Chapter Fifty-Two – The Choice

  Gray wanted to lie, but he couldn’t. Not to Rynn. They sat on the bed, facing one another.

  “My core is empty. I might not be able to fill it every again. He licked his lips. They were so dry. He felt so wrung out, so far from home, so lost in a world he thought was impossible. What about Blind John, Princess Lilian Everbright, and his life in Cradleport? No, it didn’t matter. It was gone, all gone, forever.

  Rynn had brought a cup of wine. She give it to him, and he sipped it, the sweet so welcome on his tongue. The sparkle of the wine made him want to celebrate but he just couldn’t.

  “That’s good. Is there mana in it?”

  She shook her head. “No, Gray, anything manafied would be too dangerous for you.” Her voice caught. “What you did, it was…what we did. It was reckless, and I know, we won, and everyone is so impressed with us, and I know it’s what I wanted, and I even ended up talking to someone from the Supera family—the dragons from pride city—but I don’t care about finding the perfect kill squad for the perfect Watchfire family. Without you, it wouldn’t matter. Nothing would matter.”

  Gray lowered his head. “Don’t say that. You have your whole life ahead of you, and since you’re an elf, it will be long. Hundreds if not thousands of years. You have your family, your Aunt Florence, to consider, for example.”

  She allowed herself a little laugh. “Yes, there is Aunt Florence to consider, and her words of wisdom. But Gray, what we have, what I feel, it’s not something I can ignore. There is something we could try. Being with each other, touching, kissing, it helped you absorb mana faster. You and I could, we could try something a bit more intense.”

  Gray looked into her eyes. “I’m feeling better. It might be the wine, but no, it’s my Miss Yes. She is the ultimate medicine.” He touched her soft hair, still so short. His fingers found her ears, rising into points. “But it wouldn’t be just about tonight, would it? If our cores bonded, our lives would never be the same.”

  Rynn didn’t look away. “I know.”

  The weight of her words didn’t feel heavy. In fact, Gray drank them in. Who else would he want to share his life with if not his strong woman who trusted him completely. She’d already risked everything to be with him. What would he risk?

  “You know that if we’re together like that, tonight, we might be together forever.” He let those words hang in the air.

  She smiled and kissed his cheek. “I know.”

  She leaned back, eyes on him.

  He felt her energy keenly, an din her eyes was that confidence she had. She knew the stakes. She knew the risks. She wasn’t being careless. She was making a choice.

  Gray realized he’d made his choice a long time ago. “It might hurt. It’s your first time.”

  She rolled her eyes. “It can’t hurt as much as we’ve been through. I know my body. I know what I want. And I want you.” She lowered her eyes. “Do you want me?”

  “Since the first time I saw you.” New strength filled him. When he put her on her back, her legs fell open. Even though she was wearing her uniform pants, he knew what that meant—it was an invitation. His eyes were drawn back to her face. He couldn’t stop looking at her beauty, and yet, feeling her heat, smelling her, was just as good. Best of all was the throbbing of her core. Mana was rising from her core, and he felt it around his own. The room was filled with light. Was that her? Could she see it?

  He didn’t bother asking.

  He kissed her. Her grabbed his head, kissing him with a savageness he’d not known before. His crotch throbbed as his heart thundered in his chest.

  She took his hand and put it on her breast, outside of her clothes. She wasn’t as chesty as other girls, but what she had was both firm and pliant. He felt her nipple pushing through her blouse.

  She arched her body up, moaning.

  He had to moan with her. This was heaven with her, and not just physically. The amount of mana they were generating filled the room. Was this normal? He didn’t know. He’d had sex before, a lot of sex, but this was something new and powerful, almost beyond words. It was like her very soul wanted him inside it.

  His hand moved down her body to cup her sex.

  She grunted. “Oh, Gray. This feels perfect. Do you feel it? Do you feel this…this promise?”

  He pushed himself against her, finding scant relief.

  She must’ve felt his hard desire because she smiled. “You do feel it.”

  She then surprised by flipping him on his back. “We have far too many clothes on, Mr. No. Let us remedy that.”

  She stripped off her blouse and tossed it back. The strip of cloth binding her breasts followed. He was seeing her chest for the first time, puffy pink nipples capping firm white scoops of flesh. Her mana mark was fully colored in—two swirls pressed together. She’d become a full neophyte and yet, she hadn’t mentioned anything. That was so like.

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

  He went to cup the breast under the mark, but she grabbed his hand, always so fast. “Not yet, sir. Not until I’ve seen you naked.”

  Gray went to protest, but he didn’t have the strength. She stripped him, first his shirt, and then, his pants, and soon he was naked. His desire was plain to see.

  She touched his stiff sex. “I’ve thought of this every night since I met you. What it would look like. What it would feel like it. Does this feel good?” She wrapped her hands around his length and squeezed.

  Gray squeezed his eyes shut. “Yes.” It came out as a hiss.

  She laughed. “I like your yeses, Mr. No. They are so unexpected.”

  Gray worried he might spill his seed too soon. It had been well over a year since he’d last been with a woman, and being Rynn, this beautiful, power creature was like nothing he’d ever experience before.

