Zodiac Academy 8.5: Beyond The Veil

Time turned fluid where I lingered in the dark. Whatever form I’d held when coming here had faded, all I was now reduced to that small, golden glimmer, my soul contained within it, pining for the things I’d lost.

What have I done?

I floated in twisting circles, the darkness before me alive, yawning, whispering words of true peace and eternal rest.

Some part of me understood that I was hovering close to the Destined Door. Some part of me wondered if I should just slip through it now and stop the harm I always caused for good.

Even from death, I was hurting her.

I’d watched in awe and horror as Roxy took that step into death, her soul parting from her body, walking a line that was all too thin, risking everything because of that damned book which I had so wanted her to find.

I’d pushed her towards it. Whether she’d felt me urging her towards that fate or not didn’t matter. Regardless of my influence from this side of The Veil, she had ended up in that cavern, claiming those cursed books because of me. My death had pushed her from impulsive to reckless in her hunt for vengeance.

Any small inclination she’d had towards self-preservation had fallen away when she lost me, and now I was staring that reality in the face. She would risk anything, gamble everything and pay any consequence to rescue Darcy, Gabriel and Orion. Any cost to herself had become irrelevant to her in the face of what she’d already lost, and she was playing games with her own life, her star damned soul.

It was my fault. Whichever way I spun it, it all came back to me.

She would be better if I slipped through that door and left her to find a path which wasn’t tainted by my presence, but wasn’t it already too late for that?

“You lied to me.” Her words jarred through me, echoing around the empty space I found myself in, making the golden glow of all that I was flicker and falter as the pain in her words cut me deep. “You promised you’d stay,” she spat.

I could feel her grief, sharp as knives, all of them slicing through me, calling me to her. But how could I go to her now? How could I face her after watching her balance her own soul on the precipice of death because of that fucking book. Because of the magic I’d wanted her to seek.

There was danger in ether which went beyond my understanding, but I could feel it in everything from the weight of that book to each and every spell, potion or word which she took from it.

Her grief was like a sucker punch to my gut, urging me to her, reeling me in. But I couldn’t bear to look into those green eyes and face the nothingness in her gaze as she failed to see me in return.

A pause. Doubt, pain, hurt.

She was aching for me and for once I wasn’t racing to answer her call. I was letting her down again. But which was worse? My presence or my absence?

“You also swore you’d never see me as your queen,” Roxy spoke from the realm of the living again, the words so clearly meant for me that I could hear them as if she were stood at my side. “So, I’m willing to bet this will make you all kinds of pissed off.”

I couldn’t help it, I fell towards her, the darkness of that door tumbling away as The Veil shifted, revealing her in that room with the red and black roses, a gown of pure midnight hugging her frame.

I gasped as I took in the crown of silver and blue which she’d taken from my treasure hoard and placed upon her head, the obnoxious smirk on her sinful lips which had never once failed to get a rise out of me.

She knew.

She knew I was watching and even now she taunted me, played with me, riled the beast within.

In that smile I found the strength which had been fading.

“Mine,” I growled, moving closer to her. But the word was no claim on the trinket she’d stolen to place upon her brow. My claim was for her. The true treasure in that room. The only thing I ever needed to claim anymore.

I reached for her, my form suddenly returning as I moved to stand at her back, looking at her reflection in the long mirror which stood before her just as she studied it too. I met that fiery gaze of hers, my fingers tracing the curve of her spine as I inhaled the perfect scent of her.

“I’m so sorry, Roxy,” I breathed.

For dying. For leaving her. For everything that had come before this moment and for all the moments which should have come after. And for setting her on this path laced with darkness.

She closed her eyes, and I drew my hand away, my chest tightening with the reality of what I knew she was capable of now. I was luring her closer to death every time I reached for her like this, and the fear I felt over that was all consuming.

I sank back beyond The Veil, whether by choice or not, I wasn’t even certain, leaving my queen there alone once more.

