Where was I? Where did I emerge? Was I dreaming? Did I die while traveling inside the Orulis?

They were there. Right in front of me.

My hands immediately patted my arms, my head, my bust, as the truth and realization didn’t reach my brain. Even the pinch on my thigh felt real. “How…” I breathed.

“Well! I suppose I owe our sister an apology,” Kino stated, facing Nina, who bore an even face but couldn’t seem to move either. Was it confusion that laid on her visage? Stupor? Her fingers clenched into fists a couple of times and the emotions I had felt in my fantasies had grown a thousand in size. How was this possible?

Kino moved gracefully in my peripheral vision but all I could focus on was her. Her. She was here. Real. Her stare fell hard upon me and took my breath away. The girl of my dreams. The red flamed hair and gray eyes. My mouth felt her lips again, my body shivered remembering her fingers and hands roaming over it like a map, her moans, her laugh, her smile, filled my mind and my heart lost a few beats before it could steady itself again.

But in her eyes, I didn’t see the tenderness from my visions. I didn’t see her loving attention, her lust ogling at me. She was watching without any expressions betraying her thoughts, even if a light disdain slipped from her grasp. Her brows and nose were frowned. She couldn’t bear my sight nor presence. “Who are you,” she ordered, her eyes unfaltering.

“Come on, now, Nina, that is not how we should welcome our guest,” Kino said, approaching me with a feral and animal gait. “What is your name, cutie?”

His dark and short hair was so black, his pale skin and red lips were coming out a hundred times more under the dim light warmth. He was stunning. Ravishing. His long and straight nose, almond eyes, hooded lids, pointy canines, brown irises like melted dark chocolate, it was even more striking being actually near him. Kendarians beauty was very different but could never compare. His long fingers reached my shoulders and he held his chin high looking down at me, although we didn’t have that much of a size difference. “Silent treatment, uh?” he smirked and something growled inside my stomach.

Quickly turning toward his sister disheveled one strand of his slicked back hair in front of his face. He laughed before giving me back his attention. “I suggest you cooperate, handsome, before Nina handles you. And she doesn’t have much patience…”

I finally diverged my stare from Nina to fall on his taunting eyes and he bent his head to the right, one lip stuck between his teeth, his brows up, questioning. “And I suggest you take that hand away from me.” I answered, his suffocating presence getting the best of my nerves.

He obeyed, not before giving a light but firm squeeze and his grin almost reached his ears. Some devilish darkness, floating shadows danced into his irises, like smoke after a gun fire and I blinked twice to make sure I was hallucinating. He hummed, his attention over my mouth. “Don’t,” Nina’s voice erupted from behind us. I startled.

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“No? Why?” he continued, not lifting his eyes away from me. I suddenly felt small, weak, vulnerable. “Tell me, sis, why would I need your approval to have my fun?”

“Because. You can’t.” she affirmed. My breath was altered and disturbed. They shared a gaze and talked through it without using any words. Her brother marched to her and a sulfurous laugh left his mouth. Everything about him was wrong in a sexual way. He was lust and desire personified. His whole body was perfectly sculpted, covered in a black suit that was fitting each and every curve. His voice hoarse, tempting, luring, manipulating. One dream flashed before my eyes, him and the blond-haired man, standing tall in front of each other. Lyen had called him Iblis. And the latter explained how terrifying he could be. He held a power deeply dangerous. “I see. Pity,” he finally said.

Nina looked back at me and never wavered. We were both analyzing each other while the man walked toward the left, around his sister. “If you ever feel interested, please, seek me out,” he gloated.

“Shut up, Kino,” Nina blurted.

His laugh filled the room but I wasn’t receptive anymore. Not when the object of all my desires was right in front of me, feet away. When the woman I had fantasized for days, weeks, before everything happened, was standing, alive and real. She was responsible for the knot in my stomach and the fire lower. I breathed deep and searched back my composure for the images of the previous dreams crippled a way to my mind and awoke some very special places.

Kino moved, contoured his sister, advanced toward me and my limbs were frozen. My heart pounded so fast in my chest, I thought it would jump out of my throat and I had to lock my knees tight because all I had wanted to do was to fall over them, from the moment she had appeared.

Only the man approached the Orulis. And although I couldn’t hear Samay’s voice, I could feel his power inside my brain, his familiar magic still whirling inside the portal in my back. And with all the force of my will, I extracted my eyes from Nina’s sight and had just the time to see Kino bash his feet on one of the sides of the Orulis, severing the communication, and destroying my only way out and their only way through, his hands firmly sealed inside his pockets.

Samay’s blue fire evaporated. “Lady Mary will have a word with you,” Nina stated, her attitude fierce and strong, and the muscles showed underneath the leathered armor she was wearing. “She will decide whether you are worthy of trampling our land. Don’t move until you’ve been told otherwise.”

“I’ll stay here, in case he finds his courage back,” Kino added.

The sounds she made were exquisite and beyond. The words took longer to sink in, my brain having difficulties concentrating on anything other than her sinful red mouth that had been on places I was dying to feel for real. I only hummed and kept my eyes riveted on hers, except when I observed her up and down, tearing from her a shudder. Looking as if I was appalling. She waited a whole minute more, our stares incapable of unlocking from each other, our breath getting worked up as the minutes passed, until she couldn’t handle it anymore.

She turned around, her beautiful crown of curly hair swaying over her shoulders and I took a step towards her, before I even realized what I was doing. I wanted her closer. I wanted her.

But she was gone without a glance back. And Kino appeared right in front of me, arms crossed over his chest. “Stay put, honey.”

To be continued.