Pastainell chose his island hideaway well. With what we found, makes sense why he didn’t want anyone to find his private pleasure palace. Hippocamps weren’t the only thing he was trafficking.
I originally planned to free the mares, but they’d never survive. So here we’ll stay. We have all we need, for all of us.
Captain’s Log, Mayhem
Captain Fraser Connell
****
Not every crew member from Skirmisher sailed with me aboard Mayhem when I left Hastrior five years ago. Some stayed with Gordon and I saw two of them walk down the street while Ozora asked me about the hippocamp bond. Telling her to wait for me in the café was futile, but stalling her questions by running out the door and leaving her to pay slowed her down.
No luck. They disappeared, and the streets weren’t crowded. They should still be in sight. Now I questioned if I’d seen the old crew members. It had been a while.
Ozora met me on the street, wearing a simmering expression that said she didn’t believe my casual excuse.
“Didn’t you say you wanted to try out your idea?” I asked, relieved when her expression lightened. Tell the truth, I’d bet we both grasped at the diversion.
We walked back to Mayhem, and she made me change into “something you don’t mind swimming in.” Puzzled, I donned swim trunks and grabbed a towel.
I didn’t know what ideas she might have about getting my magesight working, but I was pretty sure she was getting ideas about me when I climbed to Mayhem’s deck. The way she blushed and practically ran to the end of the quay when I got close confirmed it.
She was so rattled she could barely talk. Her confusion, delicious. Especially when I slow walked right up to her, stood close enough to touch if either of us leaned just a tiny bit one way or the other.
She still smelled like lilies.
With a quick cough, and a couple side steps, she regained her composure.
Much to my disappointment. Once Ozora starts talking about magic, nothing else exists.
“Tell me again about how you feel the numin under water.” She asked, studying the surface of the bay. Now, with smaller pleasure craft out and about, the water rippled with their wakes. Visible currents and crosscurrents that intersected, sending fresh ripples outward in new directions when they collided.
Ozora’s brows peaked and her lips puckered adorably. Her eyes went hazy and unfocused while I talked. I couldn’t tell for sure, but got the impression she saw something out in the water.
I only knew she didn’t see me looking at her.
Freely, I drank her in. She drew me with her intensity right from the start. She wasn’t coy, didn’t play head games.
Or so I thought until Gordon told me different. Couldn’t wrap my head around what he said, and what I’d learned since.
Ozora today seemed much like the Ozora I first met five years ago. In two weeks, she never once mentioned infidelity. Hippocampus pods she brought up from time to time, usually with one of her dagger-like glares. I considered introducing her to Bastion and erasing some of her more outlandish statements.
What was she looking at? She hadn’t noticed I’d stopped talking yet, lost in her study of the bay.
I wondered if she still tasted sweet. Her lips pursed, and I leaned in, unable to resist. Longing gripped me, and I bent closer, inhaling her dainty lily fragrance.
Her expression shifted and awareness returned. Grateful for my loose swim trunks, I pulled back hastily and gripped my towel with both hands so I wouldn’t drag her to me and kiss her. With regret, I snuffed the poke of disappointment in my gut that she seemed oblivious to what almost happened.
Before long, I was treading water out beyond the quay.
“There’s a … stream of numin about two feet below mine.” Couldn’t tell what kind of spell, but when she asked, I found it felt like the dolphin who’d cast it. That was a first. Guess a few of the past weeks’ lessons sank in.
I searched for and found the different numinous signatures of the various spells and creatures of the harbor and bay.
It was boring as fuck.
What was she trying to prove?
And why was I the idiot following her commands like a trained seal?
Because Ozora was the only woman I wanted.
Didn’t matter how much I tried to deny it, didn’t want it to be true.
Ever since that first day we met, I’ve been caught by her spell.
The one she never knew she cast.
Back when Ozora and I met, I fell for her hard. She’s the only woman to nearly knock me off my feet with just one glance. Okay, she used a spell to do it.
Yes, I deserved it.
In my defense, she did fall into my arms. Our meet-up wasn’t the first time I’d hooked up with a female after she “tripped” into me. Can you blame me for thinking that I was lucky that day in the bazaar?
I mean, she was hot. Petite, but with curves that made her mage robes cling and skim, and just begged to be caressed.
