If only leaving for the trip was as easy as saying you would go. But there were details to be ironed out, and things to be taken care of before they could even break camp. Half the reason they’d hidden here was to hide away from Roth. They were far enough away that he wouldn’t be able to sense them if he came close, and most likely he would head toward Italy to look for them, knowing that Marzio and Sofia were from there.
Leaving the others to work on details, AJ took Aishee and Brian out into the woods. He was going to find a clearer spot to let her free, and to give her air to boost her wings toward home. She was going to fly to her people and let them know that he was on his way.
They stood on the edge of the cliff, looking out at the air. Strangely enough, Brian didn’t feel afraid. He said as much to AJ, who chuckled. “Your fear of heights wasn’t really a fear of being up high.” AJ explained to him. “It was a fear of falling and dying. Just like a person’s fear of snakes isn’t the snake itself, but the thought of dying from a snake bite. You don’t have to fear dying anymore, so your fear of heights isn’t there.”
The logic behind that hat Brian growing thoughtfully quiet. AJ left him to that thought and turned his attention to Aishee. “Please let our Queen know that I shall arrive with all the speed that one such as myself may manage. Sails will be up at first light.”
“May we meet well again Alyck, Duw o Ddaear a Dŵr. So you called, and so I came, ever and always to serve.” Aishee said formally. It was almost the same as her greeting, with a few of the tenses reversed. This time, unlike when they greeted one another, AJ did not hesitate. His voice was sure and firm. “Until we meet well again, Aishee merch Bwylla, High Priestess. So you came, and so I called. Ever and always I serve, ever and always I protect.”
Aishee floated to Brian. Instead of words, she bestowed a kiss on his forehead before flying off into the night. AJ stood watching her, a lump in his throat. But, using the lessons that Aishee and those like her had taught him, AJ put those thoughts behind him. The past was simply that, the past. If he dwelled there, he would never be able to work through the future.
There had been another reason he’d come out this far, and brought Brian with him. Right before they’d left, AJ had let Howie know his reasons, much to his friends amusement. But AJ didn’t want someone coming on them and interrupting what he was going to start.
Brian’s face was still so thoughtful and introverted. Everything that had happened this evening was in his mind, trying to sort itself out. With a chuckle, AJ stepped forward and stood a few inches from Brian. “Quit thinking so hard before you give me a headache.” He teased.
A light came into Brian’s eyes, making them sparkle with the humor that AJ loved to see there. “Can you really get a headache?” Brian asked him, half teasing, half curious.
AJ threw his head back and laughed. Leave it to Brian to find something like that to think of. “Oh, we can get them sometimes from using too much magic, or being around strong magic. It’s like it snaps back at you or people around you, and overloads the body a little. Not a lot of fun, but not earth shattering either. You’d be surprised how well you can work through the pain when you’ve learned that no matter what, it won’t kill you.”
The topic had ended up gloomier than he wanted. To solve that, AJ stepped forward again. That sizzle danced over his skin. To his mage-sensitive eyes the flow of magic from him and Brian was visible and bright. “There’s another side effect of strong magic, like what you and I did tonight. Especially when a person links.” AJ said huskily.
“Oh?” Brian managed to stammer out. His eyes were darkening, turning from bright blue to the color of the ocean during a storm. It had AJ shivering and his magic pulsating. Gods, but his man was attractive. AJ shivered again. They had made love plenty of times, but never after a strong magic working. Once before AJ had, with Roth, and it had been amazing. But this was different. They hadn’t touched yet and already it was stronger than anything he’d ever felt.
“When you work magic the way we have, it leaves you full of energy. Your heart races, your body tingles. The magic wants one final, physical release.” AJ whispered as he stepped even closer. There was only an inch or two between them. Magic crackled in the air. “Kiss me, Brian, and see where the magic leads.”
There was lust in Brian’s eyes, but it was marred by a slight hesitation. “Are…are you ready for that, Alex?”
He knew what Brian was asking, and the question had been in the back of his mind, for both of them. Were they ready yet? He couldn’t answer any other way but honestly. “Maybe I wouldn’t have been, on an average moment. Maybe you wouldn’t be either. But with the magic pulsing like this, I think it’s the perfect time. Wash the memories away with me, Brian. Let’s make new ones.”
That fire leapt back into Brian’s eyes, and all signs of hesitation were gone. Who moved first was anyone’s guess, but they were suddenly together, lips locked in a kiss that had them both gasping against their joined lips. The magic between them was almost electric as it merged with them, joining together over their skin, in their bodies.
Sensation was everything. Clothes were an obstacle that they hurried to rid themselves of. Skin against skin. At the first press of bare chest to bare chest, AJ gasped. He heard Brian’s moan when he brought his hands to those muscled arms. Everywhere AJ ran his hands, that current of magic followed, making each touch more intense. More pleasurable. It was too much, and not enough.
