Episode 238: Sand & Wood (Rhyss)

It was the most vivid dream he’d ever had. Hands, exploring his body. Lips, kissing him. There was no person there, just good feelings in his dream.

It was so vivid, he realized his hips were actually moving, his back scraping against the bark of a tree behind him.

His lips were on fire. His whole body was on fire.

He moaned into her mouth and opened his eyes.

Coconut skin and graceful eyebrows greeted him. At least Aadya’s eyes were closed, but he realized this was real. She was real. He was sleeping with her.

He tried to stop moving but his hips did one more thrust in protest before he did. His body wanted this, her. Needed her.

No. This was wrong, she wasn’t even awake.

Now she was. He’d forgotten what blue eyes she had. Last night in the dark, in all that fire and pain, she’d been mostly white, with a flame so hot he couldn’t even touch it even though he had fire magic.

When she’d cooled, he’d drawn her onto his lap, exhausted.

Apparently he’d been naked. It made sense, because his clothes would have burned off. He’d liked that sweatshirt.

Now her eyes looked at him, definitely blue.

“Ahhh,” she murmured. She shifted her weight and slid her body off him.

He knocked his head against the tree as another groan escaped him.

Part of him had kind of hoped she would keep going, when she woke up. But this was better, this was right. He was…

No, he wasn’t with Emily. She’d left last night, knowing he was going to die.

He was going to die. Greg and Corban said so.

He was single, he might be going to die, he’d just had sex with the queen of the fairies.

Only he hadn’t finished and he couldn’t think.

He was going to die.

Maybe this was why.

“Hi,” he managed.

“I bonded to you,” she said, in her voice. He didn’t know the word for it. Like a canvas before paint, perfect and clean but coarse too.

Was he attracted to her before this?

It didn’t matter.

“I’m sorry,” she added.

Sorry? Probably not about the same thing he was sorry about.

She did something with fire magic that made it look like she was wearing a dress. That was probably a good idea, so he’d stop looking at her.

He felt creepy for looking at her. Obviously she didn’t want him, she’d gotten off as soon as she’d realized.

“I’m sorry,” he said. He thought about his kids. That got rid of any attraction feelings right away. Yeah, that was way better.

He had kids he’d just met and he was going to die soon. Before he ever knew them.

“Because you did that?” she asked.

Probably.

She laughed. “That was all me,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

No, he’d definitely been part of that. “I think that was at least half me,” he argued.

“Twenty percent at most,” she pushed, and he didn’t argue this time. She looked out toward the ocean, which was annoyingly calm for how fast his heart was beating. “I was going to say the ocean looks nice, but I’ve decided that’s a forbidden topic.”

“Why?” Who cared about the ocean?

“Well, the waves…” she said with this really big happy amused smile, “they come up the shore, and go back toward the sea…again and again. Just me?”

He laughed, sort of. He guessed he could see it that way. But if she was having so much trouble that the ocean was distracting…why’d she moved off him?

“How did you do that dress thing?” he asked.

“Practice. Just imagine fire in the place you need it and then shape it.”

He did, sort of. He made a lump of fire clay over his groin and then took a few minutes trying to stretch it out like toy putty until he was dressed. Mostly, if fire counted.

“Are you okay?” she asked him

“Yeah,” he lied. It was okay. He could go home and not have all this awkward again, so he would be okay.

Except when they went home, he’d still remember this. It would be so weird. And his parents – would they guess?

Just when his life was starting to get better – money, parents, kids, other kids coming, engaged, he had to go sleep with a queen and probably die soon.

“Are you?” he asked, because it seemed like he should. And actually it turned out he did care. She had to deal with this as much has he did.

“No.” She sighed. “I’m fine, but not.”

He nodded his head. He really wanted to wipe his palms on his pants, but his pants were made out of fire. “Yeah, that,” he agreed.

“Is there anything I can do?” she offered. “Take a walk…do we have travel packs?”

He patted his pocket he didn’t have anymore.

She laughed, and it sounded exactly like how he felt. They were horny and naked and stuck on an island together.

“That’s okay,” he shrugged. He tried to think of something good to say and ended with, “We can just live here forever.”

She laughed. “Live here forever?” she repeated.

Yeah, that was dumb. He thought so too.

