Bound by Sin (30 page)

Jaykun couldn't believe the offer. It would be like getting everything he wanted all at once. His brother and freedom from his curse…and Jileana. What more could he ask for?

“I cannot make a vow for my brother,” he said at last, knowing it was true. Maxum had always been his own man. He had always done whatever he wished to do. He had sold his sword to whatever cause struck his fancy. Jaykun could not take that right away from him.

Then he felt the slight squeeze of a hand around his arm. He looked down and met the pain-filled eyes of his brother. Maxum could not speak under the water, not having the benefit of Ravi's magic, but the nod of his head was unmistakable.

It was as good as his word.

“We do so swear. Maxum will not fight in the name of any god.” He had said “any god” on purpose. He did not want Maxum beholden to any of the gods. If Maxum must suffer Sabo's curse, he would do so on his own terms.

“Very well. As long as he holds to this promise, you are free of your curse. I will speak to Lothas straight away and it will be done. Congratulations. Your burning days are finished.”

Then the goddess turned to Jalaya. “You are the rightful queen of your people. Never doubt that. Never forget it. I cannot protect you at all times—the war garners much of my attention—but if you need me, pray to me. I will try to answer you if I can.”

“Thank you, my beauteous goddess,” Jalaya said, humbly kneeling before Diathus.

“Enough of that. You are an empress. Stand and be recognized as one. Farewell, beloved child.”

With that, Diathus disappeared in a rush of bubbles.

J
ileana snuggled into Jaykun's side, holding him as tightly as she could, as if she were afraid he might disappear…or burst into flames at any moment. But dusk had come and gone, and as promised, Jaykun remained free of his curse.

“I am afraid it might all be a dream,” she said for the third time that night since they had settled back in her cave.

“So am I,” Jaykun said. “I'm afraid Sabo will discover Maxum is free and take him away again. With any luck this war between the gods will take up too much of his attention for him to care about what happens to one man.”

“But you said he cared enough to taunt your brother Garreth when he was in pain.”

“I know.” Jaykun gnawed at his lip a little. “I guess it's best to hope for the best. Perhaps Weysa will protect him. He may not have to fight for a god, but he can pray to one. He was always devoted to her. As a gold-sword, he thrived on conflict, solving it with his blade. But that was many, many decades ago. He has been suffering in the ground ever since.”

“Has he said much to you?”

“Not much, but I will not push him. He has been through a great deal. If he is anything like me, it will take some time for him to adjust to a torment-free existence.”

“Not free,” Jileana noted. “Just less of it.”

“Aye, this is true.” He turned his head and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “And how are you doing? Are you certain Barban didn't hurt you?”

“He didn't have time to hurt me. He was focused on taking over the castle and freeing his father from the chains. I think he was supposed to kill the empress, rather than keep her captive, but he disobeyed his father's orders just for the opportunity to lord it over her.”

“Well, it is a very good thing he did. And a good thing I came as quickly as I could. If the battle at the chains had gone badly…I don't know what would have happened. Nothing good—I know that much.”

“Nothing good,” she agreed. “But I still can't believe you tried to sail into those storms. I warned you they were impassable.”

“I knew they were. I was hoping to get far enough in that we could swim the rest of the way. And it worked.”

“It worked, but your brother had to suffer drowning.”

“He survived it.”

“I'm sure it is a memory he cannot put aside too quickly.”

“But he need not worry about drowning any longer now that your mother has gifted him with the ability to breathe and speak beneath the waves.”

“This is true.” Jileana rose up on her elbows and kissed his mouth slowly and searchingly.

“What was that for?” he asked when she lifted away.

“Do I need a reason?”

“No. But it felt as though there was one.”

“There was indeed. It suddenly occurred to me how much I loved hearing you say you love me and I thought if I kissed you well enough perhaps you would say it again.”

“Mmm, perhaps I would. But all you need do is ask me and I will gladly let you know how I feel.”

“But asking is not the same as a spontaneous utterance.”

“Ah. So you prefer that it be my idea.”

“Something like that,” she said with a prim lift of her chin.

He chuckled at her. “Very well, then. I shall make it my duty to spontaneously utter how very much I love you, how deeply you have entrenched yourself in my heart, and how I cannot face the idea of a future without you. I will tell you I was a coward and a fool for treating you the way I did, and I know how lucky I am that you have forgiven me for it.”

“There is nothing to forgive,” she said softly, kissing his mouth again until heat was bleeding all throughout his body. “You were in pain. I understood that. But I'll have you know I had no intention of going back home after the week of the full moon closed the portal.”

“I see.”

“That is why my father and brother were saying goodbye to me like that. They knew I wasn't going to come back for quite some time.”

“They knew more than I did. Then again, I saw only what I wanted to see, what felt safest for me. For all that I am a man who takes great risks, I was afraid to risk it all on love. I confess I am still afraid. I fear all this good fortune. I feel as though somewhere, somehow another scimitar will fall and someone in my family will be in its path.”

“You cannot live your life in such ways. You cannot refuse to celebrate just to dread what might or might not come next. If your experiences have taught you anything, have they not taught you to live and thrive in every moment? That there is no knowing what will come next?”

“That is exactly my fear: fear of what will come next.”

“You cannot let it paralyze you. That is no way to live a life.”

