuki, so we started hot right out of the gate.

She opened with a rush that I barely deflected, and everything after was a blur. She was so completely different than the headstrong girl who’d barely known the right way to hold a spear. Now she moved so fast I could barely keep up. Not only that, but as we started to dance back and forth, faster and faster, the two of us fell into a dance. I knew what she was going to do before she did it, and it felt like the same was true for her as well.

As the fight progressed, we both stopped holding back almost in unison. She showed every lesson I’d ever taught her and then some. She worked her skills into her combos so smoothly I probably missed most of them, and she moved like the wind. And as we fought, adrenaline pumping, weapons clashing, our feet kicking up a storm of dust that was blown away by the force and speed of our movements, I felt her.

I felt her frustration. Her worry. The helplessness she’d felt watching me retreat into myself and not knowing how she could help no matter how badly she wanted to. And, without saying a word aloud, I answered back. My own frustration at not knowing how to let others help me. The guilt I felt knowing I was hurting them and feeling unable to stop myself from doing it. The fear that I wasn’t strong enough to deal with whatever storm was surely cresting the horizon.

Each cross of our weapons felt like a dialog. Every strike a question, every block a response. I felt her love for me, and I hoped she could feel mine for her. How important she was to me. How badly I needed her, even if I could never quite put it into words.

Though it couldn’t have lasted more than a few minutes, the fight felt like it went on for an eternity. The end came abruptly and dangerously when I felt both tendrils run out of mana at the same time. The shadows dissipated, and suddenly our strikes were no longer blunted. Acting on instinct, I banished my sword and deflected the tip of her spear with an open hand. The blade sliced my palm open, but it was better than getting skewered by the strike she’d put her body behind.

The tip of the spear shot past me and I grabbed the haft with the injured hand. Her momentum carried her into me, so I wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her into my chest, bracing with my back foot to keep us both from crashing to the ground.

We stood nose to nose, both of us panting heavily. Her emerald eyes were wide in surprise and confusion. Her face, already flush with exertion turned redder as she realized the position she was in. Chest to chest in my grasp while the entire caravan looked on.

“What do you say we call it a draw?” I said, still breathing hard.

Her eyes flicked down to my lips, her own mouth parted slightly. “I think that’s fair,” she breathed.

“Did you feel what I felt?”

She nodded once, her eyes still on my lips. The only reason she didn’t claim them was that she picked that moment to notice the blood dripping down the haft of her spear. Her eyes widened and she pulled away, her hands searching me for injury.

“Shit, Zaren! I didn’t—the shadows—”

“It’s alright,” I told her, holding out my cut palm. She immediately grabbed it and started healing while I took a peek at the faces that were all still staring at us. A good portion of them were hanging open in shock or awe, though I noticed Tiana and Rhallani both were grinning ear to ear. Noelle watched with wide eyes, no doubt absorbing every move we made in the hopes of improving her own technique, and Tsuki sat next to her with a very neutral expression on her strangely red face.

But the one that caught my eye immediately was Vivian. Her expression had shifted so drastically from the one I was familiar with that I almost didn’t recognize her. It was like the glimpse I’d seen in my tent last night when she’d taken in all my scars. A peek behind the curtain at whoever Vivian really was under her carefully crafted noblewoman facade. She stared at me with an intensity that made my heart race, almost as if I was gearing up for another round in the ring with Serena. There was a question in her eyes—a furious demand—that I didn’t understand, but I found that I wanted to.

She noticed my gaze lingering on her and schooled her features immediately. She shifted back into her persona with impressive speed and shot to her feet, clapping enthusiastically. It was only a moment before half the others were joining along, albeit some of them with some confusion.

“That was amazing! I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a match quite like that, I thought you two were going to kill each other about a dozen times!” she exclaimed. “Where in Kasidiel did you two learn to fight like that?”

Beside me, Serena’s head ducked, her face crimson. She’d finished with my hand already, so she laced her fingers with mine. “Actually, Ren taught me. You should have seen me when we met. I could barely keep my feet when we first started sparring.”

Vivian’s eyes shot to mine. The fire reflected in them so intensely it looked like the amber had brightened to a molten gold. “And who taught you? I need to have them train my guards if he can make such a fantastic fighter of you.”