“Well I don’t know how to get back,” he said, rushed. “Or how to fish.”

She stood up and smoothed her fire skirt, which kind of swished when she walked just like a real skirt would only he was so distracted he couldn’t think of anything else. He was pretty sure a real skirt wouldn’t do that to him right now.

“I have a garden here,” she told him. “I can grow stuff. I can hunt.”

Wow, so she could just take care of him. “I can be useless,” he offered. “And build cars if you have a dead one here.”

Or paint. He would love to paint this place. It was so…alive. Every color was almost too exactly the right color to actually be real.

“Perhaps we can grow a car,” she joked.

He laughed. If anyone could, he bet it would be her. She’d built that whole insane fairy palace. After that, a car would be easy.

“Are there clothes in the house?” he asked.

Her lips pressed together. “Unfortunately, no.”

“Blankets? Curtains?” There had to be something. He couldn’t just live in fire clothes, because then people would come rescue him and see.

“Unfortunately, also no,” she smiled. “If I had sheets, I would have laundry.”

Most people with clothes had laundry too, except when they just went and burned them all off. “True,” he said.

So no clothes. Someone – Spence? – was going to come and see this and he was way too smart to not realize. He realized everything.

“May I offer you netted rope?” Aadya offered. She had a light in her eyes, like that was funny. It was, he guessed, he was just…dreading Spence.

“I’ll just use the fire,” he decided, like it was a choice. It wasn’t her fault they were stuck here. It wasn’t her fault he’d stopped sex and his brain was going to explode.

“I can grow the ingredients,” she offered. “I’m sorry.”

“Why? This was a good place to do that,” he pointed out. “We’re fine.” Because he could just see Talise, freaking out because she could hear her mom being tortured.

It would have been bad. This was better, even if it sucked right now.

Talise…he’d had sex with her mom. And he’d liked it.

“You’re calm?” Aadya asked.

“No,” he laughed.

She’d just had babies, and she was stuck here without them. Whatever was driving him insane was probably way worse for her.

One of her eyebrows shot up, and he couldn’t tell if she was amused or annoyed, or something else he wasn’t thinking of. “I was almost convinced,” she said.

Shouldn’t she be desperate to feed her babies? And bleeding? He didn’t know a lot, but he’d seen some movies. Maybe they over-dramatized it. Or maybe it was part of that healing thing all of them could do.

He couldn’t see her chest to see if it looked normal or if it was bursting with milk she couldn’t get out.

“So,” she said. He tore his eyes away from her chest. “This is a very small island. You’re looking at about a tenth of it. Let me show you the house.”

What if they were stuck here, on this small island, forever? What if no one could find them?

“How long will it take you to grow the stuff?”

“I’ll have to see the garden,” she said. She pointed toward the house when she said it, and he really looked at the house for the first time. The walls were some kind of gritty white material, with vines that grew up the side, and the roof was made out of grass.”A day?” Aadya guessed.

A day. “Okay.” He could do a day. It would be hard.

No, not hard. It would be difficult. Challenging.

But he could do it.

“What do you enjoy?” she asked him. “I come here to think, so I have water and a hammock and some clay and paints for it. Also, the garden.”

Wasn’t there some movie where they did pottery together and kissed necks and couldn’t have sex because they were in the wrong bodies or something?

Pottery was out.

“I can just explore, I guess,” he offered. “Unless you have a car plant.”

“No, but…” she looked around herself and closed her eyes. The island shook for a second, while the dirt of the ground between them shaped itself into a car. Actually, it was mostly rocks and not dirt. Which made sense, because this was an island and most dirt would get washed away in storms.

Probably.

“Would this do?” she teased. “You can use air magic to blow it along or earth to roll the wheels.”

It was unbelievable. He laughed a little, in awe. “That’s…”

She stepped closer to him. The air closed in around him, too hot and too filled with her scent. “The least modern car you’ll ever drive?” she asked. She put her palm on his chest.

Flames shot out of his skin in every direction. Why had she touched him?

“I just gave you earth and air,” she said. Her voice had gotten deeper and she’d taken another step toward him.

He put his hand on hers, in case she panicked and pulled away.

She didn’t. Her skin got really warm under his hand, and she met his eyes. He slid his hand up her arm, and cupped her shoulder. Her skin glowed everywhere his hand had touched.

