Chapter Nine
Celeste
I could feel the ship landing with a dull thud as the walls around me shook. Our shuttle had finally landed. Even though the shuttle had plenty of room to walk around in, it felt like I hadn’t stretched my legs in weeks. I woke from a sound sleep as the ship came to the ground and hopped out of bed, leaving Sigisvult mumbling behind me.
Racing out into the hallway, I could see Vordamm leaving his quarters looking positively sleepless. I grinned at him and raised my eyebrows in excitement.
“We landed!” I yelled down the corridors.
“At least we didn’t crash,” he added with a playful grin.
I slipped on my boots, which came strapping up to my knees, and grabbed my jacket off of the bench by the main hall before racing to the shuttle doors.
Ikar was already there waiting, standing up straight and looking completely rested. He smiled at me, and I stood on my tip-toes to get a better look at the world outside.
Sigisvult followed slowly behind, strapping up his leather armor and rubbing his eyes. To my surprise, he slid his arm around me when he approached the front door.
“What do we know?”
“Treacherous terrain,” Ikar said smoothly, stopping his sentence to wait for Vordamm to catch up.
“Really, Vordamm, there’s only four of us, and yet you still found a way to hold us back,” Sigisvult snarked.
“Do you know me at all?”
“As I was saying,” Ikar cleared his throat. “Treacherous terrain, and many, many pools of an unknown and untested substance. Thick fog. Foreign beings possible. We’re looking for a camp far west.”
“That’s all you have to say?” I asked, somewhat disappointed. “What should we expect it to look like?”
“Shh.” Sigisvult tightened his grip on me and laughed, leaning down to my ear and whispering, “You’re going to see it in about two seconds.”
With a single key code, Ikar opened the door to the shuttle to reveal our new world outside. The ground was a deep-black, crusty substance that crumbled beneath me when my foot hit the ground. The sky above was a deep-mauve with visible rings of black circling around the skyline.
As we were told, a thick fog covered any visuals besides what was directly in front of us. Ground spired up in black mountains that seemed to curve and twist along a pathway.
Sigisvult grabbed my waist and pulled me behind him, putting his hand up in front of me to block me from leading the pack.
“There’s a river up ahead,” Ikar instructed. “We have boats there, but it’s swampy so use caution.”
The only thing lighting out path was an illuminating glow that breathed from within the spires and a sickening gleam from the waters up ahead.
The black, tar-like substance stretched on for what seemed like forever in every direction. A vessel was docked nearby, and Ikar made his way to it cautiously. The spires around us seemed to sweep in as we approached the ship, as if they were trying to hear our conversation.
“Why take the ship?” Vordamm said unsurely. “We have wings, you know.”
“No,” Ikar cautioned, extending his hand before us all. “We sail.”
“We cut time in half by flying,” the orange shifter argued, looking back at Sigisvult with an expression that read ‘ridiculous!’
Ikar’s eyes darted over to the orange shifter, and he shook his head. “We sail.”
“Alright!” Vordamm threw his hands up in defeat and offered a loud sigh at the former Koth member. “Clearly you know the big and scary planet better than I do.”
“It’s too dangerous to fly,” he said through frustration. “There are creatures here I’d rather not bump into.”
“Yeah,” Vordamm raised his brows with sarcasm. “Great place to send a bunch of humans to, clearly.”
The men pushed the ship into the deep, black waters with ease. Sigisvult flew back and picked me up, bringing me onto the wooden planks of the ship.
“From one form of transportation to the next,” I said of our immediate venture from shuttle to ship. I grinned at my chosen, but he brushed me off.
We watched as the maroon sky seemed to sink lower into the ground, the color falling off like a wet painting to reveal the midnight sky above. My heart raced with delight as the sky uncovered itself to us.
I walked to the edge of the ship and watched as the black water seemed to slop up like a giant sea creature, grabbing onto our ship and crawling across the wood.
We made our way down into the ship where Ikar took a stand at the wheel.
Sigisvult followed me into one of the staterooms. We sat in there for hours talking, Vordamm making his way in and out of our company with growing boredom and uneasiness.
The ship rocked from side to side and, as Vordamm made his fifth disappearance from our fellowship, Sigisvult leaned over, tracing his hand up my leg slowly until his fingertips pushed the fabric of my skirt back.
“I like that you wear skirts,” he whispered as he began touching me. “Did I ever tell you that?”
I spread my legs farther apart and moved into his hand, looking up at him with a wry grin as I asked, “Easy access?”
“No,” he laughed. “Because it's just about the only thing you possess that makes you seem remotely ladylike.”
“You flatterer.”
He moved in for my mouth and ravished my body with his hands, teasing my lips over and over with near kisses
“You know, you’ve been surprisingly not annoying today,” I giggled out as I set my hand on top of his.
He kissed me hungrily and pushed his body into mine, picking me up and holding me until our pelvises were aligned. I could feel him getting hard against my skin.
“That’s probably because I haven’t had to deal with you these last couple weeks.”
“You never cease to charm me,” I griped, kissing him back and exhaling loudly as he ground his hard length against me and created an undeniable heat to form between us.
“What’s up with that?” he breathed in a husky voice.
My eyes rolled back as he licked and sucked my neck. “Hm?”
“Ikar,” he mumbled. “Spending a lot of time with him, is all.”
I bit my lip, smiling naughtily. “Jealous?”
He laughed softly into my skin and began undoing his pants, still holding me up and readying me for his sex. “Maybe.”
I threw my head back in ecstasy and gave a breathy laugh. “You’re lying.”
He laughed as well and pulled my panties to the side as our bodies connected. I grabbed hold of his wings and dug my nails into the scales on them, their blue reflective skin staying dull as he thrust into me.
I moaned loudly, and he set me against the wall behind us, thrusting passionately and breathing loudly as our bodies moved in rhythm together.
He held me by my backside and used his free hand to explore my body. I watched his muscles constrict with the effort and never once felt like he would let me slip. I exhaled with lust, and he grunted feverishly into my ear, whispering wicked things to me.
His hand slipped across my stomach, and I sucked it in, suddenly aware of my condition. I grabbed his hand and moved it up over the fabric of my breast.
“Celeste,” he began to say with effort, as though he pushed my name from his lips.
I looked at him curiously and smiled, bouncing on him and then feeling suddenly sick as a large crash stormed through the ship.
Sigisvult stared at me, and his blue eyes darkened with a panic I’d never seen before. In fact, I only ever saw Sigisvult confident and collected, even when dealing with me for the most part, which spoke volumes. He set me down in sudden haste and pulled his clothes back on.
Grabbing my hand, he raced down the halls, and we watched as water began to flood the ship.
I could feel the pull, the weight of the water dragging the ship down fast.
The strange black substance swam above the water like a tentacle, spreading through the halls like a disease, darkness all around us.
We ducked instinctively from the blackness. There was a shift in the air, and suddenly the whole floor began to shake. We could hear the planks of wood shattering beneath us, an uncontrollable movement numbing my feet. The vibrations hit hard in my bones and through my legs.
Water burst up everywhere. I raced forward to get to the deck above but the water forced me back, pushing me back into the stateroom with unbelievable force.
“Sigisvult!” I screamed, but he was nowhere in sight. I looked around in terror, but I couldn’t see him. Either he was swallowed by the wave… or he left without me.