“You dare,” Er’it said through an ominous growl. Hands tightening over Aida, he was careless of her bruises, creating more on tender flesh.
“You cannot control yourself. Have you not noticed yet?”
“I see well enough what you are doing!”
“You, boy. Look at your hands if you need better proof than my word.” Tor’en sat back, propped up on his palms as he cocked his head to the side.
Refusing to release Aida, Er’it crushed her against his chest to slide a hand up her back, nudging her head aside to see his splayed fingers upon her shoulder. Unable to see much of anything, Aida strained to view what made him stiffen under her. What could make Er’it of all people catch his breath in a hiss?
The golden glow stretched over Aida’s shoulder, filtering through the ragged length of her hair to illuminate her profile. Warmth enveloping her as the edges of the seeping wave became tinged with the dusky red of sunset, it slid down her back and wrapped around her spine, delving low in the cradle of her hips. A ghost of the sensations she felt when Er’it took her, it was only a glimmer of the raw passion he incited.
She didn’t know she moved until Er’it’s hands caught hold of her hips. Settling her over his thighs, he pressed her against the hard length of him where it pulsed within the tight confines of his breeches, keeping her covered from Tor’en’s gaze yet aiding the slow sway of her hips. Whimper faint, Aida’s lips found his neck, tasting the salty sheen of his sweat as she followed the heavy line to his shoulder.
“What happened out there, Er’it?” Tor’en asked, pitching his voice low.
“Something,” Er’it replied in a faint hiss as he tipped his chin aside to give Aida more access, a move that allowed his searching mouth to find the ragged wound on her shoulder. Lips and tongue playing over the rent flesh, he gave a quiet rumble that was sheer pleasure and satisfaction.
“I am going to stand and leave,” Tor’en said, warning the distracted male before making a movement that could set him off.
“No,” Er’it mumbled against Aida’s skin. Despite the denial, he continued to pull Aida against him. Grinding against the spread lips of her sex, he growled at the scent of her slick perfuming the air. “Control. She has to… Dangerous.”
With a strength she didn’t realize she possessed, Aida lifted her gaze to his. Losing herself in the deep wells of golden amber, she offered a sweet hum while rolling her hips in small circles. Carding her fingers through his hair and rubbing the strands against her cheek, she peered at the man who made her feel so many things. Needing him in that moment, her stomach tightened around a twisting ache that promised he could relieve the hunger swelling deep in her belly.
“No,” Er’it said, a bark of sound that made them all jump before he shoved Aida from his lap. Pushing her small frame between his spread thighs and turning her to face Tor’en, the blanket strangled her as Er’it made the fabric as good as any shackle.
Cold sluiced through her veins, an icy storm that destroyed any hint of warmth as she came face to face with the old mage. He scented the air with flared nostrils and wide, black eyes. Clearing his throat after the moment stretched on for eons, Tor’en turned his gaze to the sky. His lips moved to some silent utterance before he stuffed his hands in their opposing sleeves and turned his eyes to meet Er’it’s watchful countenance.
“Do it,” Er’it ordered in a whisper. He sounded pained as his arms tightened around Aida, one leg slung over both of hers to keep her pinned between him and the ground.
“She should—”
“Do it, Tor’en!”
Aida opened her mouth on a silent scream. Dusty warmth infiltrated her thoughts, burning the back of her eyes and swelling in her throat. Cutting off her air as the scent of freshly tilled dirt and darker things flooded her nostrils, it moved with the same slow steadiness as the turning of the days and seasons. Reaching into Aida’s very heart, grasping at something fluid and as enraged as she, it was bitter cold and violent.
“Calm,kou’va. He will not harm you,” Er’it shouted against her ear.
The wind was no longer warm as it thrashed the surrounding trees, spreading out in an ever-widening circle from the frozen rock lodged in Aida’s chest. Turning the leaves crisp and brown from the rich greens of moments ago, it painted them with delicate frost. Choking on her ragged inhalation, she let the scant breath out in a shriek, the sound pummeling the very air. When the ground began to tremble, Aida fought against Er’it’s hold, squirming and kicking as she turned her midnight gaze up to the sky above, begging the unfeeling moon to impart some of its apathy upon her as betrayal rose in an icy rush.
Er’it bellowed at her shoulder, holding Aida closer despite the azure glow crawling up his arms and flooding over his legs. As it encased them in its brilliance, a faint wave of heat swallowed whole in the next frigid wave, both males shouted. Tor’en fell back with eyes rolling beneath fluttering lashes, sprawled over the ground that crunched beneath his weight.
“Aida, stop this,” Er’it yelled, voice lost under a distant thunder growing louder by the second, the bone deep rumble building momentum as the ground continued to shake.
“How could you?” Aida screamed. A crushing wave of brilliant azure made the trees groan, toppling those too weak to stand. Shouts and brays from the camp’s clearing added to the chaos as Aida shrieked again.
It was bad enough that her body betrayed her with Er’it, that they had somehow solidified the strange connection between them with their savage acts. For him to not only allow but demand another to touch her in such a way was past her tolerance. She could still taste the dusty warmth of Tor’en’s power on the back of her tongue, and she railed. Sobbing, she struck out at Er’it in any way she could.
“Forgive me.” Ath’asho’s fist came toward her face with a speed Aida couldn’t anticipate. Landing hard enough to make her see blotches of red and green, it all began to fade to black.
Er’it’s vicious roar was the last thing she heard.
Chapter 11
Aida
Coming awake, Aida gasped and sent a hand to hover at her cheek. Throbbing with malignant pulses of heart-blood red, it tinged the edge of her vision in her right eye with shades of purple. Painful enough to send her thoughts reeling, the wet smack of flesh meeting disoriented her further.
“Up, girl, up!” Tor’en appeared at her side, his bony fingers tapping at Aida’s ruined shoulder and adding another layer of agony. “You must intervene before he kills him.”
