And nearly fell.
The platform dipped with her weight, wobbling under her boot. Kailorien lunged, blade swinging in a controlled arc. She jumped again, the second platform barely holding. The third vanished before she could land.
He caught her mid-plummet, one arm bracing under her back, the other under her thighs—except the fall had pulled her low enough that now…
Now she sat in his arms, his hand beneath her backside, their faces inches apart.
Her breath caught.
His eyes flicked to hers, then to her mouth, then back again.
“You could’ve just asked me to hold you,” he teased, voice husky.
She winked at him. “Quite inappropriate for training, Resh’Agar.”
“And yet,” he said, “you haven’t moved.”
His hand shifted. She shivered.
Her stomach groaned loud enough to echo off the dome.
They both froze. Across the ring, Zarrek and Lu’ma glanced their way.
Auryn slapped a hand over her face. The skin beneathburned.
Kailorien’s lips curled into a crooked grin. “You hungry, starlight?”
“The Sokâr makes a motion to forget this ever happened.”
“Motion rejected. Your Resh’Agar has a better idea.”
He straightened, tossing her over his shoulder before she could protest.
“Kail!” she shrieked, laughing. “Put me down!”
“Not until I feed you. You’ve been working hard. Thessia would haunt me if I let you faint mid-flirt.”
She beat her fists lightly against his back. “You are an irredeemable brute.”
He carried her toward the inner sanctum hallway, his voice a low rumble. “Maybe. But I’m your brute. And I plan to keep you alive long enough to teach you how to fly.”
Auryn looked up at the air where her last platform had vanished. A path not yet walked. A future not yet caught. But, someday soon, she would wrap her hands around it.
From across the ring, Lu’ma signed, 'The meal trays for Her Radiance are in the bathing chamber. The water and runes await. Call upon This Nameless if further is required.'
Auryn’s blush darkened. Not only had Lu’ma fetched the trays ahead of time, but she’d known to put them in the baths. On top of that, she’d already prepared the Lustrals.
“Void help me. We’ve become predictable.”
Kailorien smirked. “I quite like it.”
Behind them, the ring fell silent once more. But the air shimmered where her platforms had hung—a promise of flight, not yet mastered.
Despite Kailorien’s bold declarations, Auryn hadn’t let him feed her first. From the moment they stepped into the bathing chamber, passion unfurled like wings, carrying them on heated currents long into the dark. Through touch and breath, they found home in one another’s arms, returning again and again to the shelter of the Bond.
After joining in that sanctuary once, they lay still and breathless, fingers tracing each other’s bliss in languid patterns over sweat-damp skin. The air hung thick with Lustral magic, scented steam, and the faint azure haze of Kailorien’s Breathweaving. Each breath still hummed with him, the taste of his mana clinging to her tongue like an indulgence she’d savor for hours to come.
She hadn’t needed it—but that hardly mattered anymore. In recent years, he gave her his Silari breath whether her reserves called for it or not.Her soul always yearned for the caress of his mana in the world-weary caverns of her heart.
