My Love

Chapter 28

Here we go again~

"In which direction are we heading?" Argis asked whilst kneeling down to warm his hands by the fire he had masterfully built.

"South and then East of Windhelm," Eve replied, straightening out a bedroll inside the tent that Argis had, also, masterfully built. After laying out another she crouched at the hood of the tent and peeked outside, "You coming to bed?"

Argis flashed a grin in her direction and heat spread to her cheeks through to her stomach. She grinned back, licking her lips and watched as he got to his feet and prowled to her. He moved to her, hands reaching out before she could playfully twist away. He slanted his lips over hers, a hunger rising up to meet his offer. She opened her mouth to him and he swept his tongue inside. The familiar feeling of weak knees and a fever erupted inside her and she smiled through his kiss. He held her up, pressing his body tightly against hers.

One hand wrapped around his waist, the other tangling in the mane of hair at the back of his neck. His beard scratched her chin and her lips; she muffled her pleasure of the familiar sensations of his warmth igniting her, and the taste of him a delight. His smell of musk and leather made her wet. Eve moaned her arousal into his mouth and he let out a chuckle that reverberated through her. He leaned backwards, hooking his arms underneath her thighs and lifting her up until her legs wrapped around him.

"I've definitely missed this," He said in a low voice, eyes hooded, a mask of desire written into the quirk of his lips and the slight flush of his cheeks, "Gods you feel great pressed up against me." Eve rubbed her nose against his, gave him a grin and replied;

"You done talking?"

"So demanding," He grinned, amber eyes almost liquid fire. Eve puckered her lips playfully and crushed them against his.

X

Eve nuzzled deeper into the cushion of the bedroll, waves of heat swarmed over her making her breathless. She shuffled onto her back, arm swinging over her head as she opened her eyes to the darkness.

A dark form covered the front of the tent, bulky in frame and silhouetted by the lantern that was placed in the corner away from their previous writhing bodies. She rolled to her side, turning so that her feet were where her head had just been. Eve nudged the form with a finger; lying on her back as she tried to catch his expression.

Argis swept a hand through his tangled mane and then scratched his chin, ending it all with a sigh. Eve wasn't surprised that he was struggling to sleep, Divines knew how many nightmares she had and it was only natural that Argis had his fair share. Still, she didn't like waking up in the middle of the night without him pressed against her, holding her in such a way that made falling back to sleep safe and desirable. After everything that day, and the days before it made sense for both of them to not even deserve a decent night's sleep, after all blood had been spilt and although Eve was the cold-blooded type she suffered from guilt somewhere in her subconscious.

"We'll have to leave camp soon," She said quietly, talking almost as though he wasn't really there. Argis was inside his own head, working things out and Gods knew that Eve didn't get him no matter how much she tried. But she'd leave him to it if he asked her, she'd give him the space and time he needed.

Eve noticed his silhouette nod once and then twice. He scratched at his beard again, a movement associated with his stress, which again she wasn't surprised with. He had to be worried about what was in stall for their future, whether it was going to be just his alone or the miracle of both of them surviving.

She gave his arm a quick nudge and started to shuffle back towards the head of the bedroll, wanting to catch a few more hours of shut eye before more walking.

"You're a survivor Eve," He told her, snatching up an arm and holding her still. He swept away the tangled hair off her face and pressed both hands to her cheeks. He looked at her with amber eyes that were filled with warmth and a blazing fire that made her stomach whoosh.

She didn't quite comprehend what on Nirn was going through that man's mind but he had thought of her and that was enough to make her sweet.

"I don't feel like one," Heat spread up through her toes and body, up her neck and heating her cheeks. She looked away only to look back a second later and the intensity grew. Her toes curled at the thoughts of earlier, how she had rode him to oblivion and back and loved every minute.

"You are and I'm proud of you." Four simple words. Four words she hadn't heard muttered before in her entire twenty-six years of living. Nobody had been proud of her, but yet Argis was and she didn't understand why because she wasn't a survivor, she was a fighter, a warrior just like him and she didn't get why anyone would be proud of that. She was a killer, a murderer who killed for revenge and for greed. There was nothing remotely just in the creature that she was slowly becoming.

"You're a survivor too then, you kept me alive," She paused, "You never stopped loving me through it all and that itself is a feat."

She barely registered the movements of his hands, moving to her neck and to hair then to her waist where he squeezed her tightly against him. Eve's eyes darted to his mouth; she licked her lips and caught his gaze again.

"I like dangerous women," He growled, crushing his lips to hers and she was putty in his hands, "And my woman is a very dangerous woman."

"My man is lethal," She crooned, breaking the kiss and pressing her hands to his chest and pushing him down. He gave her a languorous grin, snatching up her wrists and holding them pinned to his chest as she settled on top of him.

Dark hair flowed across her shoulders, over her eyes and ended in a pool of tangles at his neck as she leaned in closer. She brushed her lips along his, watching him watch her and there was something wonderful in that. She ground her hips into his and that languid smile returned in full force, his hips bucked and he gripped her waist, holding her to him.

"You're just so damn good at everything," He groaned, rolling his hips into hers, pressing his hardening erection against her. A shot of excitement shot through Eve and she slid her hand to his stomach and ran her fingers against the coarse hair above the band of his trousers, "Good at getting into trouble, good at making my life difficult, good at making me come like the world's gonna end," He groaned again as Eve took control and traced her nails over his stomach and down his sides.

"There's only one thing there that's actually good," She smirked, leaning in and giving him a quick kiss.

