I smiled as I placed the sword on the stand with the other Immense Blades. It’d been a hell of a day, and it was only going to get better from here. The raw power of Physical Augmentation was hard to resist, and I couldn’t wait to use it again. But there were other things to attend to. My friends and I needed to absorb the cores we’d found. The others were asleep, though, so I resolved to wake them up before dawn and see just what we were dealing with.
I settled down onto the hard bunk with a contented sigh and closed my eyes.
Mahrai woke me an hour later.
I heard the hinges of my door shift. The haze of sleep vanished, and I was on my feet in a second. She flinched at the movement, shrank back against the door, and put her fingers to her lips. The candlelight caught the smooth curves beneath her tunic and breeches, and she rolled her eyes as she brushed her messy hair away from her face.
“Gods, you’re jumpy,” she whispered. “How did you fare with the Hierophant?”
“He taught me a few things,” I said with a smile.
“But nothing compared to what I’ve taught you, right?” Mahrai glided toward me with a catlike step and kissed me.
My hands found her shoulders while we kissed, and her tongue danced with mine as she pushed me back to the bunk. She pulled my robe away from my chest, shoved me down until I was sitting against the wall, then settled on my hips with a knowing smirk. I leaned back into the cold stone at my back and watched her chew her lower lip for a moment.
“You don’t want to hear what the Hierophant taught me?” I asked.
“Later. I have needs to be met.”
She pressed her lips to my neck and pulled at my skin with her teeth. I squeezed her thigh as I nudged her away from me and met her eyes again. There was something troubling her, I could tell from the way she avoided my gaze.
“Is something wrong?” I asked.
“I want you,” she said, but she looked uncertain, and that wasn’t in character for her. She blazed through life like an inferno and didn’t think twice about the consequences. But something had been bothering her since we’d set off from Radiant Dragon, and it wasn’t just a lingering hangover.
Mahrai looked away with a small sound of irritation. “I hate it when you look at me like that,” she muttered.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s that understanding thing you do. You see right through me. Like you can read my mind or something.” She sat back on my thighs and hooked her fingers around the hem of her tunic.
“Well, we can sleep together and pretend it’s not a problem. Or you can get it off your chest and talk to me about it. Or we can do both, if you want.” I shrugged.
Mahrai tossed her tunic behind her and stretched. Her pert breasts matched the movement and drew my attention to just how firmly her nipples stood out in the low light. She grabbed a handful of my hair and pulled me in for another violent kiss. We stayed that way for a while. Her hands slid over my chest and neck as she ground herself into me with soft, snarling moans. Her legs trembled as she halted the movement and exhaled sharply.
“It’s this place,” she said, answering my previous question. “The discipline, the statues, all of these fucking monks. It reminds me too much of Saruqin and his cultists. All these words about how important we are and what we can do to help the Seven Realms.”
My hands traced the edge of her tunic and found the clasp of her belt. “This is different, Mahrai. Xilarion trained with them. He trusts them, and we can all learn something here.”
“Sounds like you thought the same thing when you met this Horix bastard.”
“It was when I met him that I knew something was up.” I slid her belt out from around her hips. “My gut tells me that these monks are on the Wandering Path. They’re not our enemy. But it doesn’t mean that I trust them, either.”
“Good. So, it’s not just me,” Mahrai sighed as I kissed her breast.
“Definitely not,” I assured her. “We’ve all got your back, Mahrai.”
“You’d better,” she growled. “Now fucking take me, Ethan.”
I shoved her off my lap, tore off her trousers, and stood up behind her. She glanced slyly over her shoulder with gleaming eyes and shook her ass invitingly at me. My pants fell beside her tunic as I took her from behind and pressed her against the wall. Her warmth surrounded me, and she let out a long, needy growl.
“Quiet,” I warned her. “We don’t want to wake the others.”
She slapped a hand over her mouth and pressed herself back into me as hard as she could. The bunk ground against my knees as I doubled my pace. Her thighs trembled as her muffled snarls came out faster, and she came with a long, animalistic buck of her hips. She slipped away from me into the covers, and I sat down beside her as she caught her breath.
“Gods, that’s so good,” Mahrai whispered into the blankets.
“Feel better?”
“I will once I’ve tasted you properly.”
Her mouth closed over my length a few seconds later, and I leaned back into the wall as she sucked hungrily at me. Pleasure sparked through every nerve in my body as her head bobbed up and down. Her tongue danced in smooth, coaxing circles, and my back tensed as I shoved my hips upward. Mahrai pulled her mouth away from me and shot me a wicked smile just as I painted her chest.
“Now we’re even,” she said.
She dressed and left without another word. I settled back down to sleep, and a warm jolt of admiration swam through my blood. Mahrai had always found it difficult to trust people, but she was trying her
