Fire & Soul (7 page)

Jye seems to notice the exact second when I acquiesce because he relaxes and moves to straddle me, his punishing grip on my wrists loosening.

"I can't help you if you don't listen to me," he murmurs.

"I'm not some—some perfect savior, or some rebellious martyr," I say. "I wouldn't let Keito talk to me about the Project, before. I was scared."

"Okay," he says easily. He strokes his thumbs over my relays and I shiver even as the shocky tingle calms the panic rising in my throat. "You don't have to do anything you don't want to do. We can take you to Control and remove your collars there. There are others that could probably help." He smiles a little. "You and Mikscn just happened to be at the top of our priority list."

"Why."

"Partly because of the deal we made with Cherian." He tilts his head to the side. "Partly because I refused to leave you with Jheghda any longer than I absolutely had to."

My breath catches in my throat and I make myself swallow hard. "Why would you …."

He trails his fingers along my arms, brushing the soft inner skin of my elbows, along the sides of my throat, before cupping my face in his hands. "Is Mikscn listening?"

Instantly, I feel Mikscn blow our connection wide open, and I nod shakily, unable to vocalize with Mikscn so close beneath my skin.

"Cherian is one of my closest friends," Jye murmurs. "He talks about you two all the time." We nod slowly and he smiles a little. "I fell in love with you two a long time ago. Every time Cherian wrote you a letter, I had to convince him not to mention me because I wanted you two to meet me yourselves. When we were putting together a plan to get you out, I refused to let anyone else come to you." He strokes his thumb over my lips and we suck in a shaky breath. "It had to be me. I needed it to be me."

"What—"

He ducks down and pulls me into a kiss, lingering and almost annoying chaste. "I need you both to be mine," he whispers against my lips. "I need to be yours."

"Oh." I lick my lips and nod, Mikscn's excitement making it hard to stay still and passive. "Okay. Yeah." I nod again, flexing my fingers, trying to still the tremor running through my chest. "We want that, too. We—we want that a lot."

He chuckles and sits back, bracing himself with a hand over my heart. "I know. I didn't realize that I hadn't told you guys that I only play for keeps."

Mikscn whispers encouragement through my mind, all tremulous joy and steely determination, with a thread of amusement, before gently closing down our link.

"Mikscn—"

"I know." He sinks a hand into my hair. "You get a certain look in your eyes when you're in each other's skin."

He runs his free hand up to collar my throat, pressing down just a little, and my pulse jumps. "You need this more than he does."

I open my mouth automatically to deny
needing
anything, but stop when he just calmly raises his brows, sort of faintly challenging, and the words die in my throat. "I … don't know why," I say instead, and he laughs.

"Does it matter?" He shifts to cover my eyes, his other hand still ringing my throat. The implied control startles a groan from my lips and he shifts his weight again. I draw in a shaky breath before I just … settle, calm flowing through me. I'm almost lightheaded, kind of giddy, and I press my hands harder into the mattress. "You need this," Jye says. "That's all the reason I need to give it to you."

"Okay," I rasp.

He hums softly as he presses his hands to my chest. "Keep your eyes closed," he says, and I nod breathlessly. He pushes his hands under my shirt and I jump at the cold touch. He just pushes my shirt up, tugging it over my head. I shiver when the cold air hits my skin, but don't say anything.

He traces the long scar running along my ribs on my left side. "What's this from?"

"Uh, injury from a battle with one of the other Houses."

I start when he licks the star-shaped scar in my right shoulder. "And this?"

"We were doing security during a council session and one of the other Houses attempted a coup. We weren't using the adjuncts, and I got shot."

He shifts down, leaving cold air where he'd been settled. He nips at the wide mess of scars along my hip. "This?"

"An infiltrator from another House. I was sparring with the anam, and she tried to kill me. She almost succeeded."

He works lazily at my pant fastenings, brushing lightly at my trapped half-hard cock.

I squeeze my eyes shut and he laughs as he urges my hips up so he can work my pants down. I tangle my fingers together and stretch my arms up to keep myself from touching him, and he presses my wrists down.

"Do you want me to bind your hands together?" he asks, his voice dead serious, and it's only the lack of laughter that lets me nod. He pets my cheek. "You can open your eyes," he says, and I watch him climb off the bunk and dig through his bags.

