Iason blinked once, then turned away. His gaze lingered on Levi for a moment, then stopped on Sophie, who sat up and squeezed her hands together in her lap.
“Come on,” she whispered. Levi scooted closer to her, and she grabbed his hand. “It’s okay.”
Iason took a deep breath, but he kept looking at Sophie. “My name is Iason Ellas, and I was the Archmage’s wizard.”
It took almost another hour. Lazaros cast a truth spell on him for questioning, but Iason didn’t look away from Sophie as he spoke. The Archmage remained silent throughout, but Levi could feel the rage radiating from him as Iason spoke, detailing plans to starve out light mages in the hills and the Archmage’s attempt to meddle in Starian politics.
When he was done, Iason held himself like a wooden statue, walking stiffly across the platform as the crowd whispered among themselves. It was hard to tell what they thought of him, but the air was thick with tension, and Levi could hear Lazaros whispering to Tanis about smuggling him out of the square.
But before Iason could step down off the platform, Sophie raced up the steps to meet him. She pulled him into a tight embrace, and Iason stood there with his eyes wide, hands upraised.
“Ophelia would be proud of you, you know,” Sophie said. “If she was anything like me, she would.”
Iason’s mouth worked for a few seconds, and all the tense energy seemed to fall from him as he returned Sophie’s embrace. He took her face in his hands and kissed her forehead, and there were tears in his eyes as he led her down the steps.
“I’m done with him,” he said, and reached for Levi. Levi took his hand. “Let’s go back.”
Iason stayed true to that promise. Even after they came home and Levi kissed and nuzzled him on the bed until Iason was almost smiling, he didn’t speak of the things he’d said at the trial—the pain of his early life, his devotion to the Archmage, the curse. After the trial ended and the Archmage was sentenced to a life of imprisonment, Iason carefully removed himself from the political situation. While he was willing to use his magic to help, he was adamant that he wanted nothing to do with restructuring the government. Levi didn’t blame him, but he also wondered if that was realistic. Iason wouldn’t move them away from the community where Sophie was learning from sirens and making friends, which meant he’d probably be involved whether or not he wanted to. But he seemed content to focus on his apothecary duties, though Lazaros did sometimes send mages to him who had eventually made their way to the beach settlement: mages who looked frightened, whose robes were little more than rags and who looked about ready to weep when they were given a tent and warm food. Iason would take the magic from their tattoos, and while most of the mages were grateful, some cursed him or looked suspicious until after it was done.
Iason was always quiet after they left, the ones who knew who he was, but he told Levi it was the only way to make amends for the man he’d once been. “Other than standing trial like Drakos, I don’t know what else I could do. And Lazaros and Summer both seem to think I’ve… done enough, to show I’m not the man I was.”
“You’ve done more than enough,” Levi said. “And I won’t let you stand trial. I don’t think they want a vengeful god drowning Mislia in a hurricane, and that’s what would happen.”
Iason, with his usual understated demeanor, barely cracked a smile. “Just for putting me on trial? Not even finding me guilty?”
“What would be the point of finding you anything else?” Levi asked. “There wasn’t ever going to be mercy for this Drakos. That’s not what his trial was for. If you were standing with him, it would be the same: punishment. And I would destroy Mislia in my rage, and I don’t think you want that on your soul.”
Iason squinted at him. “I don’t think you want it on yours, either, dragon.”
It was something of a surprise to know that was true. He didn’t want to drown this island, and not merely because of Iason, or even Sophie. He liked Lazaros. He liked Tanis and Summer. He even liked Daphne and Paris, the young mages who were practically attached to Sophie’s hips—one on each side. He liked that people knew him here, called himLeviand waved at him when he came in from surfing in the morning, aware he was probably some powerful creature but happy to think of him simply as a man married to Iason.