  He moved off the bed and Rynn followed him, kneeling on the edge. He took her into his arms, naked chest to naked chest, and kissed her, exploring her mouth with his tongue. She did the same, and soon, their faces were wet from the kiss. Her smell became his entire universe. Her skin was a creamy paradise all its own.

  His hands pushed her pants down until he could hold her muscular but cushiony ass in both of his hands. He squeezed, and she gasped.

  Then she moved away, stripping, until she was naked.

  She got on her back, head propped up by pillows. She touched the top of her wet slit. “I want to see that.” She pointed at his shaft. “In here.” She pointed at herself.

  He smiled. “No matter what the consequences might be?”

  “I want the consequences,” she said with a smile. “With you. Forever.”

  “We won’t be able to finish the testing if you’re pregnant.”

  “I took precautions before I came into your room. I know what I’m doing.”

  The air wavered from an influx of mana into her core. Somehow her magic was tied to confidence.

  He got between her legs, and feeling her body under him made him want to live in that room forever. He touched her lips with his cock, and she was looking down, watching him, as he slid into her depth. It was warm, wet, perfect. He was in her, feeling her, and both were watching the miracle happen.

  “Kiss me,” Rynn said.

  Gray fell forward, grinding deeper into her. Their mouths met as he started to thrust into her harder and harder.

  She gripped him, her fingernails digging into his back, but he hardly felt that. No, he was too busy feeling her perfect body around him.

  Her breath hitched with every thrust. “It feels so good, Gray. It’s perfect. You’re perfect. We need to do this every day. Every minute of every day.”

  He looked down at her sweaty face, her trusting eyes, her smile. “I like the sound of that.”

  He kissed her again, slowing down, making it last.

  That was when he felt it, their cores, coming together. Her mana was in him, and his magic was in her. This had to be the bonding, but no, there was something else—knowing that she loved what he was doing to her made him filled him with a new, unbelievable lust. And with that lust, a whole world was opened to him. He was drawing in mana, not just from her, but from the whole world. Because the world was filled with lust, the Sex Instinct, both for those who indulged and for those who fought those desires. Both were a powerful kind of energy.

  Gray wasn’t sure what was happening, but then it was Rynn who said it. “Your resonance has awakened. I feel it, you core, filling me. Everything is around us. The world. Oh, it’s, too…much.”

  She let out a final gasp, and then he felt the waves of her pleasure thrum through her body.

  It was like he was feeling her ecstasy, right before his own hit. And then, it was a fire that bathed them both. He was getting energy, not just from her, and not just from the act, but from a fundamental change in his soul. It wasn’t just the desire he felt, not just the pleasure, but there was something else there.

  He sucked in a breath, and for a second, he felt time stop. He looked down, Rynn had her eyes closed, and her beauty drove out all other ideas. It felt like the universe stopped at the crescendo of his climax. The air was perfectly still. All the trouble in the world was gone.

  In that perfect moment, Rynn opened her eyes. She let out a breath. Then breathed in, inhaling his breath.

  They laid there, joined, staring into each other’s eyes in a state of total trust.

  He kissed her nose, tasting her sweat.

  She giggled. “Well, now, I have more mana than I could ever hope to use. I don’t suppose it’s too late to redo Sixblood. We weren’t at our best. Aunt Florence always said that to do it right you gotta do it twice.”

  Watching her mouth, thinking about all the things they could do together, he agreed with that sentiment. “We’ll definitely be doing it twice.”

  “Three times,” Rynn said with a shy smile. “At least!”

  He kissed her cheek, then her lips, then her chin. He couldn’t get enough of her. And he was still inside her. Stiffening, he started to move again.

  That movement made her gasp. “I thought boys needed time between…you know. The act.”

  It was his turn to chuckle. “Are we going to call it that? Sometimes we need time, but with you, now, I’m ready to go again.”

  The fresh of wave lust also brought him more mana.

  Rynn pushed him back to look into his face. “I felt that. Not my in body, but in my core. You’re getting mana. I can feel that lust in you, and it feels...” She shuddered, eyes flickering. “Like nothing I’ve ever known. You’re getting mana, Gray. You have a resonance.”

  He didn’t want to talk about magic right then. Yes, it was life-changing. If he had a resonance, he could absorb mana into his massive core, which meant he could be both a river and an ocean.

  She went to say more, of course, she was Rynn, but he silenced her with a kiss.

  Then, it was more love, more lust, and the entire room became a nexus of mana energy. Outside, something roared, some demon from the Weeping Well because it must’ve known a new power had entered the world, and it was afraid. Good. It should be. All of First Field should be. Because if all was Testing and all was the Test, Gray had passed with ease and nothing would stop him.

  He and Rynn were sipping wine when Midj shouted up through the house. “Gray! Rynn! Where are you? You have visitors! And I brought us all a midnight snack!”

  Gray smiled. Settie had come through on her promise. Squad 23 would be all sleeping in Ruin Manor that night.

  The captain, though, knew exactly what had happened. “Gods dammit! Grayson Fade! Get your bonded ass in my room! Right fucking now!”

  Her roar was as loud and intimidating as whatever demon haunted the streets of Old Town, but Grayson wasn’t worried, not all. He wasn’t afraid of the demons. He wasn’t afraid of the dragon.

  Because everything had changed.