12
“Let’s try that again,” Idris said with a grimace. “The blade isn’t a baseball bat. It’s an extension of your arm. And this isn’t like a movie. Don’t aim to smack my sword, aim to hit my body.”
Seren sighed. Sword work apparently was not something that was going to come naturally to her. Her arm ached as she raised the practice blade again. It was heavier than Fragarach, one of the benefits of a magical blade, but Idris reasoned that would only be to her advantage when she was finally ready to use a real sword. Idris came at her again with exaggerated slowness. “Block, block, that’s right, now strike low, parry upward, move your feet. Whoa!” She tripped and fell flat on her face.
“Ow,” she said into the ground, feeling too tired and defeated to move.
“Seren, are you all right?” Meirion’s voice was somewhat panicked as his hand grabbed her shoulder, rolling her onto her back. She blinked up at his face against the sunlight. “You’re exhausted,” he surmised.
“A bit,” she said, letting him pull her to her feet. “I ache in muscles I didn’t know I had.”
“I guess it’s time we took a break,” Idris said. “Meirion, maybe you can show her how it’s done.” Meirion frowned as he supported her stiff hobbling to a chair.
“I’ve never used a sword,” he protested. “I can’t imagine how that would help, unless you just want to exhaust someone else.”
Idris laughed. “No. You use a spear, right? Like a bladed quarterstaff, almost. It’s not quite the same technique, but it might give her an idea about the way a battle should flow. Plus, she may have to defend against a spear.”
“All right,” Meirion said, shucking off his shirt. Here, they could dress how they wanted, and Seren and Meirion had mostly reverted back to wearing modern clothes. It was a bit more comfortable, though it was funny how it had become strange to see him wearing a shirt. “Will we use real weapons and magic, or stick with training blades?”
“Do you usually use magic when you fight?” Idris asked, his eyes lighting with curiosity.
“My spear is also a magical focus,” Meirion replied. Seren watched his brow furrow in concentration, and then his spear materialized in his hand. “Although, besides the battle with Niall, I haven’t fought anyone seriously for years. I am accustomed to using my weapon and my magic in tandem.”
“I’m not opposed to a real battle, if you aren’t,” Idris said, excitement filling his voice. “I’ve never fought someone using your style before. But we’d better set wards and come up with some ground rules.” Seren found herself interested despite the fact that she wanted a nap more than she ever had in her life.
The two men paced out a battlefield and shielded it to prevent stray magic from escaping. Then they met in the center and agreed on the rules, which seemed fairly obvious. The first to fall unconscious or surrender would lose, no purposeful injury of vital organs, and no leaving the battlefield.
“Seren, tell us when to go,” Meirion said, settling himself into a defensive position. She sat up straighter in her chair.
“One… two… three… Go.” They burst into motion, Meirion darting forward faster than she would have imagined, and Idris stepping up to meet him. Their styles were the reverse of what she might have expected. Seren knew her husband as cautious and thoughtful, but in battle he was aggressive and mobile, perhaps because he had learned to fight when he was younger and more reckless.
But that was an oversimplification, she discovered. Idris had a straightforward strategy. He attacked with his sword, and spent most of his magic on defense or augmenting his speed and strength. Meirion was deceptive and acrobatic. He attacked with his spear to distract from spells he cast with his free hand, or he leaped around the battlefield, leaving barriers and traps which he could have only cast with his feet.
Now Seren knew why the members of his Court were always barefoot. It was breathtaking to watch; Seren’s heart pounded as she watched Meirion, his skin sheened with sweat, slide under Idris’s sword, striking the back of his knees with his spear as he passed.
But Idris began to adapt to Meirion’s style, matching his aggression and disrupting his attacks and movement. Now it became a test of stamina, but neither man showed outward signs of tiring. It only ended when Meirion, backed into a corner, actually threw his spear, and it pierced the ground with a shockwave that knocked Idris to his knees. In two long strides, Meirion was standing over Idris, electricity sparking in his plan.
“I give up,” Idris panted, though he was also grinning from ear to ear. Meirion pulled him to his feet and they dismissed the wards. “I’ve never faced someone from your Court. It was definitely educational. It took me a moment to remember that I didn’t have Maeve to back me up.”
“I’d be interested to see it. Once Seren has more training, we can have a rematch,” Meirion said as he approached her. She slid her arms around his waist, her blood still humming with excitement and pride.
“Sure,” Idris said. “Whoever wins can be thoroughly devastated by Aidan and Rowan. Father prefers to fight as a dragon, just to be intimidating, and Mother rides him into battle looking all sweet and innocent, and then she flattens your face with a firestorm.
