Only…they weren’t exactly themselves. Both of them, him and Brick, reflected as two winged wyverns. Why was that? No, a better question—how was that possible? And it was a question he thought he might have the answer to, because it was the same reason how he and Brick had been able to commune mind to mind, which they had done a couple of times.

  Added up, it could only mean one thing— But then they reached the sandy ground of what passed for a shore, hugging the foot of the far wall’s steep hillside, and Brick was on him, pinning him down.

  “Ogres’ armpits!” he hissed. “Your bag’s up there, with our clothes.”

  And the lube. Yeah, Brick fingering him when Jagger being submerged in water had eased entry was one thing, but a dry fuck was another. “There’ll be something here. See the shower area?”

  Brick, despite his discomfort, huffed out a laugh. The recessed area behind one of the biggest cascading jets of water wasn’t large or deep enough to be a cave, for which Jagger was grateful. He’d had enough of caves. But it did look like a bathroom shower. “The ledges,” Brick said, nodding in understanding. “Don’t go anywhere…”

  Jagger wouldn’t and couldn’t. He watched Brick walk behind the curtain of water, admiring how the spray broke over his huge hard on, and search the ‘shelves’.

  “Towel, soap and lube!” he called through the streaming water. “Guessing Kevin ‘comes’ here a lot…”

  He was back with Jagger in a second and raised an eyebrow to see him patting the ground in front of a large rock, the gesture inviting.

  “What? I fancy a ride,” Jagger said.

  “Won’t be a long one,” Brick warned him, sitting and using the rock as a back support.

  “I wouldn’t say that. It’s plenty long and thick enough for me.” Jagger took up the small pot, wondering briefly which fruit it had once been the kernel of, and scooped out some of the thick ointment.

  Brick moaned when Jagger spread it over his cock. “Don’t…tease…” he hissed, pulsing in Jagger’s fist.

  “I’m not,” Jagger replied, running his slicked fingers over his ass cheek, round to his hole. “If I were teasing, I’d turn around, like this…”

  Brick’s whimper told Jagger he was watching him prep himself. It made Jagger put on a show, easing two then three fingers in. He hurried—Brick’s cock would feel better. Did feel better, and thicker and bigger as he straddled Brick and sank down, taking the fat tip of his cock in his hole. He bore down, and Brick bucked up, so Jagger could take the head then the shaft in his passage.

  “What…you’re…” Brick’s sentence finished in a groan.

  “Clenching,” Jagger said, gritting his teeth too. His breath rushed from him when he took all of Brick in. He clamped harder, making his walls work Brick. He raised up, his thighs flexing, then slammed down, Brick’s thick cock stuffing him to the brim and spreading him wide open.

  He rode Brick hard and knew it wouldn’t last long. But it couldn’t, not with the ecstasy building, starting in his balls and— No. Not his balls. They were filling sure, but he was experiencing Brick’s feelings, living his pleasure, as his dick throbbed, and he lit up from the inside out.

  Brick grabbed Jagger’s hips to thrust up into him harder, once, twice, then he yelled, throwing his head back, the tendons in his neck standing out. He arched and came inside Jagger, his cum jetting from him, heating Jagger. Brick shuddered to stillness before easing Jagger off him to one side.

  He collapsed next to him, both of them face to face and Brick was still panting when he closed the gap between them and licked the tip of Jagger’s nose.

  “Hey!” Jagger swiped at it. “That a wyvern thing?”

  “I dunno.” Brick sent him a tired smile. “Think I went to kiss it and instinct took over?”

  Jagger turned onto his back, and Brick copied him, their hands touching. Jagger needed the space, slight as it was to think things over. Things like the mate-bond, which he was almost sure was forming. No. It can’t be. Could it?

  Because that would be against everything he wanted. Wouldn’t it? Jagger tried to squash down the thoughts that bonding his life with Brick’s would be far from the death-by-boredom sentence he’d always seen the mate-tie as, but they rose to the surface, like bubbles in the water.

  There was one important piece of elf lore that would be the final proof, if it happened. So until it did—which it probably wouldn’t—there was no need to do anything. To say anything. Which was good because Jagger, for all his dash and swagger…was feeling afraid.

