We walked to the door. I turned the knob and opened it. 

“You don’t lock the door at night?” Sydney asked in surprise. 

I shook my head. “Nope. Nobody wants to walk through that yard in the dark.” 

“No. I suppose not,” she said softly. 

The house was an old two-story wood cabin. It had been well-maintained over the years. From the outside, it looked like something from an old Western movie. The inside had been modernized, though it kept that old rustic feel. Candle-like lights had been strategically placed around the small foyer. The light was dim but warm and comfortable. A coat rack was inside the door, though Sydney did not remove her coat. She kept her hand firmly gripped in mine, following as I walked into the house. 

There was no sound in the house. The air felt tense, as if waiting for something or someone. I paused for a moment, listening for any movement. I heard none. I could smell the scent of candles, but it was faint. 

The dragon motif from outside continued into the house. The foyer’s walls were lined with oil paintings of dragons in flight. The living room, just off the right side of the hall, had even larger paintings of dragons and knights in battle. The far wall held a painting of a massive dragon lying on a hoard of gold coins. A stairwell led up to the second floor off the left side of the hall. The stairs to the basement and the entrance to the kitchen and dining room were towards the back. 

“Akasha?” I called out, as I stepped away from Sydney to look for Akasha. There was no answer.    

“Maybe she went to bed?” Sydney offered.    

I shook my head. "No, she was going to make dinner, but I don’t smell anything. The stove has not been lit. Something is wrong."  

The air was strangely devoid of the usual scent of warmth, like the comforting aroma of baked bread that had once filled this space, now replaced by an eerie emptiness that tightened my chest. 

I could feel a tingling sensation along the back of my neck. The hair standing on end. Something was off. 

 Sydney walked over and, as she retook my hand, all the feelings of anxiety evaporated.  I wanted nothing more than to hold her, pull her against me, curl up before the fire, and catch up on the last six months of her life. I pulled her close to me and smiled at her. Sydney’s eyes twinkled with mischief as she looked up at me.    

“Seems we have the house to ourselves.” She grinned and licked her lips. I gulped and nodded. Through the cloudy sensations of pleasure at being with Sydney, I kept getting the feeling that there was something I needed to do. Something important. I stepped back from Sydney. She pulled my hand gently but allowed me to make space between us. She raised an eyebrow in question.    

“I need to find Akasha. Do you mind if we check the basement? Sometimes, she gets caught up in a project and loses track of the time. Never like this, but...”    

Sydney smiled sadly, then nodded once. “Okay.”    

We walked down the hall with my hand still in hers. I opened the door to the basement stairs. The smell of burning candles was stronger. That was strange. Akasha had never burned candles in the basement before. I started down the stairs, Sydney close on my heels.     

As we approached the bottom of the stairs, I reached for the light switch by instinct and flipped it. Nothing happened. I turned into the darkened part of the main room. Candles had been laid out in a circle around a kneeling figure. I blinked. I started to walk towards the figure, but Sydney tried to pull me back. I heard her voice, but was too intent on the figure in the circle of candles to listen. Then she let go of my hand. I stumbled forward in the darkness, closing the gap quickly.    

My mind swam. The scent of the candles was wrong. Everything felt wrong. I had never smelled a candle like that. It smelled like ozone and death. I saw runes carved into the ground around the candles. The figure was bound in iron chains.     

As I got closer, I recognized the usual lustrous silver hair matted to her back with sweat. The graceful curve of her neck as her head was bent. Her skin was flawless and beautiful. Like a twenty-year-old maiden, though I knew she was older. It was Akasha, naked and bound in chains. She raised her head at the sound of my approach. Her eyes were wide and filled with rage and fear. She shook her head as if to say something.     

My skin prickled and danced as my breath caught in my throat. It was like stepping through a field of electricity. My skin crawled and tingled, a sensation that seemed to linger, like phantom sparks beneath the surface. I fell to my knees. As I looked at the ground, I realized I had stepped into some kind of circle of runes. I recognized some of them. I had seen them before in some of Akasha’s books. They were draconic runes. I reached out to one and felt a searing pain along my arm, a burning that etched itself into my memory. Even as I jerked back, rubbing my arm, the pain left a buzzing echo. 

