Page 60 of Family Found

We were back in the dorms, in the same room we’d snuck off to yesterday. The one in which, two and a half years ago, someone had made the bed and pulled the door shut, never to return. I had no idea who’d lived and studied here, but I wished I could tell them that I’d made things right again, that I had reversed that terrible magic they had been used for.

They were gone though.

“Thanks for going to get Aragis,” I said. “And thanks for protecting me.”

I remembered the wound I’d closed and scrambled around under the sheets Inkiri had wrapped me in so I could get his shirt open.

He clicked. “Ah. You want my barb now, sadir, yes? To help you heal?”

“Uhm. Yes, please,” I said, proving that I wasn’t fully awake yet, and maybe just a bit too horny for someone who’d just thrown lightning at the Koa Esher.

Inkiri nodded. “I’m glad. Ever since yesterday, you smell of magic, but different from bagu magic. Sweeter.” He licked my neck again. “I’m quite glad you want pleasure play now. You’re feeling well enough for it?”

I hadn’t known he could smell magic on me. Obviously, that was no reason to keep doing the kind of stuff I’d done last night, but maybe some dispensing here and there was okay. If he liked it.

“I think I had a good night’s sleep. Just as if I’d partied, except that was no party at all. I… The magic didn’t hurt me all that bad this time.” I opened my mouth to tell him about Death and how the Lady had come to help save all of us. I wanted to tell him what she’d said, that there would be a price.

I snapped my mouth closed. Hearing that might worry him, and I didn’t want that. I’d made the decision, and I would pay the cost. Until then, I’d love him as best as I was able.

Plus, his mind was on the ravishing train of thought, right along with my own. I gave him the slowest eyelash batting I could. Inkiri growl-purred.

“Sweet thing, you make me the luckiest hangu-na on Earth, maybe even on Aër.”

He undressed me. He’d put me in a soft set of shibiya last night, and now he peeled me out of them as if I were jewelry wrapped in silk. I chuckled as I watched him carefully pull a fresh pair of cat socks off my feet.

“No matter what you say, I’m not getting on all fours today. But you’ll take care of me, right?”

I combined that with some more blinking, and yes, I was a mighty pillow queen. My mate ate it up.

“Always, sadir. I know you like being on your back when you take my barb.”

He stripped out of his own clothes, and I saw the scar from last night finally, slightly puckered and flaring out like a starburst. I let out a long breath and reached for the mark, carefully running my fingers over it. Inkiri was undeterred, pushing my legs apart so he could settle between them.

“Does this hurt?”

He shook his head. “It’s nothing. It will show everyone I bleed willingly for my mate.”

“I could’ve healed it fully, but then I realized you’d say that, so I left you with that scar.”

Inkiri’s eyes went wide, and his mouth fell open. He ran the knuckles of his right hand over my cheek.

“My Rory. My precious mate. I don’t understand how you wish I wouldn’t fight, but I try. Thank you for letting me keep this.”

“Sure, anytime,” I said, then realized what I’d said. “Like, I’d rather not see you in a gunfight ever again, but, you know. Happy to make you happy. If that means not healing your wounds fully, I’ll do that, but of course I like it best if you don’t get hurt.”

Inkiri ran his fingers all over my skin, smiling as if he was examining a piece of art or watching a really good stage performance.

“I don’t know yet what will make you happy, but I do want to learn. I want to be worthy of a hangu like you, of a powerful mage.”

This guy. How was I supposed to not tear up at that? His fault. He was being too good for me, and the waterworks were his fault, whether he went about clicking at me as soon as he saw them or not.

“Oh…”

“Sweet thing, what is it? Pain from the magic? Tell me what you want, tell me what I should do.”

I shook my head and reeled him in by his arm. He yielded, clicking until he was on top of me, close and warm. I kissed him, tangled my fingers in his long hair.

“Happy tears,” I told him. “But I really want—” I reached down to where I felt his slick cock next to my own and stroked, reveling in the differences, loving that it made me feel so good to touch him. “I want you.”