I don’t think my Father even bothers to use offensive magic anymore; he just supports and heals her. They’re terrifying.” Seren could easily imagine it in her mind. As nervous as she was about the upcoming confrontation with Cifga, the knowledge that her biological parents would be with them gave her confidence. One on one, they were formidable enough. As a team who had worked together for over a century, they seemed indestructible.
“So, did you find watching our battle enlightening?” Meirion asked, looking down at her with a slightly smug smile on his face.
“I don’t know if I learned anything, but I certainly enjoyed myself,” she purred, her hand gliding up to his chest. “If I didn’t hurt in my everywhere, I’d gobble you up.”
His smiled turned wicked. “Would you like to have a bath? The warm water will help your sore muscles,” he said, pulling her into his arms until his mouth was against her ear. “Maybe then I’ll gobble you up.”
*****************************
The week passed. Seren had finally reached a point when she felt like she’d actually able to fend off an attacker and perhaps even do some damage. She and Meirion had both received custom sets of the leather armor the rest of her family favored, since it was better designed for combat limited to dry land. Aidan had enchanted them with the anti-possession wards himself, as he had the most power available. They were prepared as best as they could be.
To everyone’s surprise, the day before they were planning to leave, Rhosyn asked if she and Niall could come along. It was suspicious, all the Lords and Ladies agreed, but as Rowan pointed out, they wanted Cifga to oppose them. If Niall was still possessed, or planned to aid his mother, he may as well come along.
They could handle one more enemy. And if he truly came of good will, it would be a chance for him not only to get revenge on the woman who had used him for years, but to also redeem his own honor.
Now it was the night before the big confrontation. Seren was already lying in the bed. Their room in Aidan and Rowan’s estate was much less grand than their bedroom in the Court of Waves, and despite the danger to come, it felt almost like a relaxing vacation. She yawned and put down her book as she watched Meirion unbutton his shirt. “Giving up already?” he asked with a teasing smile.
“I’ve been so tired lately,” she said. He slipped into bed behind her, his skin smooth and cool against her back, and kissed the nape of her neck.
“You have basically been spending the last week at the gym,” he said. “If you didn’t have the natural regeneration of the Aos Si, you would probably be worse off.” She shook her head at the reminder of how much things had changed in the past month and a half. She never would have imagined that she was immortal, the child of a Lord and Lady of the Aos Si.
Certainly, she wouldn’t have dreamed of ending up one herself, bound forever by love and magic to a man she had once doubted would ever be more than an unrequited crush. But here they were, and tomorrow they would try to defeat an evil that had plagued the three Courts long before any of them were born.
“After this, I hope we get a break,” said, laying her hand over his as it came to rest on her stomach.
“If I have anything to say about, we’ll go straight back to the Court and appoint our Council, and then we’ll spend a few weeks at the island, evading our responsibilities,” he said with a chuckle. He pulled her closer, until she was pressed tight against his body and their legs tangled together. “We never did continue our discussion from the crypts.”
“The crypts?” So much had happened since then, it took her a few seconds to realize what he was talking about. “You mean, about children?”
“I know we haven’t been careful, but if you want to be from now on, we could start using magic to prevent conception,” he said, his nose buried in her hair.
“Is that what you want to do, Meirion?” she asked, rolling over to face him.
“No,” he admitted. “Not for any logical reason. I suppose I ought to worry about our successors, but I’m hoping that’s something for many years in the future. But I want to bring life into this world with you, Seren. I want to see our child growing inside you. I want to teach and love our children, to give them the kind of childhood I never had. But I also want to wait until you are ready. As you said, we have plenty of time, so I thought we should discuss what we want to do from now on.”
Seren slipped her arms around his neck. “I don’t see any particular reason to wait either,” she said, kissing him lightly on the lips. “If we were in the mortal realm, I might want to finish school or something first, but you can’t get in a much better financial situation than being the Lord and Lady, can you?”
He snorted. “I love you, and I want us to have a family, and so I don’t see why shouldn’t start trying right away. You never know how long it will take, after all, and I doubt we’re ever really going to be less busy.”
“True,” he said, his arms tightening around her. “I really do love you extraordinarily, Seren. You are so much more than I could have asked for as my wife, or my lover, or the Lady of this Court.” When he kissed her, his tongue brushed hers teasingly and she hummed with pleasure.
“I’d like to argue with you, but I find I enjoy it when you say such nice things about me. You know, before I suddenly found myself soul-bonded to you I didn’t think you’d ever notice me.”
“That’s because I’m good at concealing my emotions,” he said. “I had got to the point of purposely avoiding you to keep myself from doing something foolish. Because you were a student, and I assumed, mortal, and I certainly didn’t want to breach the code of professional ethics only to find myself grieving again in fifty or sixty years. But when the Chief Healer told me you were going to die, that didn’t matter so much anymore. Then my biggest worry became that either the ritual wouldn’t work or that you would not appreciate being stuck with me.”