I turned around, surveying the edges of the circle I was inside. It was large enough for me to comfortably lie down and stretch out without touching any of the edges. I furrowed my brows. Behind me, I heard footsteps. A jacket hit the ground. I turned and watched Sydney walk towards me.     

With the light behind her in the stairwell and only the candles behind me to illuminate the room, I could barely make her out as she walked towards where I knelt on the floor. She chuckled coldly to herself. A shiver ran down my spine at the sound of it. She paused just outside the light, her body bathed in shadows. I tried to peer through the grayness at her. It was dark, but not that dark. My head throbbed with the effort. I clapped a hand to my forehead and blinked, trying to clear my thoughts. The smell of the candles made my eyes ache; my ears burn, and my head thrum. Sydney laughed again.    

“Oh, poor Ed. Poor, naive Ed. I learned all your secrets. And your weaknesses.” Sydney stalked from side to side, watching me clutch my head. “The more you fight, the more it hurts.”    

I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself. There was a sinister pitch to her voice. An edge of cruelty that had never been there before. Sydney slipped off into the shadows. I lost track of her in the haze of smoke from the candles. My head swam as I tried to listen to what she was doing.     

Then I heard bare feet padding across the floor towards me. Sydney stopped just outside the circle, still bathed in darkness. She barked something in a language that hurt my ears. Candles flared to life around me. The runes glowed faintly in the light. I looked at the runes, trying to decipher them. One was clearly protection. Another transference. As I looked at the next series of symbols, my head started to ache again. Sydney’s cold laughter grabbed my attention. I turned and looked at her.    

Sydney stood at the edge of the circle, the candles casting a warm glow over her body. Her skin, adorned with runes in ink and scars, hinted at a deeper story.  Her groin was shaved, marked by freshly carved symbols. 

Sydney watched my gaze, her eyes sparkling with amusement. “Impressive, are they not?”    

She turned around. Her lower back had runes drawn in marker, while her ass had been carved with runes down the backs of her thighs. She twerked her ass, shaking the tight muscles. She chuckled softly as she watched my body respond to hers. I felt myself growing aroused. She turned back to face me, her mound glistening with arousal.    

“Oh, Ed. I’m sorry it had to be this way. I wanted to take you in the comfort of your own bed, but you just had to check on Akasha.” She spat the last words out like a curse. Sydney turned to look at Akasha and cursed in some language that hurt my ears. I clutched my ears, trying to block out the sound. Akasha’s back bowed, her head thrown back as her body was wracked with convulsions. Her breasts were thrown into the light as she bit down on the iron chains across her mouth. Akasha blinked, and her eyes burned with rage. I tried reaching out to her, but got too close to the circle's edge. Burning pain lanced up my arm.     

“Ed,” Sydney called softly. I turned back to look at her. Sydney had her hands on her hips, her legs shoulder-width apart. Her body hummed with intensity. Her eyes sparkled with anger as she watched me. “Ed. Oh, darling, I want your undivided attention. Don’t worry about Akasha.”    

My body responded to that penetrating stare. I could feel my pants tighten as my manhood strained to be free. Sydney grinned, her eyes lingering over my groin. She licked her lips, and my erection throbbed painfully. I was angry with her and wanted to scream and yell at her, but I knew it would not help my case or save Akasha. The thought of having sex with her, here, in this circle of power, was not what I had in mind. What was I doing here, torn between a desire that could consume me and the fear of losing everything I cared about? 

I looked at the circle of runes around me. Maybe I could toss an article of clothing across it, disturb it, and be free of this. I grabbed the bottom edge of my shirt and lifted it over my head. As the shirt blocked my view, I felt a rush of energy across my skin. It felt like a heavy weight pressing against me from all sides. My breath caught in my throat. Once I lifted the shirt free, I saw that Sydney was standing right in front of me. Her naked body was inches away from me. I could feel the heat of her skin so close to mine.     

