I let go of all my worries—for one night, I could experience freedom in a new way. The beat of the drums infused my being, and I swayed and skipped and threw my hands in the air as I danced. I lost myself to it, like a haze took me and swept me away.
Eryx grabbed me, twirling me around, and I laughed as we moved, swaying to the beat. He grabbed my hands, moving us in a circle before Baach appeared, stealing me away and tossing me in the air. I let out a squeal that had him laughing loudly, then doing it again.
Priscilla was there next, and we locked our hands together as we swayed our hips, lifting our arms in the air and swaying them in tandem. Callisto brought us more drinks, and we kept one hand clasped in the other’s while the other held our drinks, sloshing liquid around as we tried to dance and drink at the same time—making us both crack up laughing. Priscilla, my loyal friend, who was there for me at my lowest—a surge of emotion overtook me, and I threw my arms around her in a loose hug. For a moment, we just swayed together like that.
But then Lord Polaris was there, and he dragged me into a dance with him and his wife with a roguish wink. Even Lady Zillah was watching me with a predatory gleam in her eye, scanning my body. I laughed, recognizing their intent—but I had other plans for tonight.
They passed me back and forth between them as we danced, until Harpina tore me away and brought me to join the maypole once more. We danced around the circle, ribbons fluttering like my wings in the breeze.
I inhaled, and the scent of night and fire greeted me. It was already in the air with the scent of night magic and the bonfires, along with the darkness of true night all around us—but this was different. The scent was infused with something purely masculine, the promise of passion and ecstasy, and a hedonistic thrill ran through me.
I turned, and there he was, prowling toward me. I’d never seen that look on his face before, like he was…unleashed. He grabbed me around the waist, pulling me hard against his body. I melted into him as I placed my hand on his chest, swaying against him.
He growled, moving us further away from the fire to a spot with a bit more privacy. His hands on me burned with a pleasant heat—one I wanted everywhere—and the sizzling heat of him surrounded me as we danced. We moved in sync, our bodies instinctively flowing, like we were always meant to do so. Myarms wrapped around his neck, as his went around my waist, and I let out a breath, dizzy with the feel of him against me. I let out an incredulous laugh—because this feeling rising inside me, it was incredible.
I’d never before experienced anything like this. It was—pure life. It was breathtaking, exhilarating, and I breathed in, like I could gulp that life down and keep it with me. Fill myself with it so I’d never feel so empty, again. I’d spent most of my limited time on Adamah living a half-life, and now that I’d had a taste of what true life felt like, I could never go back to that bleak emptiness again.
Even the feeling of my skin being too small for my body, that cramped feeling I always tried to stretch out, dissipated in light of the pure ecstasy encompassing me.
The feeling was incredible, and I resented my past self for trying to stay safe behind her walls. What was the point of a life lived safely?
Life is meant to be risky. It’s meant to challenge you. Safety means stagnation, and I’d been stagnant too long. You can’t grow if you’re staying stagnant—and what is the purpose of life if not to grow? To learn and experience—love, heartbreak, friendship, joy, but also hatred, rage, envy, and pride. Life was all of it, and you had to accept the good with the bad to fully live.
Life is more than simply surviving, I now realized. The unknown of it may frighten us, but it was always worth the leap.
Calix twirled me around, and the smile on his face stole all the breath from my lungs. He had so many pressures on him, so many things to deal with as king, that he was forced to be hard and unyielding. But this was Calix as he was truly meant to be. Not the serious king and commander—no—but a being of laughter and love and joy. That light in his eyes as the aurora danced along with us, the smile blinding in its brilliance, and the relaxed slope of his shoulders as he threw caution to the windand let the wild magic of the land ease his burdens—this was Calix in his truest form.
My smile widened even further, until my cheeks hurt—but I couldn’t help it. Dancing out here around the fire, celebrating Faunus and all the gifts he’d given, I had never experienced joy in such a way, and it spilled onto my face, needing a release.
Calix nearly stumbled when he looked at me, his eyes growing wide. He looked slightly stupefied, actually, but he recovered quickly. He wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me into his body once more, and I crashed against his chest with a laugh as he swung us around to the beat. His eyes shone with warmth and happiness as he smiled down at me.
“You are absolutely breathtaking when you smile like that.” Calix murmured, his thumb brushing at the edge of my mouth. He looked at me so intensely, that I could feel the heat bleeding into my cheeks.
