Page 21 of The Obsidian Curse

Heat. There was so much heat on my skin, pouring into me, pouringthroughme from him. It was like we were in this feedback loop sharing our rising temperatures back and forth.

He stroked within me, plunging deeper and deeper, pushing me further, forcing me to take the thick length of him. Whenever I thought I was at capacity, he’d wedge a little more inside me, proving me wrong.

The pleasure was indescribable. A spark of pure bliss ignited within me. Then began to grow. And grow. His powerful thrusts only fanned the flames.

His weight pressed me into the mattress. My legs tightened around his waist, allowing me to take him more fully. My head tipped back. His lips and tongue stroked my neck, jaw, ear. Growling words of praise and pleasure in that language I didn’t need to understand to know.

With a shudder, my body seized, reaching another peak. The pleasure went on and on and I vibrated, all tensionreleasing. Keeran roared, his muscles bulging and turning rigid as he climaxed.

I sucked in breaths, trying to reconnect with my body. Heat still suffused me. Not just between my legs, or on my skin, but deep, deep inside of my chest. I felt like I was in the center of a roaring fire.

And all around us was steam. The entire room was filled with it, as if the bedroom was a sauna at a bathhouse. I wiped the moisture from Keeran’s brow and kissed him there.

He fell heavily to my side, taking his weight off of me and exiting my body. And I missed it. I missed the feel of him inside me. I lay there more satisfied than I had ever been in my entire life.

And the spark of something within me that I still couldn’t identify was growing and growing.

16

niara

The autowagon Keeranhad borrowed from the innkeeper rattled beneath us as we sped along the winding road leading away from the town of Belward. I was piloting. Keeran sat beside me, hunched over, his breathing labored. Each jolt of the vehicle made him wince. Fire danced just beneath the surface of his skin, like tiny lightning storms of orange bursting beneath the deep brown.

“It can’t be much farther,” I said, casting him worried glances while steering the wagon around the twists in the bumpy road.

The innkeeper had advised us that the Temple of Ignis, located just outside of Belward and along the winding Nyxa River, had been submerged twenty solars ago by a dam built by the Rootborn. That had sparked a bloody conflict between the two Fae groups. After all of the bloodshed andbattles, the temple was still underwater, beneath Lake Mynnitunqa, which had since spawned legends of ghostly apparitions seen by visitors.

Pilgrims would travel from far and wide to purify themselves in the waters of Lake Mynnitunqa, which were believed by many to have curative properties.

As the other temples were too far to reach by mid-afternoon, and Keeran was deteriorating rapidly after seeming to rally the day before, we made the decision to head for the lake. For a Water Mage, accessing a submerged temple should be child’s play. I fidgeted with the seaglass gem around my neck constantly as the miles passed, hoping I could pull off the relatively simple enchantment.

Overhead, Morros crossed the sky rapidly. The Day Seven eclipse, when both he and Ignis finally caught their beloved sun Lyra for a brief moment, only to have her race off again, was nearly upon us. We had less than half an hour to make it to the temple.

We rounded another bend, and suddenly the lake sprawled before us—vast and glittering under the dual suns. In any other circumstance, I might have found it beautiful. Now, it was just another obstacle.

I brought the autowagon to a stop at the shore. The waters stretched out, deceptively peaceful. Somewhere beneath those depths lay our destination—and Keeran’s only chance at breaking the curse.

“How deep is it?” I asked, helping him from the vehicle. He was sweating profusely now, his shirt stuck to his skin.

“One hundred and fifty feet at its deepest point.” Dread seeped through our bond. “My cursed form can withstandthe water for only short periods of time. And Ember Fae do not swim.”

The flames licking through his veins sparked again in several places. He would not be able to keep this shape for much longer.

I knelt at the water’s edge, my heart hammering. “What we need is a bubble. Essentially a shell that will let us walk down to the temple protected from both the water and the pressure.” The cage that had held Keeran was an example. I couldn’t hope to create one with the restrictive properties of the cage, but a simple shell should be easy enough.

“Can you manage that?” Genuine curiosity and not doubt filled his voice.

I nodded, hoping to project more confidence than I felt. “It’s a basic water manipulation. All acolytes learn it.”

I didn’t mention I’d never successfully performed it.

I closed my eyes, clutching the seaglass gem around my neck. Morros’s power was distant, but present, and slowly filled the gemstone. I visualized the water before me parting to form a protective dome around us. I pushed my will outward, commanding the lake to bend to my desires.

Nothing happened.

I tried again, focusing harder, sweat beading on my forehead. The water rippled slightly, then settled back into stillness. My cheeks burned with humiliation.

“I just need to—” I reached deeper, channeling everything I had.

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