My chamber in the Eternal Palace materialised around me, my weight falling heavily into a throne backed with Hydra heads, the thing which I had once fought for so reverently now nothing but an uncomfortable seat which didn’t seem to fit me at all.

I could feel a darkness to the energy in the room, something telling me that Roxy was currently moving further into the shadows, taking a path which she wouldn’t be drawn from.

I frowned at the bare wall before me, wondering how I might turn her from this trail, how I might protect her from herself.

But I knew in the depths of my soul that there was no doing that.

Anger rose in me, fury at her for her own recklessness. She was needed there. Darcy needed her, my brother, the Heirs, Gabriel, hell, the whole of Solaria needed her.

I was just a thorn in her side who was drawing far too much of her attention.

I growled, the Dragon in me writhing with unspent energy, but I didn’t move. Something was building in the air around me. Something drawing closer which I couldn’t keep fighting forever.

A dark circle appeared on the wall before me, a shimmering light reflected in the centre of it, and my spine prickled.

There was something about that circular object which felt…wrong. It didn’t belong here. It had slipped through the cracks in The Veil somehow and was looking for me.

I didn’t rise from my position on the throne, my gaze fixed on the rippling liquid within that circle of midnight as a face appeared beyond it.

A face I knew too well.

Roxy’s eyes shone with the ferocity of her grief as she gazed at me and I stilled as I found her truly looking, truly seeing me.

“Darius?” she breathed, a plea in my name like she was begging for this vision of me to be real.

And it was.

I had no idea how, but it was. She was looking straight at me, the thick, cloying energy which spilled into the room reminding me of that damn book she’d stolen.

She drew in a shuddering breath, tears breaking free of her restraint, a sob catching in her chest. Her tears fell against the liquid barrier which stood between us, making it shimmer and ripple, her pain splashing against my skin wherever they struck.

“You promised you’d stay,” she accused and the rage which had been set to consume me flashed through me like thunder. I had never wanted to leave, and she knew it. I’d given everything fighting for her, fighting for an end to the man who had tried to forge me in his image.

“You promised you’d find me,” I replied, a hateful smile twisting my lips, that anger building beyond anything I’d felt since coming here, something in the darkness of the power which was allowing us to speak like this stirring only the most hateful of my feelings into words. Some small part of me just wanted to tell her to be safe, to keep fighting, to know that I loved her. But the petty, aching, desperate piece of me which wanted nothing more than to return to her arms by any means possible was what had hold of my tongue now.

“Tick tock, Roxy,” I growled.

Pain flashed across her features, the liquid rippling then racing away, the cloying darkness chasing after it, a feeling akin to a bucket of ice-cold water dropping over me.

I sagged back into the throne, panting, aching, flickering in and out of substance.

What the fuck had that been?

I made to stand up, but the energy in my chamber rumbled uncertainly, the walls themselves closing in, the golden light fading as memories arose in the space. Me and her, a thousand moments, a million kisses, endless desire, lust, love.

I couldn’t breathe for the scent of her, couldn’t see for the sight of her, couldn’t feel for the touch of her skin against mine.

She was everywhere and nowhere, the room rocking and shaking around me as some magic took hold of it which I could neither understand nor fight against. Not while I felt her like that. Not while my need for her grew so potent that I could do little more than wallow in it.

I could feel her lips against mine, her hands on my skin, in my hair, fisting there, pulling me closer, no part of me wanting to refuse.

She was it. And if some piece of her had found its way to me here then I would gladly be a slave to that magic. Aching for her was becoming too much to bear and this taste of near reality was too tempting to refuse.

I needed her so desperately that it devoured me.

The darkness fell to ruin like a slap to the face and suddenly I wasn’t in her arms anymore, I was standing above my dead body on a battlefield, watching as she cursed the stars themselves, swearing her vengeance on each and every one.

There were others here now though. Souls which hadn’t been present when I watched this play out before.