AJ used air, lifting their bodies to lay them on a bed of grass. He felt it grow softer under his hands when he braced his body over Brian’s. The very forest seemed to be responding to their love. When Brian moved his hips, rubbing their erections together, they let out twin moans. It was like nothing he had ever felt before. Gods!
They couldn’t stop touching, stop moving. Their hands ran up and down skin as their mouths devoured one another. Brian spread his legs, dropping AJ down between them, and wrapped them around his lover’s hips to better move against him. AJ could hear himself panting; hear Brian’s sharp breathing. Wind kicked up around them, swirling through their hair, rustling the trees and the flowers that were springing from the ground.
When AJ shifted his hips, let his body slide down and start to sink into that familiar place, rain started to fall from the sky. It slicked against their skin, each drop tingling and intensifying the pleasure more and more. “Oh God.” Brian moaned, throwing his head back into the grass. AJ’s lips immediately found his throat, nibbling and licking as he started to move his hips.
He felt alive in ways he never had. Lifting his head, he stared into Brian’s eyes and opened the link between them as Brian had done when he’d had his nightmare. There was a moment of disorientation, and then everything grew. He was AJ, and he was Brian, and Brian was him, and they were one. AJ felt the pleasure as he pushed into Brian’s warmth, and the pleasure as Brian was filed. Their minds were full only of one another.
Moans that sounded almost like sobs tore from the two, swallowed into the forest. They were straining toward that final goal, panting and clawing at one another to get closer, ever closer. In Brian’s eyes AJ could see a glow, the glow of his magic burning like a fire. The wind picked up and the heat around them grew. The ground around them changed and grew, a tree rising from the soil near Brian’s head, its roots wrapping around them, creating a cocoon on either side of them. The rain continued to pour until they were drenched. All of it added to the pleasure.
Brian was the first to go over the edge. AJ could see it on his face, in the blue glow of his eyes .Not just a metaphor, but an actual glow to the irises. AJ knew his own would be the same. The magic was too strong in them, too high. As Brian reached that peak, as he screamed AJ’s name to the skies, that glow grew and intensified. The magic between them jolted them both as Brian came, and the link let AJ feel it as if it was his own orgasm, which sent his physical body over the edge as well. Together they screamed, their bodies emptying, the magic cresting with them.
Slowly it started to fade. AJ barely managed to pull out before collapsing against his lovers side, resting half on him, half on the grass. They were breathing heavily, eyes closed. The rain felt good and cooling on their skin. It took minutes before either could speak.
“Sweet Jesus.” Brian finally mumbled. “That was amazing.”
AJ shifted, his cheek rubbing lightly against Brian’s chest for a second. “That was the most powerful, mind blowing sex I’ve ever had.” He admitted huskily.
It was another ten minutes before they could move. AJ was the first to do so, sitting up and stretching his arms over his head. He looked around him and chuckled. Automatically smiling in response, Brian sat up as well. “What?”
“Look around us.” AJ said as he gestured.
For the first time the two men paid attention to the world outside of each other’s bodies. Where they had been on a simple bed of grass at first, the grass around them was now full and lush, and populated with flowers. They looked at the tree that had grown, and the way the roots formed perfectly on either side of them, making a nest for their love. The wind was slowing down from the torrent it had been, and the rain was starting to lessen.
“We did this?” Brian asked in awe. He couldn’t imagine that this had been caused because of their lovemaking. “Grew a whole tree? Flowers?”
A sheepish grin stole over AJ’s face, though he couldn’t help from feeling smug. “Well, the earth stuff is mine. That and the rain. Remember, my two strongest elements. With the magic racing like that, I can’t really keep it locked in. They responded to our lovemaking. But it wasn’t just me, lover.”
“What?”
“Where do you think the gusts of wind came from, or the heat that was in the air around us? The fire in you fairly sizzled over us, only keeping from burning because of my rain. None of it was conscious, Bri. Our bodies and our magic’s melded together, and this is what it created.”
For a moment Brian looked surprised, and shocked. But he couldn’t keep the grin off of his face either. “Well, damn.”
AJ rose to his feet and stretched out even more. He felt loose and limber. Nothing like a bout of mind blowing sex to relax a body. “Come on, lover. Let’s get dressed and go see what the damage was at camp.”
That had Brian scrambling to his feet, his cheeks flushed in embarrassment. “You mean they’ll have felt it too?” he mumbled, his face flushing evne harder. Yet again AJ found himself laughing to the sky. “Oh, God, Brian, you’re so sweet.” He said. Leaning in, he kissed Brian’s semi pouting mouth. “Yes, they felt it. Most likely Marzio and Sofia were off doing the same thing we were. If Howi was smart, he’ll have shielded him and the guys. Let’s just hope your wind didn’t blow away anything or make too much of a hazard.” AJ said. He pulled his clothes on and grinned at Brian.
The night was too good to bother with being embarrassed. Brian pulled his own clothes on and found himself grinning again. “My wind? What about your rain! They probably got soaked.”
“Meh, it was worth it.”
“Amen to that, Alex.”