Unlike Cyrus, or any other before him really, Calix’s compliments weren’t pandering, or suggestive, or manipulative—and they were genuine. His were the only compliments I’d ever coveted.
I knew much of the happiness I felt now was because of him—maybe a bit because of all the alcohol I’d consumed—but I tried not to focus on that right now. Nor did I want to focus on the inevitable, for us. Even outside his mate, I was human, while he was Fae, my life would be a mere blip compared to his.
But those weren’t problems for tonight, so I pushed all those thoughts away, focusing only on the positive. On the way it felt to be in his arms, not on how he’d avoided me. Instead of how hurt I’d been when he left me in the Hedone room, I instead focused on the joy of dancing with him.
I wrapped my hand around Calix’s neck and leaned into him, as one of his hands snaked down my ass and to my leg, pulling it up around his waist. I gasped as the move pulled us furthertogether, until I could feel the thick length of him through the layers between us. He pressed into me with a low growl.
I rubbed myself against him, letting go of all the reasons this was a terrible idea—I no longer cared. Calix had saved me. He’d given me freedom in a way I’d only ever dreamed was possible before. He’s been helping me find myself, giving me the space and the tools to figure out who I am without a master. And the attraction between us, well…it was absolutely explosive.
We both knew it, both tried to ignore it, tried to fight it. Him, for the sake of his unknown soulmate. Me, for the heart that would surely be damaged in the aftermath, knowing his heart was destined for another, and that this attraction between us could lead to nothing. But now, with the festival loosening everyone’s inhibitions thanks to Faunus’s wild spirit and copious alcohol, with Calix actually required to participate in the orgy and gift his sexual energy to Faunus—it felt like an inevitable collision was about to occur.
I looked around quickly, spying other couples, and some three or foursomes, scattered around the area. Everyone giving into the sultry drumbeat and the magic in the air, dancing degrading and turning into grinding, hands leaving shoulders and waists and slipping under clothes.
I knew every Fae holiday ended in an orgy, but this was the first I’d witnessed one. The magic of nature and the gods themselves demanded sex and pleasure in return for their gifts. The sacrifice of the flesh, given freely to the gods. I’d heard rumors, of course, but humans weren’t allowed to attend unless personally invited by the Fae. And in my backwoods vineyard village? There was no chance of that happening.
This was an experience I would never forget, not only for the soon to be naked, glowing bodies intertwining, but Calix himself was a memory to last a lifetime. I’d imagined riding my dorchadas in many ways, and as Calix’s eyes raked up and downmy body, I knew he felt the same. His pupils dilated, swirling with the colors of the aurora, encompassed in those gorgeous purple irises. The night sky I’d always loved so much reflected in his eyes.
I ran my eyes down the rest of his body, letting myself look at my fill of every sensational inch of him. His hands roved up and down my body, glancing at the sides of my breasts as they spread down my curves, over my waist, out across my hips, and down over my ass, where he squeezed both hands around it—and then those hands began back up the same tortuous path. I let my own hands wander over his broad shoulders, across his pecs and to his narrow waist, feeling every ridged abdominal muscle. I was finally feeling every glorious inch of him, until I cameso closeto where he desired…that he growled viciously when I moved my hands back up to retrace their path.
I let a smirk play over my lips, and that seemed to be all he could take. The sexual tension between us. The game we’d been unwittingly playing—tugging and pulling back and forth. The magic of the holiday. The sensual beat of the drums. The energy surrounding us as others began to slake their lust. Or maybe my glancing touches. I couldn’t say which it was that finally drove him over the edge. Maybe none. Maybe all.
His lips slammed down on mine as our bodies fused together, only his pants and my panties separating us. He ground against me, and I could feel how soaked I was, the slightest friction tearing a muffled shriek from my lips. His lips took possession of my own like they were always meant to do so. Dominating and brutal, yet sensual and lush; it was a dichotomy that only made me rub myself against him harder—my arousal ratcheting up until I was practically mewling against him, begging for more.
His tongue played with my own, caressing and chasing, taking control of me and my body—and I let him. It wasn’t the way Cyrus had wanted to control my body. No, this was a willing,mutual surrender. One highlighted as I ground my hips against him, and he moaned in pleasure into my mouth.
