“Remember when she did that to Dag?” Dorian recalled fondly to Corbin.
Corbin chuckled. “Caught them all off-guard. Hagen was even on his knees.”
Dorian leaned closer to Corbin, his gaze darkening. “Do you know who else will be on their knees later?” he leered the Belwark in a low tone, apparently aroused by having watched Reverie battle or the sight of Corbin’s stern chest glistening with sweat from the sun. Dorian’s lips pressed to Corbin’s throat, and Corbin visibly tensed.
“You?” the Belwark suggested.
Dorian groaned. “Maybe,” he mumbled, hand riding up Corbin’s thigh. “Is that what you want? For me to finally suck your cock while she watches or sucks mine?”
“Oh,fuck all, Dorian,” Nyssa snapped, shoving him into the Belwark. “That’s not what I wanted to hear this morning.Architects, my ears are bleeding now.”
Dorian laughed and swung his arm around her shoulders. “What’s wrong, sis? Mad you’ve decided to be celibate a while—Ow!”
She’d twisted his pec, and he held his chest as he fell against Corbin again. Corbin fought his smile as he patted Dorian’s hair like a child and shook his head.
After lunch, Nyssa grabbed her brother before he could break for his activities and dragged him down to the end of the jetty. She wanted to introduce him to the sea serpent. Not just because she wanted him to feel the connection to another animal, but also because she hoped to scare him and perhaps get a bit of payback for him nearly fucking Corbin in front of her earlier.
They paused at the end, and Nyssa crouched down to the water’s edge, her eyes closing. She pushed her core out for the creature and called out her name. She hoped she could reach her.
“Is she going to eat me?” Dorian asked.
"Maybe," she shrugged. “Maybe not if you apologize for being a shit earlier.“
Dorian chuckled as he plopped down on a rock. “Sorry,” he muttered. “Got carried away.”
She eyed him over her shoulder. “Maybe I’ll tell her just to hiss at you the once then,” she teased. Her eagle fluttered down and perched beside Dorian then. The great bird screeched, and Dorian balked away from him.
“I know, I know,” Dorian grunted. “You don’t like me.”
“He likes you,” she told him as the bird laughed.
“Yeah? He has a fuck of a way of showing it,” Dorian said as he eyed the beast.
“He thinks it’s funny when you run away from him,” she said. “Payback for you taunting him when we were kids.”
Something reached out for her then, and she recognized it as the serpent. “There she is,” she mumbled under her breath. She reached back for Dorian and grabbed his hand as the warmth of her call moved through her core, and Dorian squeezed her hand back.
“That’s powerful,” he muttered. “You said she helped you escape the camp?”
Nyssa stood to her feet. “She did. Protected me while I was in my form. Nadir could hardly get to me,” she recalled. “He said…” But her heart sank at the memory, and she couldn’t get the words out. How Lex had told her Nadir screamed for her when she wasn’t responding. How she’d nearly snapped his neck and killed him while her form had taken over.
“Nys?” Dorian called, rubbing her shoulder.
Nyssa blinked back the emotion in her chest. “I’m okay,” she said. “I—“
The noise of people shouting averted her attention. The pair turned, and Nyssa's heart dropped.
Riders were bounding down the beach.
CHAPTER SEVENTY
IT WASN’T MAN.
These were Dreamers.
Silver from their winged helmets bounced off in the sunlight. At least two hundred persons on horseback, they bounded over the dunes and towards the village. Nyssa recognized the legion’s sigil. It was a company from the Village of Dreams—one of their more elite companies—and she wondered what had brought them to the Umber after a whole cycle of being silent.
Honest persons ran from the surf where they’d been training and went straight into battle as though it had been practiced. Dreamers were cut down from the horses. Shouts filled the air. Blood spilled onto the innocent sand.