I shoved such thoughts away, but after fifteen minutes of swimming and numin seeking, I was done. This was nothing I hadn’t done countless times before and too many memories intruded in the silence under water.
“We’re not done.”
We so are little mage, we so are.
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My magesight was broken, or never worked, so maybe the dragon is wrong about me being a mage.
I didn’t tell her that, though. I climbed the stairs out of the water, but stopped.
Not because she ordered me to.
The breeze off the bay wrapped those sheer scarves she wears for skirts around her thighs, showing me every inch of her perfectly curved form.
I Could. Not. Move.
She liked to layer them. Said they let air flow through better than a skirt made from one piece of cloth and kept her cooler.
While inflaming any male with eyes. How am I supposed to look at numin with those fluttering little scraps beckoning me to rip them off?
Use my imagination, ha!
“I can think of better things to use my imagination for than picturing swoops of color.”
No-nonsense Ozora only twirled her finger and pointed, resistant to my scorching stare and hints. No fun, just more magery. How could she be immune? I’d seen the way she devoured me with her eyes. How could she stand there with that bland expression and tell me to close my eyes and block the sight of her?
She wasn’t playing.
Damn. I shoved my thoughts back on track and turned away to face the bay.
She was right, though.
I could feel the spots she’d had me swim to from where I stood on the stairs. Pretty sure I would not have located them without getting close enough to touch them, but now that I knew where they were, I could feel their vibrations, each individual spell or creature’s numin like different notes of a song, playing against my skin in the water.
Behind my closed lids, I did as she said and pictured the numin painted with lively colors that flowed with the energies.
It was only imagination at first, but then, with an almost palpable snap, something else kicked in. A trickling flow of my numin along a track I’d never noticed before. Bright, vivid colors now painted every ripple, every stream, every minor spell. Even some I’d not found in my swimming now glowed in my mind’s eye in blushing pinks, blues, greens, even yellow-gold, warning reds, and purple.
When I opened my eyes, the vivid splashes and lines of color I’d imagined infused my vision.
I stretched, seeking further, and new numin sources popped I hadn’t found before.
A new dot of numin from far below, out toward the breakwaters of the bay, grabbed my attention. It moved too fast. I couldn’t tell what it was. The dot became a blob, then a streak that shot toward the quay.
Realization hit as Bastion erupted from the water, neighing and thrusting with his powerful tail to land on the quay and shove Ozora backwards into the bay.
I yelled their names as I dove into the water. With my new magesight, I readily located Ozora. She burned like a flame under water, struggling desperately to swim against the pull of her tangled skirts. Looping my arms under hers, I dragged her to the surface and pulled for the quay.
Bastion, naturally, was quite proud of himself.
I was furious.
“You big dumb meathead! What the hell were you thinking?”
He posed on the quay, radiating pure stallion satisfaction. Shaking his head, he flung salt spray off his long, wavy mane into the air. Droplets that caught the morning sun and sent diamonds of light dancing across the stones and water.
Now I had Ozora in my arms, against my bare skin, and my fury changed into something equally hot. Her scent drove away the salt of the sea from my breath. I drew her into my lungs and wondered if I’d have the strength to let her go once we got to shore.
I didn’t. I lifted her once my feet touched the stairs. She shivered, and I pulled her closer.
++You want mare? Now you have mare. ++ Bastion leaned down, blowing and snorting from his position above us. He arched his neck and flared his nostrils, stamping one finned hoof on the stones.
I yelled at him, but didn’t mean it. The big idiot did me a favor, and I had Ozora in my arms again. Didn’t care how. My heart pounded like it would leap into her hand where she’d pressed it on my chest. My entire being leaned into that touch. Her dark eyes met mine. I was drowning and never wanted to come up.
I tried to say no. I told her it was a bad idea.
It was the best idea ever.
She still tasted as sweet. I couldn’t let her go. Losing her again might be the end of me. Just holding her wasn’t enough. I needed to touch her.
My legs folded, and I sat on the stairs, pulling her into my lap, water swirling around both our bodies.
The heat of her pressed into my hard cock stole all my reason.
I ripped away those damn skirts that practically drowned her. Just the notion that they still touched her drove me nearly insane.
Dear gods, she hasn’t stopped me. There was that sigh as I traced her bare thigh with my fingertips. I thought I was hard before. Now she was arching into my touch. I traced her neck with my lips to whisper in her ear.