I can't keep the skepticism off my face when he returns with a pair of padded cuffs. "Really?"

He grins. "If you'd paid attention in class, you'd know that this is pretty normal. As soon as I figured this would be something you'd want, I had Aiya get a hold of some stuff for me."

I gape at him, horrified. "You asked my mother for
sex toys
?"

He laughs and kisses me hard. "Why do you think she knew where to get them?" he murmurs against my lips.

I wrinkle my nose. "I try not to think about what they get up to."

"Here, let me help with that," he says, his voice husky as he stretches up to cuff my wrists, the velcro loud in the cold room. "Comfortable?"

I clear my throat and nod, closing my eyes so I can feel better. He presses down on the links binding my wrists together, and I try to press up, twisting and pulling, my breath coming fast and shallow.

His thighs close around my hips and I twist and buck, my eyes screwed shut as I try to throw him off. But Jye just holds on tighter and tangles his hand in my hair, tugging my head back to expose my throat.

I relax with a low groan and try to lift my hands just to feel him press me down.

"Good," he breathes. "Perfect."

I feel myself flush all the way down to my chest at the praise, and squirm. "Jye …."

"You okay?" He pets my cheek and I nod rapidly.

"I just …." I twist and squirm, chasing after—something, I don't know what.

"What?"

"I don't …." I huff and open my eyes.

He smiles. "Emery was right, you know. You and Mikscn desynced hard and fast. I'm pretty sure that's half your problem right now."

"So … what?" I bite out.

He shifts and rubs down on my cock. I gasp and arch, jerking up into his heat. "So I help you come down," he says, and I would think he's entirely unaffected but for the slight breathlessness in his voice and the hardness rubbing against mine. "You trust me." It isn't a question, so I don't bother replying. "Close your eyes."

He spends a long time just touching, running his fingers along scars and unmarred skin, pressing down and stroking, warming me and chasing away the crushing loneliness that echoes through the place where Mikscn resides when we're
us
.

I sink down and down, lower and deeper, answering distantly when he speaks, questions.

"Is this okay?"

"Do you like this?"

"You're so good."

"Does this feel okay?"

"You're perfect."

"I love you."

I laugh a little, alternately giddy and dazed, clinging and floaty, arching up into his mouth and pressing, pulling against his hands and weight. When he presses slick fingers against the place that hasn't seen this kind of attention since
that time
, I surface a little, groaning as my head lolls.

"Are you okay, is this good?"

I whine and press down, chasing the sensation, and he laughs breathlessly. I jump when Mikscn sends indignation and embarrassment screaming down the link before slamming it closed again.

"What?" Jye asks, pressing deeper.

I gasp and throw my head back. "I was—
ah
—projecting at Mikscn."

His laugh sounds startled out of him, coming from his belly. I sigh and let my body go loose, tensing and relaxing over and over as he pushes deeper and rubs.

"Are you ready?"

"
Yes
," I grind out, trying to even out my breathing.

He urges me to roll onto my side, pressing my chest almost flat and urging my leg up. He breaches me slowly, his hand on my hip preventing me from shoving back to take him in faster. I try to muffle my low groan at the stretch and slight burn, but he tugs on my hair and pulls my head back so I can't hide. I realize abruptly why he wanted me like this—I can't get any leverage to control the pace. And with that, I finally relax, my muscles trembling as I let go and stop trying to control the situation.

It takes forever for him to fill me completely, but once he's fully seated, he immediately rolls his hips, and I bite down on my lip at the sensation.

"Good?" he grunts as he thrusts in hard, and the only answer I can muster is a broken whine. It hurts but feels good at the same time, like he's trying to overwhelm me with sensation, and all I can do is take it until he works a hand over my cock, his grip a little too loose and slick, but perfect as I tense and come. I tighten around him, under him, and he groans as he curls over me, his teeth digging into my shoulder.

We lay gasping together, sweat-slicked and panting. Mikscn sends encouragement and a sense of immediacy my way, and I open my mouth to tell Jye that Mikscn's headed back, but never quite get there.