He took a deep breath and drew her tighter to himself, until their breaths mingled and her mouth was just brushing his.

“Then again, all is not perfect for us,” he said softly. “My brothers and I have to get back to my brother Dethan.”

“There are other portals. There is one that empties onto a beach only half a league away from Kriza.”

“Ah. Well, this is fortunate. I have a schedule to keep and my brothers deserve time with their wives over the winter. Besides, Dethan must be worried and he should be told of Maxum as soon as is possible. He will be beside himself with joy.”

“Never mind being beside himself with it,” she said with an impish wrinkling of her nose.

“Hush,” he scolded her with a click of his tongue before he kissed her deeply and put his tongue to better use. Their tongues tangled and rubbed sensuously against each other, the warm honey of her mouth something he devoured with great relish and passion. He rolled her beneath him and settled himself between her warm thighs as she raised them to bracket his lean hips. He broke from the kisses for a moment to look down into her face, staring hard into her eyes, almost as if he were searching for something. He was. An answer.

“What have I ever done in my cursed existence to deserve something as beautiful and charming as you?”

“Whatever it was, I am glad you did it,” she whispered.

“As am I.” He grew more serious. “Do not hurt me, Jileana. If you ever grow tired of me or feel you need to leave me for whatever reason, promise me you will tell me rather than let me live in ignorance.”

“That will not happen.”

“Promise me,” he insisted, giving her a little shake in his desperation.

She reached up and took his face in her hands, making certain he was meeting her eyes. “I make you this promise. I will always tell you exactly how much I love you. Whether it is a little or a lot. But know this: As long as there is a little love for you in my heart, I will never do anything to hurt you. And since I will always love you, that makes this a forever promise. I am yours and you are mine. The only one who can ever break that bond will be you,” she vowed.

He fretted a little more. “But if you—”

“I promise. I will not hurt you,” she said softly.

This finally put his mind to rest, and with a smile, he kissed her again. He wanted to trust her, knew that she had never done a single untrustworthy thing in all the time he had known her, and so in the end, it was easy to trust her. The love he felt for her melted away all of his past pain, and what was left in its place was only love and passion.

He kissed her again and then again and again. He filled himself with the flavor of her, with the temperateness of her mouth. He devoured her eagerly and was just as eagerly devoured
by
her. He grew incredibly hard in the lee of her hips, his sex pressed firm and hot against hers. They were naked already; to be so felt more natural to him now than not. That would have to change of course once they were back in the Overworld, but here he would enjoy the freedom and the benefits that went with it.

He broke from her mouth and began to travel down the length of her torso, trailing kisses down her breastbone and into the soft spaces between her lower ribs. He traveled down over her belly and then drifted his lips over the soft mound that protected her sex. With a long lick, he parted the folds beyond and took the warm, syrupy taste of her onto his tongue. Like syrup, she was sweet and decadent, and he just couldn't get enough of her. His tongue danced across her again and again, and he listened to the increasing crescendo of her moans with the greatest of pleasure. Her fingers burrowed into his hair, grasping and clutching at him as her spine undulated like a sinuous snake. She cried out sharply and he knew to increase the intensity of his strokes. Even as he did this, he thrust two fingers deep inside her and waited for her to explode. She did so instantly, her inner walls clamping down on his fingers, her whole body pulsating with spending desire. Unable to bear being outside her body a minute longer, with his love for her swelling in his heart, he rose up and thrust himself deeply into her. He made love to her almost frantically until she came again, this time screaming out his name, the delight of it echoing into the room long after he had reached orgasm himself.

Panting for breath, he settled his weight onto her, shivering at the little pulses that still shimmered through her and around where they were still connected. He kissed her again and again, fearing he would never get enough of her, fearing the power of his own emotions.

But no. He would not be afraid. Fear wasted time and twisted minds. He had faced his fears before and was a better warrior for it. He would face these and be a better man for it. In the end, he knew there was little cause for fear. Jileana was so wholly different from Casiria. From her coloring to her selflessness to the capacity of her heart. So different. She was what he had deserved in the first place; she was worthy of the love he felt.

“I will love you as long and as hard as I can. This will be a very long time, since neither of us will age.”

“I am aware of this,” she said with a laugh. “And I am all the happier for it.”

He smiled. “Good. Now let's get some sleep. It has been quite some time since I have fallen asleep before juquil's hour. I think I should like the indulgence.”

“I do not blame you. But…do you plan to sleep while still inside me?”

He laughed and then reluctantly separated their bodies so they could lie side by side, snuggled up close together. “Perhaps another time,” he whispered into her ear.

She smiled. “Perhaps.”

At dusk, long before he had the chance to heal from his initial damage, the ground beneath the ocean shook and trembled and then parted to swallow Maxum whole. The earth and stone crushed him; the soil suffocated him.

But he soothed himself with the knowledge that come juquil's hour he would be spit back out into the open world, rescued by his brother's selflessness.

Provided a god did not come and smite him once again for his own entertainment. Maxum was angry. Blindingly angry. His temper had been simmering for a long time, growing more caustic with every year he had been suffocated and crushed beneath the rocks and stone and dirt, Sabo's forgotten plaything.

He would have his revenge against the god one day. He didn't know how, he didn't know when, but one day the god of pain and suffering would know pain and suffering for himself. Maxum would not rest until he had.

No…he would not rest at all.