I turned away from the sight of Roxy standing over my dead body and a flash of horror rolled through me as I spotted the three women who stood there watching us too. They were stunning to behold, utterly naked and painted in blood, but all three of them were disfigured by the darkness of the magic which had guided them here. One had sewn her eyes shut, the other her lips, while the third had cut off her ears.

They grinned at me. Not at my corpse, or the girl blazing with power as she cursed the stars themselves, but at me. Summoned here in death to witness whatever was happening now.

“You don’t hurt her,” I snarled, time twisting around us, Roxy here but not, her memories playing out while her consciousness remained outside of this moment. She couldn’t hear me, but they could. “Do you understand me?”

“Hurt her?” the one whose eyes were sewn shut gasped, touching a hand to her heart as if the idea repulsed her. She bled freely from a wound to her arm, blood splattering her pale skin. “We wish only to offer her the truest desire of her heart.”

“And that’s me?” I surmised, their growing smiles the answer I needed.

I looked around, the weight of this memory pressing close, my own corpse a morbid reminder of what I was now.

“Can you bring me back?” I demanded, the ache for that a burn in my soul.

The one whose lips were sewn shut shook her head.

“She might though,” the one without ears cooed. “We can set her on the right path…for a price.”

“What price?” I stalked towards them but no matter how many steps I took, I didn’t end up any closer to them at all.

“We wish to burn in your passion,” the one without ears said, biting down on her lip, her hand trailing over her breast. “One night. You can relive the love which burned between you for a single night and it will feel as real as it did when you lived it. You will be able to touch her, kiss her, taste her, fuck her, you will feel it all and so will she. You can even pick the memories, relive whichever you want as many times as you wish between now and sunrise and we will get to taste the heat of that passion while it roars.”

The memory we hung in shifted, replaced by endless heated moments where my flesh had claimed Roxy’s, where the fire between us had blazed the hottest. My cock hardened at the sight of it, her body bending to mine, claiming mine, owning mine, and some part of me knew they were offering her this same deal.

“There’s nothing else to this?” I asked, suspicion lacing my tone.

“The power of a joining such as yours is compelling indeed, but none of us can partake in any such act in full. Virgin blood works best for our work, so we remain as such. We can steal a taste though. That is all we want. You have our word,” the one whose eyes were sewn shut swore, painting a bloody cross over her heart.

I knew I should have been refusing, but even as I thought of it, the memories around me faded. I found myself standing just outside a clearing in the woods, ancient trees forming a perfect pentagram around us and Roxy standing at its centre beside a stone altar.

I knew this was no vision, but the truth of where my wife now stood within the living realm.

She was surrounded by the three women, each of them tracing their hands over her flesh, making the Dragon in me growl with a possessive claim that I refused to relinquish even in death.

I knew they’d offered her the same deal as they’d just given me, and I knew my answer was the selfish choice which I shouldn’t have been making. But when it came down to it, there was only her.

“Done,” Roxy said firmly, and her word was like a leash winding around my throat, tightening, drawing me to her, but I had no desire to refuse.

I stepped to the edge of the trees and the magic there buzzed powerfully as I made to pass over it, the words of those creatures pressing into my mind before I could continue on.

“Memories only,” they breathed. “Nothing new can pass between you once you enter that clearing.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat, knowing there were so many things I needed to tell my wife, so many words that needed to be spoken. I couldn’t utter them if I agreed to this bargain.

But she stood there, vulnerable, hurting, needing me. And if the only way she could feel my presence was by reliving the memories we’d already shared then I would pick the best of them all and make sure she felt every second of pleasure just as deeply as the first time it had occurred between us.

I took another step, falling into the first memory which came to me. We’d been in the burrows, fucking all night and yet it was never enough. My shirt had already been off, my hunger for her consuming every thought as I stalked towards her.