  Chapter Twenty

  “Ohhhh yessss!” Brick’s half-groan, half-sigh of satisfaction filled the small cave to its ceiling. “A proper bed again!” The long, thick, woven-frond-covered moss tuffet—what else?—in Kevin’s cave was nothing compared to Brick’s bed back home. Hells, it didn’t even compare to the chipped wooden frame with its well-used mattress at the Cock and Balls. But after all he and Jagger had endured so far on their quest, and the lack of respite they were getting while enduring it, this was like the finest silk stuffed with the softest swans’ down.

  He wriggled deeper into the heap, admiring both the ingenuity of the bed and its flax covers that Kevin had made. Jagger was a little quiet, Brick thought. He had been since they’d left the pool, with its very steep bank that had been so easy to jump down but so tiring to climb back up.

  “Once again, my apologies for failing to mention the steps cut into the northern wall, that make climbing up a breeze,” Kevin apologized, his contrite voice coming from where he was bedding down in the living area, nearer to the cave’s entrance. “And no, you’re not putting me out. I’m happy for the both of you to take my bed.”

  How happy…and why? Brick couldn’t help thinking, even though he knew Kevin could ‘hear’ his thoughts. Brick wasn’t as free and easy as a lot of wyverns were, including his family. No—his sisters. Gules was a little more…correct, was the polite way of putting it. And Brick shared Scarlet’s mindset that he really didn’t want to know what his parents got up to sex-wise. So if Kevin the human had any ideas about watching them, or—gods above and below—getting involved, Brick wasn’t…up for it.

  He wasn’t a prude. He’d had a couple of threesomes, including one where the third had been a girl…and he didn’t understand what his sister Milly saw in it. She was always part of a throuple, usually with another girl and a guy, although her last relationship had been with Albin and Casimir, both of whom she’d towered over and bossed around.

  Flad had said, “When Milly says jump, they do. Her,” and “Milly isn’t so much the wyvern meat in the sandwich as she is the whole sandwich, and Albin and Casimir the dressing and condiments.” She had been in a good mood for those few months, Brick recalled. Having her every whim catered to and every fleeting curiosity satisfied would do that.

  Olahf had been into exhibitionism…well, probably more into the kind of gatherings where people could see him fuck the youngest son of the Ruby Throne. Brick had been fine with the voyeurism, with others watching. It had spurred him on, he thought, and had the added bonus of making Flad envious. He didn’t get invites to those kinds of parties.

  But Brick wouldn’t be too happy with anyone seeing or hearing him have sex with Jagger tonight. It wasn’t a performance. It was wild and spontaneous and wholly them. For as long as the quest lasted. No. No looking ahead, anticipating bad things. He turned to Jagger, at his side.

  “All right?” he asked in a low voice.

  “Umm.” Jagger was lying on his back, his arms folded behind his head. He jerked his chin upward. “This is relaxing.”

  Brick followed Jagger’s gaze and agreed. Kevin had hammered luminescent gemstones into the cave ceiling, a mix of different shades, and the pale and swirls and spirals he’d created, glowing softly with an occasional gleam of amber or glint of dull emerald, drew the eye and held it. Moonbeams came in through the cave mouth, bathing the front in a milky light and filtering through to where he and Jagger lay.

  He had a nicely full belly. Kevin had baked mahi, the golden fish they’d seen in the pool, and which changed color when caught, and when heated during cooking, and again when cooled. He’d shyly proffered a jar of his homemade beech leaf wine, saying several times and in several different ways that he was no vintner, no winemaker and certainly no oenologist, but he believed it wasn’t totally undrinkable so if they’d be so kind as to indulge him…

  It had been better than the tea, was the kindest comment Brick could come up with.

  And so Brick lay replete and content and now—with a little nudging and elbowing to get Jagger to turn onto his side—the big spoon to Jagger’s smaller one and— Oh. He hoped that thought didn’t sound sexual, as if they were rubbing one out on the other. He’d hate to be making Kevin think…things.

  “Don’t mind me,” Kevin said, making Brick jump. “I’ll be out like a light.”

  “Oh. Right. That’s— Yes…” Brick shrugged, and amusement rippled through Jagger, in Brick’s arms.