“I’ll take that,” she said, snatching the shirt from my hands. Without looking, she threw it clear of the circle. I gulped. Sydney closed the gap, pressing her body against mine. I could feel the press of her firm nipples against my body. A shudder ran down my back as my dick throbbed painfully in my pants. She licked her lips as she met my eyes.    

“Don’t move,” she said with a light tap on my chest. Every muscle in my body locked up. I tried to move, but I could not. It felt like the air around me had turned to stone. I followed her with my eyes as she knelt in front of me. She kissed my dick through my pants and laughed. Then she started to unlace my shoes. I could hear her humming tunelessly to herself. The music seemed to float through the air, causing my body to tingle and my cock to throb even harder in my pants.     

“Up,” she said softly. My knee raised of its own accord. I blinked furiously, unable to do anything else. She slipped my shoe off, then my sock. I could hear her stuffing my sock inside my shoe, then tossing it across the room. My eyes found Akasha. She was watching us, tears in her eyes, straining against the chains holding her. Akasha shook her head, trying to tell me something. I had no idea what it was.    

Sydney tapped my knee, and my foot dropped back to the floor. She moved to my other shoe, undid the laces, and repeated the same process. My other shoe went flying across the room with a crash. Sydney laughed again and then started to hum louder. She raised up on her knees and pulled my zipper down. I heard her laugh softly again as she pulled my pants and boxers down to my feet. She gently grasped my foot and knee, lifting it to slide my pants off. I stood helpless while she did. She bundled up my pants and underwear and tossed them clear of the circle.     

Sydney stood slowly, dragging her fingers along my legs as he did. I could feel her soft touch across my ankles, shins, knees, and thighs. She looked up at me as she started to sing a strange song. The words sounded like a combination of Latin and the harsh language she had spoken earlier. Her hands drifted across my groin and wrapped around my throbbing cock. She kept eye contact with me, her eyes widening as she gently stroked my cock.     

“Love me,” she sang softly as one hand slipped around my waist and up my back. My muscles relaxed, and I bent to kiss her. She turned her head at the last moment, her mouth sliding along my jaw and against my neck just beneath my ear. She continued to sing softly. The melody danced across my skin, making my bones ache.     

The press of her body against mine was more than I could bear. I hugged her against me. I kissed her neck and shoulder while my hands slid down to her ass, pulling her against me. I wanted her so badly that there was no room for any other thought. For a moment, my eyes found Akasha watching us. Akasha strained against her chains, shaking her head back and forth. Then, I was lost in the scent of Sydney’s body against mine. The hum of the tune filled my head. That primal need to take her in my arms and own her body.     

Suddenly, Sydney stepped back from me. I blinked furiously, wondering how she had gotten out of my grasp. I started to step forward, but Sydney touched my chest, stopping me. Then she pointed down, and I lowered myself to the ground, lying before her. Sydney stepped over me, straddling my groin. As she continued to sing those strange words, she lowered herself onto me.    

She put one hand on my stomach to brace herself. The other wrapped around my cock. The feel of her hands on my thick meat sent shivers of ecstasy through my body. She winked at me as she sang louder. I could see her arousal glistening on her mound as she lowered herself against my cock. I watched in rapt fascination as she held my cock steady, the tip of it pressing into her mound. The soft, silky wetness of it enveloped my hard, throbbing glans.     

Sydney’s eyes widened as she pressed herself down onto me. Her body was so incredibly tight that it felt like it could not possibly fit inside her little hole. Sydney sang louder; the words reverberated off the walls around us. The music washed through my brain, blotting everything out, but the feel of her tight pussy slowly taking me into her. I gasped and groaned; my body bucked up into her. Sydney’s voice grew louder as she sank onto my cock.     

My eyes flashed open as I hit the back of her. I looked down and saw her groin a few inches off mine. The feel of her insides tightly clenched around my thickness was the most heavenly feeling I had ever experienced. Then she raised herself a hair and sank back down. I felt the tip of my dick thump solidly against her cervix. Sydney’s legs trembled as she started slowly raising herself up and down along my dick. Each lowering was accentuated by the impact of my cock against her cervix. Her eyes bored into mine as she did, still singing her strange song the entire time.    