“Roxy,” I growled, and she looked to me, that memory forming around us, the room appearing as it had that morning, the reality of the clearing, of her dress and the sword at her waist tangling with it as she hesitated to give in entirely. “You’re wearing far too many clothes,” I spoke the words from the past, almost seeing my t-shirt on her body as well as the dress.

One of the oracles started tugging her dress free and Roxy unbuckled her own sword belt, her eyes never leaving me as I prowled closer. The sight of her body made my cock throb with need, and she moaned softly as the dress slipped from her form.

The corner of her lips lifted, her hand moving between her thighs just as it had that day, putting on a show for me as she began to toy with her pussy, pushing her panties aside and biting that sinful bottom lip of hers.

I pushed into the memory, the naked Nymphs fading away as I gave myself to it, not wanting to see them at all, only wanting to look upon the perfection of my bride.

I let Roxy have her way with that memory, fucking her the way we had that morning, worshipping her flesh until the sound of her moans faded and I found myself beyond the line of the trees once more, blinking in confusion.

Then she drew me back to her, the night I had found her outside the burrows beginning to play out, the first night we had spent together after breaking the Star-Crossed bond.

I gave myself to that memory too, loving the feeling of her skin against mine, the tightness of her pussy around my cock, the utter bliss I secured when she came for me, until that faded away too and I was beyond the edge of the trees once more.

This time, I pushed my own will into the memories, picking one which I had fucked my own hand to more times than I could count because it had been that perfect.

Roxy’s head fell back against the memory of her pillow, her eyes shut as I stepped into our room at the burrows, chest rising and falling in sleep, the beauty of her as captivating as always.

I pushed the door closed at my back and leaned against it, my hand twisting at my side, magic forming as I cast an illusion into place. Though I didn’t move, the feeling of my hand brushed against her ankle, tracing its way up her leg while I remained where I was by the door, watching, waiting.

Roxy moaned softly as those phantom fingers rolled up her thigh where she lay on her side before tracing the curve of her ass, caressing the rounded flesh there and moving higher still.

I fed the feeling back to my own hand, the illusion conveying the softness of her skin to me while I remained out of reach, watching, waiting.

The sheet slipped from her shoulder as my illusion passed over it then dipped to tug at the firmness of her nipple.

“You’re ravenous, dude,” she mumbled, her spine arching like a cat while that word built a growl in the back of my throat.

“What have I told you about that word?” I asked and her eyes flickered open in surprise as she realised I wasn’t beside her at all, a flash of confusion passing over her features as she spotted me by the door.

“What word?” she asked innocently, refusing to so much as blink at the illusion I was using on her.

“I’m not your dude.”

She smiled tauntingly, rolling onto her back and leaning on her elbows as she looked at me.

“Sure you are. We hang out, go running together, grab food in the same places and-”

I cut off her words with a shove of my will into the illusion, the phantom hand fisting around her panties and ripping them clean off of her, leaving her there in nothing but my shirt, the oversized material swamping her smaller frame.

Roxy bit down on her lip then had the nerve to continue. “We have the same friends, we like to party, we even-”

The phantom hand took hold of her chin, the shadow of my thumb pushing between those wicked lips, stopping her words, making her suck on it while I held her in place with the magic.

Roxy moaned as she took it into her mouth, her body always so willing to seek pleasure in mine, her rough voice turned to much sweeter sounds as she sucked.

“If I were simply one of your dudes, you wouldn’t purr for me so prettily,” I pointed out, my magic weaving its way into the illusion, more of it taking form, an arm building then a chest, head, legs, until there was another version of me standing over her, driving his thumb deep into her mouth, taking control of her.

Roxy looked from the illusion to me, her gaze heating before she sank her teeth into the false thumb in her mouth. The pain translated to my own hand as an echo of sensation, and I smiled at her as I curled it into a fist and the illusion released her.

“So, what’s this then?” Roxy asked, her attention shifting from me to the false version. “Are we playing something new?”