  “You sound like him,” he murmured, giving a tiny head toss in Kevin’s direction. “And lucky Kevin, getting to sleep so quickly.”

  Tiny grunts and deep breaths that could easily become gentle snores were already drifting over from the other half of the cave.

  “I don’t think I can get off like that,” Jagger continued, wriggling so he could see Brick’s face.

  “Oh no?” Arousal flared, making Brick shiver in anticipation.

  “No. Not unless I get off…first…” The sparkle in Jagger’s eyes rivalled any moon rock or star dust, and Brick’s breath caught when Jagger rolled him onto his side and tugged at the shorts Brick had donned for modesty. “You knew what you were doing just then, breathing onto my ear tips,” he purred into Brick’s ear. “You were all but licking them. Going to take a nip…”

  Brick hadn’t been. Much. “I wasn’t,” he protested. “I was trying to settle to sleep.”

  “Ah, yes.” Finished removing his shorts, Jagger sent tremors through Brick when he came back up from his feet…taking tiny bites to mark his way and bigger ones of Brick’s ass cheeks. “You’re tired after all that exercise earlier. So just lie back and let me do all the work…”

  * * * *

  “C’n feel y’ smilin’,” whispered Brick a little later.

  Jagger supposed he could, with his face pressed into Brick’s skin from where he was stretched out over his back, his cock still in his ass. Brick was half-sleeping. “Wyvern stamina, my left nut,” Jagger huffed.

  “Elf insat…insatiab…” Brick was fully asleep.

  Jagger wasn’t far behind, even though his dick was loath to relinquish its sheath. He’d come twice, gentle, easy orgasms, and his cock had softened, but didn’t want to slip free of the warm haven that was Brick’s ass.

  Falling asleep with a partner was already intimate, but this was closeness like Jagger had never known. And yet it had been like that with Brick right from the first. They’d gone to sleep touching and holding hands. Jagger forced himself to separate from Brick and even then his cock gave a few last pulses as he slid out. He didn’t know when he’d fallen asleep or even exactly realize that he had, but he must have, because he woke up, crying, tears slipping from his eyes.

  “Whhaassup?” came from the slumbering wyvern at his side.

  “Nothing. Go back to sleep,” Jagger ordered. As soon as heavy breathing told him Brick was sleeping, Jagger rolled free of the bed, pulled on his breeches and made his way out of the cave. What he needed to do…he didn’t want anyone to see. His heart thumped when a figure twitched near the cave’s mouth. Kevin. He’d almost forgotten about the human, but he managed to sneak past him.

  Elves didn’t cry. They couldn’t. Oh, it wasn’t that they were too tough, too macho. They experienced the full range of emotion. Well, some did. He didn’t. Or hadn’t… Aware he was trying to procrastinate, he checked his racing thoughts and stood still in the glade he’d rushed to, taking a deep breath to center himself.

  He’d never manifested tear-globes before…because that was what elves did when they were bonded. It was something that enabled them to help their mate. He got a shaky finger to his cheek and felt the tell-tale crystals there. Bonded… It tolled like a bell.

  Brick wouldn’t want him. Other species wanted an elf, sure, and once they’d had one, they checked it off their list and moved on. What did Jagger have to offer? He was royal-adjacent…and Brick was ruling family. Also, we wouldn’t have bonded without all this, he thought, angrily.

  Shit. This was messed up. His tears were welling up, and he collected them on his fingertips, shaking them into his other hand one by one. Soon his cupped palm was full. He examined them, seeing one was blood-red. What the hells did that mean? He closed his palm and squeezed it tight, crushing the crystals, then shook it.

  When he opened it, it held a globe, like a crystal ball, but containing a picture, like the transparent spheres he’d seen once, trinkets that had miniature scenes inside them for people to marvel at. Those were to be shaken, if he recalled rightly, to make snow fall on the houses or scenery. Just like this one. He shook it too.

  Only, this didn’t feature some cute, pretty scene to be admired. Jagger searched for a glowstone, a triboluminescent rock that would generate light when it was rubbed and got rid of some of the adrenaline coursing through him by rolling it violently against his leg. He set it high on a branch when it shone, and its amber beam was enough to show him what he’d feared.