I felt an intense pressure building inside me as she rode me. My body sang with the need for release. The need to fill her with all that I could give her. I wanted it more desperately than anything I had ever wanted. I started to meet her movements with thrusts of my own. Her song altered, the tempo shifting. The notes matched our increasing speed. I could see an eagerness in her eyes, a hunger that tingled the skin on the back of my neck.    

Something inside me snapped. Some hold Sydney had over me slipped. I felt my body succumbing to whatever magic she had cast over me, and my mind separated from it. I could feel my impending climax like a storm about to break. I realized that if I let that happen, she would own me, consuming not just my body but draining my very soul. It wasn't just about the flesh; Sydney intended to siphon something intrinsically mine that defined my identity. The knowledge that she sought such a deep, irreversible possession spurred a cold realization. Allowing this theft of my soul would spell the end of who I am. 

I knew I could not stop my climax from coming. Maybe I could delay it? If I could make her cum first, perhaps that would save me? I had no idea how to accomplish that. Sydney’s hands were both on my chest now. The press of her fingers into my body was somehow heightening my arousal. I did the only thing I could think of. I started to hum along with her, matching her tone and intonation.    

Sydney paused for a moment, a question in her eyes as she continued to sing. I picked up the rhythm of her song, changing from matching her tones to harmonizing with it. A chant began to form, resonating with an ancient echo: "Ohm-ai, ohm-ai." With each repetition, the air pulsed with a tactile energy, thickening around us. I could feel a shift. Something in what I was doing was changing the energy. It was as if the words were being sung in a time-worn rhythm of a forgotten age. Sydney’s eyes widened in surprise. I caught her words and began repeating them, singing in perfect harmony with her. The strange words flowed from my mouth as if I had always known them. 

As the song grew louder, I slid my arms up along Sydney’s back. Sydney’s eyes closed as she shook her head. I pulled her down against my chest, and her groin pushed as tightly against mine as it could go. Then I rolled her over onto her back. I slid my knees up under her thighs. Sydney tried to continue singing, but her voice cracked, and she lost her rhythm. The power of her song flowed around me and through me. I started to slide my cock in and out of her tight pussy. I could feel her body squeeze around my length as I started moving faster between her legs.    

Tears slipped from Sydney’s eyes, sliding down her cheeks as she gasped. Her breath was ragged. Her chest heaved with each impact of my cock against her insides. I grabbed her thighs and pressed them down against the ground as I raised myself so I could piston into her harder.     

“Fuck,” Sydney gasped. All hints of the song were gone. Now, I was singing it at the top of my lungs as I slammed into her repeatedly. More tears slid from Sydney’s eyes as she arched her back, trying to press herself against each massive impact of my body into hers.     

Sydney yelled as her body clenched. I felt her orgasm slam through her. Her legs kicked against my grasp; her body thrashed beneath me. I pressed hard against her, letting the climax crash over her. I felt something shift inside her and was suddenly able to thrust even deeper.    

Sydney screamed in the throes of her climax. My groin slid against her, with my dick fully sheathed inside her. I felt something tight against the head of my cock. A hole in her cervix? I pulled back and slid into that special spot again. Sydney cried out as I did. Her body was still thrumming with her orgasm. I pulled back and slid into her again, faster. I felt my own climax hitting that point of no return.    

Sydney matched my thrusts. Her eyes were filled with desperation. Sydney’s hands clutched at my back, sliding sharp fingernails down my back to grasp my ass, trying to pull me deeper into her. My thrusts lost their rhythm as my climax exploded over me. I cried out then, the final note of the song as my dick slid into that special place. I felt the tight squeeze along my shaft and then felt myself emptying into her. She came again at that moment, her body bucking against mine. I felt the hot wash of her fluids splashing against the base of my cock.    

Sydney cried out again, tears glistening on her face. Our bodies thrummed. Our muscles trembled with the power of our orgasms. The ring of runes around us glowed briefly, then faded away. They disappeared into the ground as if they had never been. The candles guttered and dimmed but remained burning.     

“What have you done to me?” Sydney gasped between panting breaths. “How did you break the spell?”    