“Don’t go accusing me of playing, Roxy, or I’ll have to remind you how serious I am again.”

“Don’t go making promises unless you plan on keeping them, big man,” she replied, her attention shifting from me to the fake me again.

“You think I won’t?” I challenged, the idea of this more appealing with every moment.

“I think your jealousy runs so deep that you won’t be able to stand it,” she replied. “Remember when we were in that amplification chamber with Caleb and-”

“No,” I snarled, heat tearing through my core as I took a step closer to her, the illusion reaching down to unbuckle his belt. “I only remember you. Only ever you.”

“Jesus,” she muttered, looking from me to the illusion again, that one word the answer I needed because she only ever said it when she wanted something so badly all other words fled her.

I smiled darkly stalking towards the bed. “Take the shirt off,” I commanded.

As expected, she gave me a flat look of refusal, but while her attention was on me, my illusion grasped the hem of it and tugged it over her head for me.

Roxy cursed as it fell to the floor by the bed, her nipples diamond pointed, her breaths coming shallowly, pupils dilating.

“You were bossy enough when there was only one of you,” she commented.

“And you’re mouthy enough for two even while you sit there alone.”

She lifted her chin. “Illusions take a lot of concentration,” she said, her voice taking on a tone which sounded all too like an attempt at my own.

“You remembered your lesson,” I praised, laying it on a little thickly and enjoying the way her eyes flashed at the patronising tone.

“You really think you can concentrate on keeping it up once I’m riding you?” she asked, the doubt in her voice clear. “You usually forget your own name when I remind you who owns you, baby. I just don’t believe-”

“Is all this talk because you don’t think you can handle two of me, Roxy?” I teased, dropping my pants and kicking them off, my cock solid since the moment I’d stepped through the door.

Her eyes fell to it ravenously and the illusion dropped his pants too, drawing her gaze to him as he slowly walked around the bed.

“On your knees,” I growled, moving to stand before her on the bed, my fingers winding around her slender throat as she thought to refuse that command. I tugged her up so that she was kneeling there, her mouth close enough to claim with my own.

I dragged her to me, kissing her hard, my tongue sinking into her mouth, the taste of her so sweet that I never wanted to stop. It was hard to think about the illusion while I had her in my clutches like that, but I forced my will into it, his hands trailing down her spine, cupping her round ass.

She moaned as I tightened my grip on her throat, locking her there, devouring her mouth. My free hand teased her nipple, the illusion reaching around her to toy with the other one, her moans growing louder.

I loved the sounds she made when I fucked her. She never held back, didn’t even seem capable of it, moaning and screaming as she took my cock, always wanting more, never done with me.

I could feel how turned on she was in the hardness of her nipples, the eagerness of her kiss, but I wanted more proof than that.

I dropped my hand, scoring a line down her stomach, the illusion following my lead and trailing his fingers down her spine. I could feel both sensations, the echo of his touch on her flesh translating into my own skin, and a growl built in my chest as I fought to keep control of the magic.

The illusion slipped his fingers around her ass as I rolled mine over her clit, the two of us meeting at her soaking core, her wetness practically dripping as I pushed into it, unable to resist.

Two of my fingers sank into her, making her cry out into my mouth where I swallowed the sound and urged the illusion to join me.

He pushed two more fingers into her from behind, her pussy stretching as we worked it, the rhythm all too easy to find with my own mind controlling both bodies.

Roxy gasped, breaking our kiss, her pussy pulsing around our fingers, her nails biting into my biceps as she clung to me for support.

I looked into those green eyes, smiling darkly as my thumb rotated against her clit and as simply as that, she broke for me.

My cock throbbed with need as she cried out, her head falling back against the shoulder of the illusion, my jaw gritting as I fought to keep it in place while watching the perfection of her orgasm play out.

“I want to fuck this dirty mouth of yours while watching you take my cock in your pussy too,” I growled, my grip firming on her throat, the demand in my tone unyielding.

