When he kissed me, I felt the world stop, stutter, and restart. Like one of the stars at Nova Falls, falling and falling, only to die a fiery death and spark back to life, born anew. It was madness, chaos incarnate, yet also somehowright—like I’d found balance I’d been missing my entire life, until this moment.
I was a star forged a new, lighting up the world in its glow. Calix looked at me like he saw that exact same thing. Like I was the Draco star that we navigated by, he looked at me like his world now oriented around me. For tonight, I’d allow myself to believe that.
Calix slid his hand down my thigh, trailing his fingertips softly, until he reached my knee, where he bent it, indicating he wanted me to lift it. It was the only leg currently touching the ground, so he boosted me up, until both of my legs were wrapped around his narrow waist. His hands immediately went to my ass to support me as he walked us over to the closest tree. Faunus wanted his pound of flesh to happen against nature—a tree, the ground, it didn’t matter, so long as nature was able to soak up that energy.
My back slammed against the tree as Calix pressed me into it with his body, his hips flush against mine and my breasts against his chest. His hands grasped my face as he kissed me desperately, and I kissed him back with just as much desperation. The desire for something I could never truly have filled me, but if this was all I could have of him—then so be it. I would take every single bit of him I could get. He was as addictive as the eclipse drug that addicts would take to reach artificial ecstasy—only he was the real thing.
He may be saving himself for his soulmate, but he didn’t seem to be suffering from this. No, it seemed more like a release. He held himself back daily, and his slip the other day hadrocked him—I could tell by the look on his face afterwards. But the holiday gave him a pass to truly unleash all those pent-up feelings, and he was taking advantage of the opportunity to give me a taste of what could be. It would have to be enough. He tries so hard to be faithful to a woman he hasn’t even met yet. Whoever she may be, I truly hope when he does find her, she understands how phenomenally lucky she is.
Like Calix could tell where my thoughts had gone, he pulled back, his lips leaving mine, now gentle hands lingering on my cheeks. He was panting hard as he stared into my eyes, and we both paused—it felt like the whole world must have paused, no other sound or movement reached us.
“Asteria.” Calix growled roughly, and the sound sent a flood of arousal to my core, the rumble moving through my own body.
“Calix.” I returned breathily, and his eyes closed momentarily, like he was savoring the sound. When he opened them once more, I was granted the vision of the night sky, the aurora a banner across it.
His darkness began leaching out of him, spreading around us in a haze of shadow—like he wanted me just for himself. He may have to share me with Faunus tonight, but no other. There was none I wanted, of course, none but him. Still, he covered us in darkness, keeping me to himself.
He made the shadows thin enough for us to see out, letting us witness the others losing themselves to the enchantment of the night. I recognized the faces of our friends, in the midst of being lost to their own lust, the magic of Faunus invading them and taking over—but they still surrounded themselves around their king—for whatever protection that might offer.
Callisto was splayed out between Priscilla’s legs, while Delia’s breasts bounced where she raised herself up and down on Eryx’s cock. Baach had Ilta bent over as he thrust into her, and Titan was doing the same to the man he had laid out on the ground.
Calix looked at me like I was a goddess, his eyes wide and worshipful, a deep well of feeling laid within him, struggling to get out. No one had ever looked at me in such a way before.Only Calix. And I mourned what could never be between us, even as I embraced the wild lust scorching through me.
“I have wanted this since the moment I met you.” Calix ground out through clenched teeth, every word a struggle. His hips swirled against mine once more, and I gasped my need, clutching at his shoulders and trying to pull him closer to me. I wanted less talking, more skin. Immediately.
“So have I, so let’s not wait any longer.” I murmured through my panting. He began to open his mouth, but I put a finger against his lips to stop him. “I know.” I shut my eyes briefly and opened them only once I forced out my next words. “I know this is a one-time only deal. You’re loyal beyond anything I’ve ever known, Calix. Your soulmate is one lucky woman.”
“I wish—” He started, conflict and pain a living thing in his eyes. “Nox, I wish we could have this.” His brow furrowed so hard it looked almost painful, and his hands tightened on my flesh, like if he just held on tightly enough, he wouldn’t have to let me go.