“I saved your life, Ozora. Again.”
That time too, she’d ended up in my arms. Then in my bed. Mayhem was but a few short steps away.
Bastion has terrible timing.
Through the bond, I felt him move just before the splash of his massive body striking the water sent a surge that yanked us both back out into the bay.
I held Ozora tight and shot us to the surface. Bastion rose next to us, his lips peeled back in equine laughter, still radiating smug satisfaction. I wanted to laugh but stifled it when I saw Ozora’s stiff face. She coughed and spluttered, and her fingers clamped onto my arms like I was her lifeline. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen Ozora afraid.
“Ozora, meet Bastion.”
She nodded but said nothing while I swam us back to the stairs, her body not quite as pliant this time. Once she had her footing, she stood and looked like she would bolt. I slipped my fingers around her wrist.
Knew I couldn’t let her go.
“What, going to run away? I thought you loved these critters? Now you don’t want to meet one?” I tugged, and she stumbled into me, making it easy to slide my arm around my waist. Telling her Bastion was really just a big puppy though, had the opposite effect.
He put on a display Ozora didn’t find it amusing or impressive, judging by the elbow she rammed in my side. It hurt, but I still moved fast enough to recapture her wrist. She raised her other hand like she’d cast something, but stopped when her furious gaze met mine, stayed, and softened.
“Seriously, come meet him. Please?” I meant it, and let go her wrist. No need to hold her like that.
Something rippled through me when she stepped back down into the water with me. I didn’t know what. It wasn’t the consuming lust of before, but it made me grin like an idiot. Bastion swam to us, smooth and gentle as a mare with her newborn foal. Planting his hooves on the stairs below us, he stretched his neck to snuffle over her soaked blouse. Ozora laid her hands on him, the expression on her face pure wonder.
“Never been this close?” I asked, even though her reaction made it obvious.
She shook her head. “I’ve only seen them from the shore, and once they rode the bow of the ship I was travelling on.”
“Ship guards.” I nodded. “I’ll bet the captain or his passengers hired them.” Bastion’s eyelids fluttered. Ozora had found the sweet spot on his crest and gave him a good scratch.
So much for keeping my hippocamp a secret.
Ozora seemed delighted with him. With her feet under her and the stallion behaving, she’d swung from suspicious and fearful to adoration.
“Who’s a good boy? Who’s so handsome.” She cooed in his ear. He shook his head, looking supremely pleased with himself, and nudged her hand for more scritches. With a little laugh, she obliged, but I heard another snicker from up on the quay.
A few dockworkers had approached. The splashing must have alerted them and they stayed to look over Ozora. Her blouse and ruined skirt were virtually see-through, and the males eyed her up and down.
“Wait here, be right back.” I murmured in her ear and climbed the stairs to retrieve the towel I’d dropped there, fixing the men with an unwavering stare.
“You should find somewhere else to be. Now.” I barked when they looked like they’d linger. The taller one’s eyes widened, recognition filling them. Slapping his buddies and whispering, they scurried away.
Ozora didn’t notice I’d left. Which was fine. She didn’t need to know about the creepers. She patted Bastion on his shoulder and stepped up out of the water to meet me. “He’s so big. Are they all like this?”
“No, mares are much smaller, as are most males. Bastion is the biggest stallion I’ve ever known.”
I held out the towel and silently asked Bastion to back up, telling him to stay with Mayhem if he wanted. “Let’s get you back on the ship and into dry clothes that don’t show the world what you’ve got.” She glanced down and saw her filmy silk blouse and ruined skirts were transparent.
That blush. She was no innocent, but Ozora was a pure soul.
I was anything but.
The moment had definitely passed, and my reason once more yelled that I shouldn’t be this close. I shouldn’t be kissing her, touching her, wanting her.
I was a killer, a rogue, and she didn’t need any of that chaos in her life.
Bad enough, we had to live and train together for now. Sex was a complication we couldn’t afford. Plenty of other places to get that, without causing either of us the inevitable pain that would follow. I didn’t want to think about the deeper emotions that touching Ozora awoke. Not if she was going to be out of my life once she realizes this whole school fantasy notion will never work.
Or Mayhem is seaworthy, whichever comes first.