This was the one time when I could get her to bend to my will. The one time she would ever give in to me, even if she won that battle of wills just as often as she lost it.

But if ever Roxanya Vega would take a command from me then it was when she was high from coming for me and her greedy body demanded me, allowing me to claim it in whatever way I saw fit.

She nodded, still moaning and I took my fingers from her slick cunt, sucking them into my mouth before shifting my hold on her throat to fist in her hair.

Roxy dropped onto all fours between me and the illusion which I had to force myself to concentrate on, her tongue rolling around the tip of my cock before I’d even moved to claim her mouth.

I sucked in a sharp breath and the illusion flickered, my hold on it almost cracking before I forced myself to focus on it again.

“I fucking love you,” I told her as I looked down at the beautiful creature positioned on the corner of the bed, her mouth lined up to take me while her ass rose in anticipation of the illusion claiming her too.

“Prove it then, asshole,” she taunted, leaning in to lick the tip of my cock again and I groaned.

I frowned in concentration as Roxy took my dick into her mouth, sucking hungrily, swallowing me straight to the back of her throat and making my grip on her hair tighten. Of course she would take control of me even in this position. But I couldn’t find it in me to care.

I grunted as I focused on the illusion, feeling her skin echoed into my own hands as he took hold of her hip and fisted his cock in his other hand.

I watched, a growl of jealousy building in my chest even though I knew it was all me, but I wanted every piece of this woman at all times, and if that meant I got jealous over myself having her then so be it.

He slicked his cock against her pussy, rolling the head of it down to her clit, making her arch and swallow my dick deeper. I grunted, able to feel her pussy and her tongue on my cock at once as the magic fed his feelings back to me, the sensation too perfect, the desire to come already rising in me.

I bit down on the inside of my cheek, commanding the illusion to rub his cock from her clit all the way back to her ass, pressing against the tightness of that hole.

“If you come on his cock, I’m going to break the illusion and fuck that perfect ass of yours,” I warned her in a low tone.

Roxy’s eyes snapped up to mine, surprise and more than a little excitement in her gaze as she nodded in understanding of those words, accepting the deal.

My pulse thumped harder, my eyes moving to her ass, desire rising in me headily. I’d fucked her in more ways than I could count but I hadn’t claimed that yet, and the idea had been building and building in me, the need to take ownership of every part of her filling me with a desire so endless that I could barely contain it.

I smiled at her, using my hold on her hair to drive her down onto my dick as I thrust my hips forward, fucking her mouth the way I knew she loved it, hard and without mercy. Then I pushed my will into the illusion, and he thrust his dick into her drenched pussy too.

Roxy cried out around my cock, and I gasped, the illusion flickering in and out of existence as I was overwhelmed by the twin sensation of fucking her in both places at once, my dick jerking, cum almost spilling from me already.

But I held back. Through some miracle, I managed to gain control of myself, panting through my teeth as I fought to return the illusion to its full form, Roxy crying out as his cock reappeared inside her again.

I couldn’t help but stare at the way my dick thrust in and out of her while simultaneously sinking down her throat.

My whole body was shaking from the combined pleasure of it, her moans and frantic movements making it clear just how much she was loving it too.

Her spine curved beautifully as she was pinned between us, the wetness of her mouth and tightness of her pussy pushing me towards the edge far faster than I wanted, but I knew I couldn’t hold off for long. It was too much. Too perfect.

But just as I felt oblivion calling for me, Roxy came all over my illusion’s cock with a cry of pleasure that vibrated right through my real dick where it was lodged at the back of her throat.

I almost came with her, the illusion shattering as her pussy squeezed tight, the sensation flooding into me while her lips tightened too, and I knew she wanted me to join her in bliss.

But there was something I desired more than this release and as I dragged my cock out from between her lips, I knew she knew it too.

“Do it,” she panted, rolling over on the bed, her ass raised as she leaned on her forearms, her face pressing into the pillows.