His fire clothes flickered. They didn’t want to be there anymore.

She took another step closer to him, so he could feel her body despite their fire clothes. The fire wasn’t solid. Both of them were essentially naked, they just couldn’t see each other’s bodies.

She gasped and pressed her lips to his, and then they were together, both of them pressing and pulling. He pushed her against the wall of the house, her body flush against his, lifted her just enough, and pressed his body into hers, desperate and hungry.

Fire swirled in the air around them. He couldn’t breathe fast enough to keep up with himself, but he didn’t care. The feel of her…he’d never been so consumed by touch and fire.

When he could breathe again, when the fire settled back into their skin, she rested her head against his shoulder. “Wow,” she said.

Yeah, wow.

She was still suspended, pinned between him and the house. He pressed his hips against her one more time and kissed her shoulder before he set her on the ground. It took her a minute to stand.

“Thank you,” he breathed against her.

“For what?”

He almost laughed. For that amazing, intense experience. “I couldn’t think,” he admitted.

She did laugh and stepped a little away from him, apparently so she could see his face better. “I can almost guarantee I could think even less. The bond…is strong.” She sighed. “At some point I should look at the garden.”

The garden. Because they needed to get out of here. He laughed.

“I need to discuss the bond,” she added. “With last night…I have to heal before I can break it. Which may take a few weeks.”

He didn’t really know what the bond was. It turned out he didn’t really care, either. After that, she could be as bonded to him as she wanted, for as long as she wanted, and as long as it wasn’t hurting her he was fine with it.

“Well I’m not…” he swallowed. More than sex with Aadya, saying this out loud made this official. “I’m not dating anyone. So you can take your time, whatever it is.”

“Thank you,” she said. She hugged him, comforting not sexual. “I’m not either.”

Because she’d had a bond to Greg, and he’d been tortured to death last night. Which was why she needed to heal.

He ran his hands down his face.

“I’m probably going to die soon too,” he confessed. It felt less real, more impossible. Saying he wasn’t dating Emily had made it solid. Saying he was going to die made blood rush to his face in a way he didn’t usually have a problem with. “You should break the bond before that.”

“I’m dying too,” she said.

But she’d just had babies…

“Maybe we die here,” she added. She didn’t sound like she thought they would.

“You are?” he asked.

There was something wrong with the world. He’d kind of known it his whole life. It was just…now that it was getting so much better, the bad seemed so much worse.

Why were so many people dying?

“I am,” she confirmed. She stepped closer to him again. Close enough that he was going to forget how to breathe again. “Do you want to feel good for your last few weeks?”

What was she offering? No-strings-attached sex until they both died?

He didn’t know if he was that guy.

She put her hand on him.

Okay, yeah, he was that guy. He nodded his head.

She did something magical. It made him feel like the whole world was blurred but she was focused. Like the whole universe was about her and nothing else.

He kissed her again. Without asking, without thinking. She was there and he was there, and he wanted to kiss her so he did.

She pushed him down onto the dirt, except it wasn’t dirt it was sand.

Because they were on an island.

He wondered real quick, before he forgot how to think, if sand could catch on fire.

“It’s almost like a honeymoon,” he thought out loud. Except they weren’t married, and they were both supposed to die soon.

She laughed, and shifted so she straddled him while her lips left a trail of kisses down his jaw and neck and shoulder.

“Almost,” she agreed. “I’ve never gone on one.”

She started to kiss down his body, but he didn’t want that, he wanted her face where he could see it, so he pulled her back towards him and kissed her again.

“I wish, at some point in my life I had the forethought to plan something like this,” she said. “It’s perfect, in a disastrous way.”

She kissed him again. Her lips tugged at his lip ring.

“Yeah,” he managed, against the drum of his heart, which raced out of control. “It’s a good way to end, I guess. Trapped on a tropical island.” Death by sex. He was almost okay with that.

“Trapped, with bonds and magic,” she agreed. “We can have fun.”

“What if we go back though?” he asked. He didn’t really want to go back.

He tried to dredge his mind out of the swarm of thoughts and need and Aadya. Yes, he wanted to go back. He had kids he wanted to see. If he was dying soon, he wanted to be there for them now.

She smiled and lowered herself onto him. “We can be discreet,” she promised.

Death by sex, then.

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