  Him and Brick, fighting, struggling to hold off an army, one that was none the less deadly for being invisible. More so, Jagger thought. The struggle was prolonged and vicious, fought with weapons and hand to hand combat and ended…with Brick killed. Jagger stared hard and long into the tearglobe, but the scene replayed over and over. Finally he dropped the sphere and used the glowstone to smash it, crushing it to nothing. Not that that would change anything though.

  His mouth dry and his heart heavy, Jagger crept back to the cave and Brick’s side, careful not to wake him and determined to do whatever it took to keep him safe.

  He lay awake until daybreak.

  * * * *

  “Everyone ready for breakfast?” called Kevin from just outside.

  Jagger tried to work out what time it was. Early.

  “Well, I mean, are you both ready for breakfast? If you see what I mean.” Kevin asked, sounding apologetic again, “Everybody implies there’s a lot of us, doesn’t it?”

  Brick stretched and rolled his eyes at Jagger. “He started early.” He stopped and sniffed. “I smell food. Like, real food.”

  “Moss toast? Moss cereal?” Jagger pulled on the rest of his clothes.

  “No!” Brick raced out to the patio, skidding to a stop at the platters of food. “Bacon, sausage, eggs? Am I hallucinating?

  “And grilled tomatoes. And no.” Kevin set the final napkin down. “I treat myself once in a while to a meal from the Spotted Dwarf, in the local town.”

  “You went there and back already?” Jagger couldn’t believe it.

  “Oh, goodness no!” Kevin pulled out chairs for them. “I use the wraiths. You know they have a company you can make food orders through?”

  “They do?” Brick asked. “Wraiths? Like ghosts?”

  “Indeed, yes. They collect your order from ghost kitchens and bring it to you. I call it Deliverboo.” Kevin sat. “Oh, just my little joke.” When they frowned in puzzlement, he sighed. “Sometimes, I really wish there were other humans around.”

  The meal was delicious—crisp bacon, herby sausages, soft eggs, juicy tomatoes—but Jagger didn’t have much appetite. He forced himself to eat, though, and thanked Kevin for the meal and the sandwiches he gave them for the journey.

  “You’ll need all your strength.” Kevin looked into the distance, toward the mountains. He was alone with Jagger, Brick having gone to take the waste to the trash heap. “And you’re sure this is what you want to do? Because, and although I know less than nothing about prophecies and forewarning, or whatever it is, I do know that you and Brick—”

  “Are companions with benefits, yes.” Because if he wasn’t Brick’s bonded, then he couldn’t see his fate, and what he’d seen—no, thought he’d seen—wouldn’t be his fate. Right? He looked up at a footstep. Brick had returned. “Ready?” he asked him.

  Brick nodded. “The final stretch,” he said, his voice as flat as Jagger felt. “Nearly over.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Companions with benefits. Jagger had said it. More than once. He proposed it. So yeah, that was all they were. Or could be. Or should be. No one would want to be bonded to Brick. No one deserved to be bonded to him, whether through some mystic wyvern crap or some equally mystic prophecy crap. Brick sneaked looks at Jagger as they trudged through the forest and to the foothills of the Crosswise Mountains. Jagger was silent too. He’d seemed to become quieter the nearer they got to their destination.

  Brick and Jagger trudged farther and Brick’s thoughts whirled around the foretelling, like carrion birds circling a wounded animal. Did he want the prophecy to be true or false? What would hurt less? He knew Jagger wasn’t for him, so while being told no, that’s a wrong interpretation of the prediction, would be a kick in the teeth, he suspected that learning yes, you got it right! Here’s a cookie and a life partner, you lucky wyvern, would be more painful and for longer. Keeping Jagger shackled him to him was nothing short of cruelty, for both parties.

  His spirits grew heavier as the terrain grew rougher. All the things he’d done wrong, all the mistakes he’d made on their quest so far played in his mind. Only yesterday, Jagger had had to help Kevin re-lay and relight the fire, after Brick had put it out by dropping his food into it then retrieving it. Oh, and before that, he’d belched. He would have closed his eyes in shame, but that would have made the images clearer and sharper.