“By the stars, I don’t think any man has ever wanted anything more than I want you, Roxy,” I told her, reaching for the drawer beside our bed and grabbing a bottle of lube from it. The thing was brand new, her pussy always so wet for me that we’d never needed it before, but my dick throbbed with need as I slicked the satin liquid over it now.

I moved over her, the illusion forgotten as I climbed onto the bed, a deep sigh escaping me as I slipped my cock between the cheeks of her ass.

Roxy moaned softly, arching her spine, driving her ass upward, allowing me enough room to slip my hand under her and find her clit.

“You ready, baby?” I asked her, my dick pressing against her ass, the need in my flesh so frantic that my entire body felt like it was buzzing with it.

I wouldn’t last much longer, but I wanted this so badly that I couldn’t stop now. I wanted to claim her in every way possible.

“Yes,” she panted. “Please.”

“Fuck.”

Roxy only begged when she was too turned on to care, the sound of that word on her lips making my dick jerk with need and I growled as I pressed my hips forward, pushing inside her at last.

I massaged her clit as I eased into her ass, my breath catching at the tightness I found there, her moans encouraging me deeper, my cock throbbing with pleasure.

She was trembling beneath me, the wetness of her pussy sliding over my fingers as I rubbed her clit harder, my dick settling deep within her.

I gave her a moment but as she pushed her ass up, I knew she was done with holding back.

A Dragon’s snarl parted my lips as I began thrusting, my cock gripped tight in her ass, her moans of pleasure echoing my own.

She was so tight, so fucking tight and I wanted to come so badly that it took all I had to hold off. But I wanted to destroy her like this, wanted her pleasure even more than my own, my fingers grinding against her clit as my weight flattened her against the bed.

She gripped the sheets and I threaded my fingers through hers as I leaned over her, the tightness of her hold and throaty moans breaking from her filling me with ecstasy as I ran my mouth up the back of her neck.

She writhed beneath me, panting, screaming and finally coming so hard that fire spilled from her palms and burned holes into the mattress.

I came with her, roaring like the beast I was, thrusting deep into her tight ass, filling her with my cum and marking her as my own. Like I’d done time and again. Like I’d continue to do as often as I could for the rest of our lives.

I fell over her, my weight pressing down on her for several seconds as we panted our way through that bliss, her head turning so that she could capture my lips in a kiss that stole the last of my breath and had me drowning in the depths of my feelings for her.

I pulled out of her, rolling off of her and drawing her against my chest, placing a kiss against her hair.

“Mine,” she growled, sounding just like a Dragon as she claimed me, and I smirked like a lucky motherfucker.

The memory fractured, the Nymphs appearing for a moment, their greedy hands trailing our flesh before I found myself standing at the edge of the treeline once more, unable to deviate from the memories at all. I had so much I needed to tell her, but I was lost to the power of this magic, and I gave in to it willingly.

I went to her again, the shimmering springs appearing around us this time, the anger I’d felt that day rising in my chest alongside the undeniable lust which had been about to find an outlet at last.

And so the night turned into day then night again, the two of us reliving all of the most passionate memories we owned, the magic guiding us until the distance caused by The Veil finally drew me away again and I was left with the reality of being without her once more.

But before it could cast me aside entirely, I caught sight of Roxy waking alone on that stone altar, unaware of me as I lingered close by, the taste of her kisses staining my lips.

A note lay beside her with the Book of Ether, the deal she’d made with those creatures complete.

The words written on it set my senses on edge, but there was something far more dangerous about them too. Because within the perilous instructions they provided, it seemed there might be one thing which I was probably a fool for still harbouring. Hope.

In the heart of the Damned Forest, beyond the Waters of Depth and Purity, lies the Ever-Changing Winds of Sky and Spirit. The Endless Drop will take you through the Fires of the Abyss and beyond them, where the ether lies thickest, your answers await.