I shrugged. Sydney lay on the ground panting. Her beautiful breasts heaved with each breath. I leaned down and ran my tongue across one nipple and the runes across her chest. I suckled her nipple, pulling it into my mouth. Sydney moaned softly in pleasure. Her fingers slipped into my hair. I lifted off her and met her eyes.    

“I missed you,” she whispered, tears in her eyes, “You’ve broken me again. I am yours. Now and forever. Breed me. Eat me. Feed from me. Do whatever you are going to do. I will not stop you.”    

I looked into her beautiful eyes and saw she had lost whatever battle she had been fighting. There was a depth of sorrow and longing in those eyes that I could not understand. Something about what Sydney said sent a thrill down my spine. My cock twitched inside her. Sydney’s eyes closed as she felt it deep inside her body. She moaned softly in pleasure.    

“Yes,” she said as she opened her eyes and met my gaze. “That is where you are meant to be.”    

I looked at her questioningly. “What do you mean?”    

Sydney met my gaze, and fresh tears started to leak from her eyes. I sat back on my heels and pulled her up against me, cradling her body against mine. She wrapped her arms around me, resting her head on my chest as she cried.    

“You really don’t remember, do you?”    

I shook my head. I heard the rattling of chains near us. I looked over at Akasha. Sydney turned and looked at her, too.     

“I’m sorry. I had to. I’m so sorry.” Sydney planted her feet and raised herself out of my lap. My cock slid from inside her. She gasped as fluids and thicker things dropped from between her legs to splatter across my lap. My cock was still large, though not as hard as it had been. Sydney stood for a moment, looking down at me longingly. Her body shuddered, her legs trembling.     

Sydney took a step back and walked over to the other circle. She dragged her foot across the line of it, knocking over a candle in the process. Akasha glared at Sydney, her eyes full of rage. Sydney cowered slightly as she went around behind Akasha. I heard chains rattling as they dropped from around Akasha’s body. Sydney scrambled backwards as Akasha stood.     

She slipped and fell to the ground, staring as Akasha glared down at her. I rose to my feet and moved between them as Akasha began stalking towards Sydney. Akasha blinked slowly as she looked at me. I could see her rage. There was murder in her eyes, but she paused.     

“You would defend her?” Akasha asked, her voice hoarse and raw. “After what she did to me? You would stand in my way?”    

I met that fiery gaze and nodded. “Yes.”    

I knew Akasha could throw me out of her way if she wanted. I did not want to fight her. I would lose. I knew this. It was suicide, but I couldn’t help myself. I did not want to see Sydney hurt. I didn’t know how I knew it, but I knew Sydney had been through something traumatic. She was no longer a threat. I did not know how I knew that, but it beat through my core. I needed to protect her. She was my ward.     

Akasha took a step back, frowning. She opened her mouth, then closed it.    

“Fine.”    

Akasha turned and walked across the room. She flicked her wrist, and lights came on around the room. I felt the breath of her magic as it flowed outwards, filling the room with warmth. I heard Sydney shift behind me. I turned and offered her a hand.    

“Why?” She asked softly as I pulled her to her feet. “I deserve her wrath. Her fury. I deserve death.”    

I shook my head. “No. You do not.”    

“But you don’t know what I’ve done?!”    

“I don’t care.”    

“You will.” Sydney wrapped her arms around me and buried her head in my chest. I could feel fresh tears coming down her face against my skin. “Oh, Edgar. After I tell you all that happened, you may change your mind. I deserve your wrath and hatred. When the time comes, will you deal the final blow? Will you kill me?”    

I looked down into her sincere face. Her tear-filled eyes were full of love and desperation. I kissed her on the nose and nodded. I did not know what else to do. I heard Akasha’s soft, padding feet as she approached us. She had thrown a robe around her body, tied at the waist. Her large breasts pressed against the material. She handed two robes to me. Sydney backed away from me as I gave one to her. She wrapped it around herself, tying it off. I put on the last one.    

Akasha looked at Sydney, her eyes still sparkling with anger. “You will tell us, girl, why you did this.”    

Sydney nodded as she met Akasha’s eyes. “As you wish.”