Chapter 7: The Heat of the Moment
The morning after was quiet, thick with a strange, unspoken understanding. Elara moved around her cottage with a soft hum, brewing a tea that smelled of chamomile and damp earth. Malachar remained on the bed, watching the dust motes dance in the sunbeam slicing through the window. His body felt heavy, satiated in a way that went beyond the physical. The gnawing void he’d carried since his summoning was, for now, filled. It left him feeling disoriented, almost peaceful—a state so foreign it was more unsettling than any torment.
He’d just pulled on a simple pair of dark linen trousers Elara had conjured for him when the air in the cottage changed.
It wasn’t a sound at first. It was a pressure, a thickening of the ambient magic that made the hairs on his arms stand up. Elara felt it too. She set her clay cup down with a sharp clink, her head tilting like a hound catching a scent. “Company,” she murmured, not with alarm, but curiosity.
A moment later, a firm knock rattled the front door.
Elara padded over and pulled it open. On her threshold stood the green-robed warlock from the Council, Dmitri, his expression one of acute embarrassment. And beside him, practically vibrating with tension, was Kaelen.
The grey incubus was a study in unraveling control. His silver skin gleamed with a fine sheen of sweat. The simple loincloth he wore did nothing to hide the thick, straining erection beneath it, the tip visibly wet and dark against the fabric. His chest heaved with ragged breaths, and his hands clenched and unclenched at his sides. His silver eyes, usually so dispassionate, were wholly consumed by a swirling, luminescent grey light—the rune-glow of an incubus in the full, desperate throes of his heat. The scent that rolled off him was overpowering: fertile musk, sweet pheromones, and pure, undiluted need.
Dmitri cleared his throat, unable to meet Elara’s eyes fully. “Witch Mosswood. My profound apologies for this… unscheduled visit. Kaelen’s cycle has begun unexpectedly. He is… not himself