“Luckily for you, I don’t mind at all,” she said. “I was afraid, when I first discovered who I was, and who you were, that I’d landed in the middle of something too big for me. And afraid that you would try to push me away forever.”
“I am sorry about that. I really have no excuse except to admit my own cowardice. It frightened me, how quickly I was falling for you. Now of course, I couldn’t push you away if my life depended on it,” he said with a smile, rolling onto to his back so that she was pulled onto his chest. “And you have stood up to all of the hazards thrown against us. I couldn’t have done any of this without you.”
“I’ll never stop being glad that we found each other, Meirion, if I live ten thousand years.” She leaned down to kiss him and his fingers traced lightly up her spine. “Maybe you’d like to try expanding our family right now,” she said against his mouth.
“I might,” he said, his voice gone low and husky. He rose up onto his elbows to meet her kiss, his teeth grazing her lower lip. Seren could feel him pressing against her thigh, and she smiled at the knowledge of his desire. His hands moved over her hips as if he relished the shape of them before gliding up to her breasts. He trailed kisses along her jaw and down her throat, and she shivered when she felt his teeth right where her pulse throbbed under the skin. “Turn around,” he whispered.
She smiled as she complied with his request, though she was a bit confused when he slipped out from under her. But a moment later, he returned, kneeling behind her and hauling her up until he was between her thighs. She could feel the hard length of him brush against her, and she shivered with anticipation.
He slid down, guiding himself to her entrance and she lowered herself onto him, sighing with pleasure at how deeply he fit inside her, filling her completely. He kissed the back of her neck, warm and lingering, and his hands caressed her stomach and breasts, but he didn’t move. She whimpered with impatience, and in answer, his hips rolled slowly under her. It was good, but she needed more, and she writhed on him to get the friction she wanted.
But he held her hip in a tight grip and whispered in her ear. “Tonight, let’s takes things slow,” he said, taking her earlobe gently between his teeth. She shuddered and nodded her head, suddenly too addled by desire to speak. He moved again at the same languorous rhythm, and one of his thumbs circled her nipple while the fingers of his others hand stroked her inner thigh.
His mouth left shiver-inducing kisses all over her neck and shoulders; it was a storm of sensation that left her blood burning. Feeling left out, she reached behind her and buried her fingers in his hair, tugging lightly on it. She heard his breath catch in his throat, and then the fingers on her thigh slipped upward, finding the button between her legs and stroking it in the same slow time as his thrusts.
“Oh!” she exclaimed, feeling her belly tighten. His low chuckle vibrated against her back, and his teeth dragged over her shoulder. Pressure was building inside her; she was close, so close, and he squeezed her nipple between his finger and thumb. The gates of bliss broke open, and she moaned as her muscles contracted and went limp. But he held her tight through the peak and past it, the press of his finger relentless. She was almost too sensitive. “Meirion,” she said desperately.
“There’s still more to come, my love,” he said, his voice rough with the effort of control. The fingers between her legs turned cold, and her eyes widened with shock. He was using magic to pleasure her now, she realized, as one hand moved up to draw icy sigils on her belly and the other left trails of heat over her breasts and down her ribcage. She was at his mercy, and she could barely think, let alone try to reciprocate. The heated fingers slipped between her thighs, and she gasped as he renewed his attention on the sensitive bud.
This time the orgasm built more slowly, spiralling along every nerve as, eyes closed, she lost herself to sensation. Trails of cold snaked over her breasts, and up the column of her throat until she felt his thumb ghosting over her bottom lip. She sucked it into her mouth, and Meirion let out a guttural moan as his control finally broke.
He leaned forward for more leverage, driving up into her with unusual wildness, and she let loose a joyful cry of pleasure as her climax crashed over her. He followed her over the peak, muffling his moan in the curve of her shoulder as he spilled himself inside her.
They were still for a long moment, and Seren could feel Meirion’s heart racing against her back, but then he pulled her down to lie on the bed next to him. She nestled into the crook of his arm with her head on his chest. “I didn’t know you could do that with magic,” she said as she listened to the slowing beat of his heart. He chuckled, his fingers trailing through her hair.
“You can do a lot more than that if you’re practiced. There’s a whole guild of… specialists in Serenalis, so I’ve heard. But we could have done that in the mortal world; it just would have been exhausting.”
“Now I’m curious to learn more,” she said, flashing him a sultry smile.
“We’ll have plenty of time to try new things together,” he agreed. A little while later, as she was drifting to sleep in his arms, his hand brushed against her stomach, and she wondered if she already held new life within her.