He lay back, bringing her with him so she was atop him, astride him, his seed mixed with her juices dripping between them, the blanket over them.

“You sleep here,” he said.

“Master?”

She was confused again.

This time, he did naught to enlighten her.

“As your reward for pleasing me and sharing your need for your Master’s attention, if you wake before me, you will wake me with your mouth at my cock. If I wake before you, you will wake with my cock sliding in your mouth. Now relax and sleep.”

“Yes, Master.”

It took her some time, but she relaxed, and he felt her body start to get heavy.

Only then did he say, “She was alive, the lady of the chalk, for that is our fate, a life of yearning and then heartbreak. But in the end, she had what she wanted in her arms for eternity.”

“I don’t like that, Chu,” she whispered.

“Tell my mother that.”

It was then she did something that was most unsettling of all.

After making a mew of what sounded like pain, Princess Serena of the Nadirii nuzzled his neck with her face, tightened her hold on him with her thighs, and tucked her arms against the outside of his in an effort to hold him.

This hold loosened as she found sleep.

But Chu didn’t.

He lay under her, his body warmed by a confounding woman, his eyes aimed at the cold desolation of chalk.

61

The Unicorns

Prince Cassius

Ten Miles from The Northwest Border of The Enchantments

WODELL

Night had fallen, and Cassius sat on a log by the fire, his eyes to Elena, his ears trying not to hear the whispered murmurings and soft noises being made by Mac and Jasmine where they were sitting on their own log not far away.

He realized that Elena, seated across the fire from him, was doing the same —trying to ignore the lovers, and failing —when she stood and announced, “I’m going to go sit by the brook for a while.”

She then went to their tent, came out of it with a blanket, and he watched her head in the direction of the brook.

“Do you want me to follow her?” Ian asked.

“No,” he answered and stood, turning his attention to the nuzzling lovers. “Take it to a tent,” he ordered.

Mac broke it off to look up at him and say, “Grand idea.”

He then stood, dragging Jazz up with him and heading toward his tent.

Cass watched them disappear inside, then he glanced about the others.

“I’m joining Elena,” he stated.

“Grand idea,” Hera muttered.

He speared her with his gaze and then turned to Ian. “It’s not far. We’ll be all right but keep an ear out.”

Ian nodded.