Serena’s hand tightened, but I shot her a soft smile. “Someone who is no longer with us, unfortunately.”Something flitted across her face. An emotion that was gone so quick I couldn’t puzzle out what it might have been, but it felt like a crack in her mask. A stutter that tripped her up for the briefest of moments. A pause so small I was probably the only one who noticed it, but it was definitely there. But she recovered like a professional and clasped her hands in front of her.

“Well, that’s a shame.” Her tone was more serious than I was used to, which meant she’d picked up on something between my exchange with Serena and my tone. “Either way, since we’ve got a while yet before we get back to the capital, I think Zoey would love to test out your skills herself.”

Zoey—who was one of those who had watched our fight with her jaw hanging low—went stiff. “Um, yes. I would like that. To spar with you, I mean.”

“We’ll find time,” I promised her, shooting a glare at Vivian. She just fired back with a impish smile that all but told me she’d shared some of the things she’d heard last night with her guards. “But for now, I think I’ll get some shut eye before my watch.” I wanted to go out into the dark and see if I could pick up anything moving during the middle of the night.

But it seemed Serena was finished being the center of attention. She practically dragged me away, past the girls and straight to our tent. I barely managed to get past the flap before she turned and grabbed me by the front of my coat and yanked, mashing her lips to mine forcefully. I wasted no time in returning the favor, and before I even knew what was happening we were shedding clothes.

We separated only long enough to ditch our shirts before we were back to trying to devour one another. She pulled me down on top of her and I was inside of her before we’d even settled. She threw her head back, her mouth open in a silent scream, her lips tugging upwards on the sides, and I rained down kisses and nibbles on her exposed throat. Her hips rose to meet my very first thrust. Then the second. Then the third.

She wrapped one leg around me, sinking one hand into my hair while the other dragged her nails down my back hard enough to break skin as I thrust into her. She twisted her fingers into my hair and yanked my head back so she could press her mouth back to mine, her tongue seeking mine out fervently. A desperate moan slipped past her lips and mine, and I grabbed a handful of her ass to angle her hips upward so I could hit the spot I knew she loved most.

Just like when we were sparring, our movements were perfectly in sync. Every thrust, every shift, every kiss, every bite, every nibble. Every motion I made, she moved to match. Every time she bucked her hips, I was ready for it. Neither of us had to hold back when orgasm slammed into us both. She buried herself in the crook of my neck while I emptied my load into her in one of the strongest orgasms I’d ever had. Spots danced in my eyes when I finally lowered myself over her, gently pressing kisses to her mouth while she came down from her own release.

“Goddess, Zaren,” she panted, her eyes still staring at the roof of the tent. “That was…goddess…”

I laughed into her shoulder, letting my body fall next to hers. “I’m still not sure how I feel about you involving Allura in my sex life.” Then I realized we weren’t alone. I looked up to see Rhallani grinning like the cat who’d caught the canary with Tiana wearing a similar expression while peeking over her shoulder.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about!” Rhallani said, already starting to strip.

I laughed again and Serena joined me. “I’m sorry,” she said, “I just—after we were done, all I could think about—I just remembered how we only started because you goaded me into sparring with you, and then once I was sure you were okay I just realized how bad I needed you inside of me.”

Rhallani barked out a laugh and Serena clamped a hand over her mouth. “I can’t believe I just said that out loud.”

“I can, you closet perv!” Rhallani said. She took a step towards me, but Tiana’s hand shot out and grabbed her shoulder.

“Ah ah, hold your horses,” she said. She smiled at me, her eyes sparkling. “Soul Essence?”

I checked, then raised a brow. “Forty-four. The Link really did boost my regen.”

The look in Rhallani’s eyes was as terrifying as it was arousing. “It sure did. Now we need to see if it’s only improved when it comes to Serena, or if it’s all of us.” She licked her lips. “I can think of a few ways to test it if you’re game.”

Serena leaned up to kiss me, then stood and summoned her armor. “I’ll go find Noelle and get us some food. Guess you aren’t going to get much sleep after all, huh Zaren?”