“Whoever gets to keep you, will be the luckiest man in the realm, Asteria. Soulmates are supposed to be our perfect matches, but I can’t imagine anything beyond you. I feel like a disloyal ass for even saying that, for disgracing my sacred bond in such a way, for admitting to you how much I have—” Calix clenched his jaw, cutting off whatever words may have followed.
When he did continue, the words were no less gut wrenching, fighting their way through clenched teeth. “But you have gotten into my soul somehow, my réalta. It shouldn’t be possible when my soul is reserved for someone else, but it is—and I don’t know how to get you out.”
His impassioned words ended with his fist biting into the tree behind my head. My heart tore and bled, but it also lit with that fire only he could make burn within me. I slowly grabbed his hand, kissing the bloody fingers that had punched into the wood. His forehead crashed against mine, and I let my fingers snake up to his face, caressing along those sharply defined cheekbones.
“It seems only fair, since you’ve gotten into mine as well.” I let myself admit that painful truth I’d been trying to deny—that this was more than simple lust. That Calix had snuck past every defense I ever built, until my heart darkened with shadows and burned with fire—belonging in the claws of his hand.
“But I know, despite how much we both want this, that you’re too loyal, too honest, toogood, to act on this beyond tonight.” I smiled sadly but set my expression into something resolute as I continued—like my soul wasn’t crying out in protest. “We will honor the gods and give the magic back to them and the land. We’ll allow ourselves this night to pretend, and tomorrow, we’ll pretend like our world hasn’t changed. Likewehaven’t. We’ll go on, knowing we can’t have this, that you’re meant for another. No matter how much it hurts us both.” I nodded firmly, and he looked at me with awful devastation across his lovely face.
His enemies saw him as this brutal, ruthless king—and he certainly was that. But one look into that expressive face, and I knew that brutality would only ever be wieldforme, never to me. No matter what the future held. The same way he wielded it for all of those he’d saved. Only, for me, it was personal in an entirely new way for him.
Calix softly caressed my face, and I did the same to him. We just took each other in—in mutual agreement, and agony, about what tonight was. We both soaked up this contact, cherishing every moment we had, swallowing the pain we both felt. The unfairness of this world never ceased to astound me. I forced myself to push it all away, for now. I focused only on Calix, onthe need he fostered in me. I ran my hands down his chest, and then ran them back up and behind his neck, using the leverage to pull his mouth down to meet me. At the movement, his cock twitched, hitting my clit at just the right angle—
And then…we ignited.
The sweetness melted away in favor of wild abandon. I was sure the fire nearby must have sparked and begun consuming us both. Frenzied heat and desperate desire suffusing through and taking over—or maybe it was Calix’s own inner flame—maybe this was what it truly meant to have a dragon between your thighs. I had never felt more powerful in my entire life than I did at this moment—the sheer power of the being before me…and he was just as lost to the wild passion between us as I was.
Calix’s mouth descended on mine once more, devouring and possessive as his lips took mine, his tongue entering my mouth at my first inhalation. His hands did not stay idle, ripping my dress right down the middle, and leaving me in tiny panties that’d be easily ripped away. His lips parted from mine only for his eyes to roam all over me.
“Nox, look at you.” His growl of appreciation rocked through me with a shiver of anticipation. “I swear you glow brighter than anyone here.” The awe in his tone was overwhelming, but a glance confirmed he wasn’t wrong. For some reason, I was glowing brighter than the others painted up, including him. “My réalta.” He breathed, his eyes glued to the areas with no paint at all with just as much admiration.
With paint the only thing covering his torso, I had easy access to his chest, but I wanted access to everything. I grabbed onto his waist, trying to get the buttons open. But I wasn’t the only one wanting to touch, and Calix’s palms grabbed full handfuls of my breasts. Squeezing them before switching to squeeze the hard nipples standing out in the night air. A moan ripped out of me ashis mouth descended on the hard peaks, sucking them into his mouth as his tongue played against them.
My head fell back against the tree, but I forced my eyes to remain open, not wanting to miss a moment of this.
“Fucking perfect.” He groaned around my nipple. “You’re fucking perfect, my réalta.” He continued fondling my breasts but got to his knees and began kissing down my stomach. I buried a hand in his hair as he ripped my panties off, hunger in his gaze as he licked his lips.
“My dorchadas—please,” I moaned, desperate for him. The energy around us all consuming—the wildness of Faunus spread through me, leaving me a wet, wanton mess.
