"Move," she begged, rolling her hips experimentally. The motion made both men groan, their hands tightening on her.
They found a rhythm slowly, learning how to move together. When Eliam thrust forward, Arion pulled back. When Arion pressed deep, Eliam withdrew. The drums around them seemed to guide their movements, primal and deep.
Eliam's shadows wrapped around her breasts, teasing her nipples while his hands gripped her hips. Arion's light pulsed against her clit with steady pressure that made her buck between them. They moved together like they'd done this before, like their bodies knew each other through her.
"Look at me," Eliam commanded, and when she opened her eyes, his were pure black with desire. "I want to watch you come apart for us."
The pace increased, both men driving into her with a synchronized rhythm that spoke to their shared essence. She could feel the warmth spreading from her chest throughout her body, could see the golden threads growing brighter, pulling them closer together with each thrust.
Around them the Drak drums pounded relentlessly, their rhythm matched only by the frantic pounding of her heart. Briar couldn't tell where one man began and the other ended; they moved as one, their motions so perfectly in sync it was as if they'd rehearsed it a thousand times.
The connection between them only heightened the experience, every touch, every caress, every stroke amplified by the power of three. Each moan she gave was echoed back to her, intensifying her pleasure until she felt as if she were teetering on the edge of a cliff, the drop-off into oblivion dizzying and thrilling.
The world faded into nothingness, the celebration and drums and even the very air they breathed all but forgotten as they lost themselves in each other. They were the only three beings in existence, bound together by a force greater than any of them could ever hope to understand or control.
Ecstasy built within her, the warmth in her chest now a raging inferno, threatening to consume her whole. She clung to the feeling, to them, knowing that without this connection, without the anchor of their shared climax, she might fly apart.
"That's it," Eliam growled in her ear, his voice low and commanding, his thrusts driving her higher. "Come for us, Briar. Come with us."
"Yes," Arion gasped, his fingers digging into her hips as he pushed even deeper inside her. "Fall with us, Briar. Let go."
The call of their combined voices, the pull of their shared lust, was too much to resist. She arched, her head thrown back as her orgasm crashed over her in a wave of white-hot light. Their names tumbled from her lips in a breathless litany—Eliam, Arion, together, apart, it no longer mattered.
She felt them both follow suit, their moans mingling with hers as they filled her, their essence mingling with hers, their connection sealed in a way that went beyond the physical.
As they collapsed against each other, breathless and spent, Briar couldn't help but wonder what the future held for them. They were, after all, three halves of a whole, now bound by more than just circumstance or shared experiences. They were bound by the very fabric of existence itself.
Chapter thirty-four
Briar woke slowly, acutely aware of the warmth that surrounded her, of the arm draped across her waist, and a chest pressed against her back, rising and falling with a steady breathing that wasn't her own. For a moment she just existed in that space between sleep and waking, feeling protected and cherished.
Her eyes opened to amber light filtering through wooden walls. The Drak settlement. The celebration. Everything came back in pieces that didn't quite fit together yet.
Eliam asleep beside her, his face relaxed in a way she rarely saw when he was conscious. The paint from last night had smeared across his skin, dark lines broken and faded. His hair was a mess, and there was a mark on his throat that she had a vague memory of making. The sight of him made something warm bloom in her chest, affection and contentment mixing together.
That’s when it dawned on her. If Eliam was next to her… then who was pressed against her back?
Arion.
Her heart lurched. She turned her head carefully, not wanting to wake either of them, to confirm what she already suspected. Arion was there, his honey blond hair falling across his face, one arm draped over her hip.
The events of the previous night crashed into her all at once.
The dancing. The drinks. The revelation about them being the same person split in two. The way the magic had pulled them together. The very public... everything that had happened after that.
Oh God.
They had done that.Shehad done that. In front of hundreds of Drak. With both of them. At the same time.
The memory was vivid enough to make her clench her thighs, but embarrassment quickly doused the heat that had begun blossoming. Everyone had seen. Everyone knew. The mortification was beyond anything she’d ever felt.
She needed to leave, to slip out before they woke up and she had to face what they'd done. She needed space to think, to process, to figure out how to look either of them in the eye ever again.
Briar started to ease herself forward, away from Arion's warmth, toward the edge of the sleeping platform.
Eliam's arm tightened around her immediately, pulling her back against him. His eyes were still closed but his voice was rough with sleep when he spoke.
"Where are you going?"
