Awakening (Born From Shadows #1)

The rest of the journey to Faithorn was slow and luckily uneventful for the two travelling companions.

“What’s that smell?” Tatianna asked as they approached the distant town.

“Well, I am assuming you’re smelling the ocean, but seeing as I can’t smell anything besides this horse, I don’t know,” he replied pointing out her Elven senses.

“I think you’re right, it is the ocean,” she said scenting the salty air. “I’ve never seen the ocean before,” she admitted.

“You are going to love it,” he replied.

“I hope so.”

They reached the outskirts of the town and Tatianna turned to Nylif. “You’re going have to stay here girl we will be back. You understand?” she asked the wolf. For some reason despite it being an animal, the wolf seemed to understand her and halted its movements while Ida continued forward.

“Your hood,” Nik told her. She nodded and placed the cloth over her head shielding her face from public eyes. It was midday and the town was crawling with life. People were everywhere and so were their horses. Tatianna bent her head down even further muttering a prayer to the goddess of fate to see her through.

She heard murmurs, whispers of conversations as they passed through the crowds. Her heightened senses were going berserk not knowing where to focus herself.

“The Queen is so distressed, I heard she had locked herself within the castle waiting for the Prince’s return,” one man said.

Her focus then went to another conversation, “I saw them. A bunch of bodies on my way in just lying on the road, but get this, they had Kaddeian swords and one of the swords was missing.” Tatianna’s eyes immediately went down to the long sword at the Princes hip.

“Did you hear?” another voice cut into her, “Cainva was completely annihilated. Everyone there is dead and not a single witness to tell the story.”

Other conversations were going on. Some about a lover’s spats, others about what food they needed to buy. Despite no longer being in Avalla it surprised her how similar the conversations were between the wealthy.

“I am positive it was them,” a feminine voice caught her attention. It was familiar and very distant. “It was the hunt, why else would they have such blades.”

Tatianna risked lifting her head and searched the crowd. Looking in the direction of the voices. That’s when she saw them, their blonde hair. Riley’s height made him stand out a bit more.

“Nik,” she said gaining his attention. “Riley and Freya by the wagon.” She said indicating their location.

“They’re alive,” Nik said in shock and directed Ida towards them. Tatianna got off the horse as they approached, landing firmly against the ground.

“Freya, Riley,” she said. The two siblings immediately turned towards her. A smile etched itself onto Freya’s face and she ran towards Tatianna. The blonds girl wrapped her arms around Tatianna, and she returned the hug.

Tatianna then turned towards Riley and offered him the same amount of affection she just gave Freya. “We thought you were dead,” she told them.

“So did we,” Riley replied.

“Yeah, we were about to leave when we heard that a mass of bodies with Kaddeian blades was left on the road to Faithorn,” Freya explained. “We knew it was the Hunt and realised that you must have been on your way.”

“What happened to you two? We went down to Cainva after you didn’t come back and everyone was dead. We assumed you were amongst the bodies and didn’t want to stay any longer,” she asked.

“Well, we were struggling to find where things were and didn’t realise that the sun went down so we got onto our horses and were about to leave but then these…things came. Everything went dark, once they approached the first few people they just died. They were quick so we bolted. Had we not been already prepared to leave we would have been killed,” Riley explained. “We decided to go to Faithorn instead of risk bringing those things back to you.”

“Smart,” Nik complimented him. Riley however did not take that compliment too well.

“Where have you been staying?” Tatianna asked. She was eager to have a warm night’s sleep after travelling for so long.

“There’s an inn not far from here,” Freya said.

“Can you take us?” Nik asked, just as tired as her if not more with his injury.

“Sure,” Freya said. Tatianna noticed the cheerful tone and knew that after everything Freya was happy to see them.

The siblings led them through the crowded streets of Faithorn and towards a large building, still small compared to the mansions in Avalla but larger than anything Tatianna could dream of owning.

She put Ida into one of the spare stables built for travelling parties and entered the building behind the others. “Hi, can we get two more rooms?” Freya asked the person standing behind the counter. Tatianna looked around the room and noticed an abundance of alcohol and some tables spread out. It was a bar on the lower level.

“One will do,” Nik said causing Tatianna’s face to heat up. “It’s cheaper,” he told the others that looked surprised.

The Innkeeper handed them a key, telling them where the room was.

“We will be walking around,” Freya said grabbing her brother’s arm and walked out of the Inn. They had days of travel to catch up. Right now, Tatianna desired rest even as the sun still shinned outside.

Tatianna helped Nik up the stairs, his leg was still weak. Although she had a sneaking suspicion, he could walk up to them on his own and just wanted her to be close to him. The two collapsed onto the bed as soon as they entered their room. Her muscles rejoiced at the soft bedding, yet despite that and the tiredness of her eyes, she couldn’t sleep. She kept trying to drift off, but her mind was too awake, thinking of everything that had happened. Wondering so many different questions like always. It frustrated her to no end that her mind would not stay quiet.

“Stop moving,” Nik grumbled from beside her. Was she moving a lot? She didn’t realise if she was.

“Sorry, I just can’t sleep,” she said turning around to face his closed eyes that slowly opened revealing that deep green she adored.

“I can help…if you want,” he muttered unsure.

“How?” she asked curiously. You can’t make someone else fall asleep. He moved his body so that he was on top of her, his dark hair falling upon his face. Tatianna took this time to marvel at how good he looked until he brought down his lips onto hers. He started slow, being soft and gentle until the kisses became more desperate. Tatianna struggled to keep with his pace, her actions becoming sloppier as so many different sensations went through her body. His lips then moved down onto her jaw and his hands grabbed her own, pinning them up above her head. His lips moved further down onto her neck and she released a loud moan. The feeling of him was intoxicating her as he pressed his hips against hers and groaned. His deep voice doing things to her stomach that she never thought was possible.

His hands left hers and trailed down her arms then to her sides. Taking the opportunity Tatianna ran her fingers through his hair feeling his head lower till it was aligned with another part of her body. He lifted her dress and his warm breath hit against her causing her legs to shake and try to shut.

“Keep them open,” he demanded, right against her. Nik placed a hand on both her ankles then placed spreading them wide apart, pulling off her underwear to the side with his teeth. Tatianna realised how exposed she was to him, he could see everything but she didn’t care once he placed his mouth onto her. Tatianna’s back arched up and pleasure erupted within her. It was pure bliss as he swirled his tongue around, then pushing it inside of her forcing another moan out of her mouth.

“Nik,” she breathed out, unable to focus on anything but his tongue. Suddenly she felt something else sliding into her, a finger. It hurt a bit at first, but that bit of pain was quickly changed into pleasure as he slowly pumped it in and out of her, applying more pressure with his mouth. Tatianna’s legs began to shake, and she felt seconds away from a release. Nik then curled his fingers inside her and that was enough to send her screaming over the edge. He continued to lick her until everything she had released was no longer there. He then placed down her leg and Tatianna struggled to regain her breath. Nik crawled back up to her and placed a gentle kiss on her lips, but this time his lips were wet with her on them.

He moved away from her body before spooning her up into his side, and she quickly fell asleep, her mind relaxed and body feeling all sorts of new things. There was now only one question going through her mind and it seemed like the most important one of them all.