And, of course, there was Iason. This scarred man with a dark past for which he took full ownership, who’d sat down to write letters to the light mages in Staria he’d been hunting before he lost his memories—one of whom, he’d told Levi, had given him the scars on his face. He liked the way Iason writhed in bed under him and the way Iason fucked him when he was feeling an urge to indulge his dominance, demanding and intense as he was about everything. His gruff affection with Sophie, the way he stared after Paris and Daphne when the two showed up to collect Sophie for whatever adventure they were planning, the scent of the clove cigarettes he refused to smoke if Sophie was home or awake or anywhere she might catch him at it. Despite the fact that their bond with Levi made the smoke unlikely to harm them, he still didn’t want her to see him indulging in the vice.
Of all the mortals who could have captured the Tempest’s heart, he was possibly the most unlikely. He certainly wouldn’t have been left chained to a rock for Levi to devour, or seduce, or whatever the expectation was. He wasn’t young, beautiful, sweetly submissive, or a feisty dominant. What hewas,wasinteresting. And that had always been more Levi’s thing than young, beautiful, sweet,orfeisty.
But something was happening, and Levi knew that the time was coming to decide, once and for all, if their bond was to continue or end. Because the draconic form he’d feared he’d lost was returning to him, only without the ability for Levi to control it. And while at first Iason was very clearly into the way Levi’s more dragon-like qualities manifested, Levi knew that eventually he wouldn’t be able to stop the shift. And his dragon form would, if he wasn’t fortunate, literally split the seams of their little house. So while the sex between them only grew more intense and rough, with Levi scratching lines down Iason’s back and leaving Iason covered in bite marks that clearly came from something inhuman, it was beginning to take a toll on their furniture.
Just the night before, they’d been tangled up together, kissing, and Iason had gone strangely tense, pushing at Levi’s shoulders. “Something’s… ah.Different.”
What wasdifferentwere the two cocks growing hard between his legs. Levi had to admit thatthatbit of his dragon form he didn’t mind too much. From the way Iason stared at them, he didn’t seem to mind, either. He reached down and touched them, watching with clear fascination as Levi shivered with pleasure.
“Do you plan on using both of these, then?” Iason’s voice was breathless, anticipatory rather than apprehensive, and that told Levi all he’d needed to know.
“Get the oil,” he’d said, and Iason had cursed softly under his breath and fumbled in the bedside table.
It took some time to work both of his cocks—and most of the oil—inside Iason, but it was worth it when Levi finally saw them both stretching Iason open. Iason was barely breathing, kneeling on all fours and trembling like a leaf, but he was clearly lost to the sensation and, as always, his dominance had him giving as good as he got. He fucked himself slowly on the two cocks, moaning, as lost to his pleasure as Levi had ever seen him.
“I told you,” Levi murmured, holding still with his hands tight on Iason’s hips, thunder and the storm echoing in his voice. “I told you that you would look beautiful, stretched out for me. You’re mine, do you feel it? You’re going to come on my cocks, and I’m going to fill you, and you’re going to love it—”
Iason didn’t say anything, but he went impossibly tight around Levi’s cocks and pushed back, seeking both the upper hand and to make Levi stop talking. Levi let him fuck himself, but hewasn’tquiet, too fascinated by how much Iason liked being taken by both at once.
Wouldhe? Maybe. Levi was sure there was some way to find out. He’d have to ask Arwyn.
It did take some time to get Iason acclimated, and when Levi was finally able to move, he did so carefully, enjoying the sight of both cocks pushing into Iason and drawing out slowly enough that Iason swore and punched the bedding in frustration. Iason couldn’t quite manage to reach down and stroke hisowncock, which was a delight, as it meant he had to let Levi decide when—and how—he came.
“You bastard,” Iason panted when Levi refused to speed up, keeping the pace steady even as Iason tried to get him to fuck him harder, faster. “I can take it, dragon, didn’t you say you wanted to see me fall apart for you?”
“I am,” Levi said, amused, though the fingers gripping Iason’s hips were rapidly becoming talons, and he could feel scales at his back. “Look at you. You’re desperate, aching, cursing me even as you take your pleasure. Such a wanton creature, a god isn’t even enough for you. You need a god with two cocks to please you.”