*~*~*

I wake up to a light touch running up and down my side. I turn into Jye's hand, enjoying his warmth and the solidness of Mikscn curled against my front. They're murmuring to each other, too low for me to understand. I stretch and bury my hand in Mikscn's hair, scratching lightly.

"How do you feel?" Jye asks.

"Good," I rumble, grinning when Mikscn tugs at my hair. "How long was I out?"

"Couple hours," Mikscn says. "You didn't miss much."

I frown. "I need to apologize to Emery."

Mikscn shakes his head. "No need. He said he won't accept an apology anyway."

"But—"

"It's my fault," Jye says. He sits up and I roll so I can see him. "I asked you to trust me, but I didn't take care of you the way I should've. I knew you were stressed, but I thought it could wait. I should never have let things sit for so long."

"It's not a blame thing," Mikscn says. "We're … still figuring things out." He tries to hide a grin, but I know it's there anyway, and the way Jye's looking at us, I get the feeling he knows, too.

"After this is over," he says, leaning over and petting his hand over our faces, "I'm taking time for just the three of us, and I'm going to learn everything I possibly can about you two."

I smile, Mikscn laughs, and Jye descends on us with kisses, nimble fingers and soothing warmth.

*~*~*

The planet is a riot of green and blue, vast white clouds stretching out over wide landmasses. Dark forests cover large expanses of the continents, and a ring of islands splays off a long coast.

"It's beautiful," I say, and Mikscn murmurs his assent.

"Sir, the
Dayster
is hailing us," Jack says.

"Put them up," Bastien says. "And hail the
Novasky
."

A man appears on the screen, with black hair and green eyes. "Hey," he says. "Thought you'd like to know Cherian made it to us okay."

"Thank you, Dabhan," Bastien says. "Did he—"

"Go through with his insane plan to kidnap his commanding officer?" Dabhan laughs. "Yeah, mission accomplished. The Vrah'di military's right on our ass; apparently the guy's kind of important. We'll lead the descent."

"Roger that." Dabhan disappears and is replaced by—

"You're Talfryn Om'she," I say, gaping.

"Holy shit," Mikscn says.

"My name is Bryn," the captain snarls. "Talfryn's my bullshit formal name." The screen zooms out to show the entire bridge of the
Novasky
, and right next to Bryn is—

"Gresham Om'she," I say. "Brother of Sé Om'she, Royal Concubine to Liam—"

"Om'she, yeah," Bryn snaps.

"—King of the Dae'mchnach." I can't believe it.

"You're royalty," Mikscn says.

"
Related
to royalty!"

"Why are you pirates?" Mikscn demands.

"Because I thought it'd be fun and we weren't royalty at the time," Bryn snarls. "Can we get the fuck back on topic, dammit?"

"I prefer Graham," Gresham says, his tone gently chastising. "As Bryn says, those are the formal names given to us when my brother became Liam's concubine. Within the Cabal, we're just Bryn and Graham." His hand is resting on the back of Bryn's chair. The rumors about them must be true, then, that the Royal Brother is the only person who can calm his hotheaded husband.

"This is what you get," Bastien says, chuckling. The entire crew is snickering, actually, and I realize that—duh, of course—this is common knowledge.

"Give me back my ship!" Bryn roars. Graham has his head in his hands.

"It's been six years, too late!" Bastien crows.

"Sir!" Jack yells. "Two ships just appeared on our radar, and they have Brudeah tags."

"Shit." People start scrambling on both crews. "Land 'em!" Bryn yells. "The compound's underground, they'll have to come and get us."

"Aye, Captain!"

"Get geared up," Bastien says. "You're gonna have to hit the floor running."

It seems like it only takes us seconds to get kitted out and we wait at the docking hatch as the ship shakes and rocks with Fehr and his three gunners. We land with a thump and Fehr leads us out almost before she's settled. I barely have time to take in the vast, dilapidated hangar, rusted and full of holes, before we meet the crew from the
Novasky
—

"Cherian!"

Mikscn and I collide with our brother and Jye herds us behind the group towards a crumbling freight elevator. I'm torn between Cherian, who's talking a thousand miles an hour and won't let go of my arm, and the deathtrap we're being stuffed into.

The roar of a landing ship fills the air before the doors slide shut and we drop
way too fucking fast
.