"Aye, and I'll never be bored of any of it," He said, sitting up and holding both of her hands behind her back, "I want everything with Boethiah to end but I don't want to go back and settle for a life with no adventure. I want to travel, I want to see more. I want to get you out of trouble; I want to be that man that makes your world brighter."

His voice was a low murmur, lips trailing up her neck and nose grazing against her jaw. Eve held her breath, closing her eyes and giving her neck to him. His hand slid from her waist, up her back and grabbed a fist full of hair, tilting her head further back and revealing every inch of pearl skin. She let his words permeate, the thought of Argis wanting to go on more adventures with her sent thrills circuiting through her system. Stalking through caverns together, hunting deer, finding those incredibly beautiful places hidden up in the mountains; she wanted that too.

"I want all of this again and again," He almost growled, voice so thick and coarse that it was animalistic, "You illuminate Eve, you illuminate my world and no matter how much trouble you get into, or however much chaos you bring. You make everything good better." He nipped at her neck and she caught her breath, cold through her teeth.

Eve held her eyes tightly shut, feeling every inch of him, seeing the burning expression of eyes in the darkness. She felt his lips against her skin, delicate and barely there but she felt it, and felt it right to her core. An eruption of gooseflesh scattered from her thighs to her wrists, every inch electrified and waiting, desperate for his next caress and gentle touch.

"My dangerous woman has me all tied up," He sighed, the edge of his nose caressing the side of her neck. His breath was searing against her delicate flesh at the nape of her neck and she tilted her head to him, pulling against the fist knotted in her hair.

"It's you who's got me all tied up," Eve said quietly, pulling a bit more until he released his leash, if only a little. She rested her forehead against his, "You've tamed the Dragonborn handsome."

She felt the rumble of his chuckle, felt the bristles of his beard as he tilted his head and captured her mouth with a kiss.

"No I haven't," His lips moved against hers, tickling in a way that made her smile, "I couldn't stop you from picking up those potions." Eve shot up, straight back and ignored the slice of pain she felt in her scalp.

"What?" Eve breathed, incredulous. She'd been a genius at hiding the satchel of potions from him, the only way he could have possibly have known she'd taken them was if he actually saw her taking them from the Mage's corpse.

"You think I wouldn't know?" His eyebrows knotted in a way she didn't like, but he still held her close. She leaned back further, hips presser deeper into his and she could feel how hard he was still, "Divines Eve, I know you better than anyone. You wouldn't give up something like that." He laughed it off but something dark settled in her gut. Wouldn't give up something like that? What was that honestly supposed to mean? Eve narrowed her eyes and wriggled her hair out of his grasp.

"What do you even mean by that?" She asked, jostling out of his lap and landing at the foot of the bedroll beside him.

"You couldn't help yourself, I get that. Your curiosity is insatiable Eve, understandable with what the Mage was saying but he was lying."

"How do you know he was lying?" She tugged her hair into a ponytail and glared at him.

"Because he lied before, don't you think that's enough reason to never believe him?" It was logical, and as always he was the rational one. The Mage most likely told her all of that crap about Boethiah's power being within the potions just to get her to drink it, and in return she'd become some sort of willing servant to the Dark Mistress again. But... there was something realistic about his testament. There was something serious, something believable about it all.

Eve looked away whilst biting the insides of her bottom lip. Would Argis have had the restraint to just leave the potions behind? Could he really have done that? She couldn't believe he'd just up and turn his back on that amount of power. Greed was part of their nature, unbidden and dark.

"It's better we have them than let the Mage's College have them don't you think?" She snapped. If what the Mage said was true then her point stood true, she didn't have to drink it because she'd deal with Boethiah as a mortal but Divines if the potions were what the Mage said they were then she'd have the power equivalent to a Daedra. She'd be more powerful than she'd ever dreamed of. Why would she even let someone else have the chance of such power? That didn't make sense at all, and no matter what judgment Argis made of her, she'd stand true to that point.

"You don't think the Mage's could be trusted?" She glared at him through the darkness, shadows cast on his handsome face. She missed his warmth but she didn't want to be tucked up in his arms.

"Of course not!" She growled, "Haven't you noticed how weird they are? They can't be trusted with whatever those potions are."

"And you can?" Eve swallowed hard, biting the corners of her bottom lip. She shook her head, throwing her arms in the air and rolling her eyes. Did he seriously think that she couldn't be trusted? Did he honestly believe that she'd turn into some mutant evil thing if she actually had that amount of power within her? "Ah, I'm sor-."

"You think I can't be trusted with a few potions?" She stared down at her socked toes and curled them into the soft bedroll. Argis stayed silent and it was enough of an answer. Eve scrunched up her nose up, shuffled sideways and hopped out of the tent into the blistering cold.

She paced towards the cool embers of the campfire, catching toes on little stones and not giving a damn. Her chest ached, more than ached. It hurt. There was fire in her chest and she couldn't figure out what would extinguish it. He didn't trust her. His silence told her that. He'd been following her for years and only to find that out now? Madness. Utter fucking madness. She stamped her foot down letting out a cry of pain as hardened flesh met a sharp pointed stone.

Eve hopped towards a rock, plopping down on it and then massaging her foot. Had she really given Argis that much reason to not trust her? She understood that he probably still had his misgivings about her lying, but she had had to lie to him. She was frightened what the truth held. And keeping the secret about him being sacrifice...it was all for his benefit. Dammit, she was just trying to protect him, why didn't he trust her to not fuck everything up again? The Dragonborn, prodded her foot, curling and uncurling her toes until she saw the flaps of the tent open out of the corner of her eye.

"I'm sorry Eve," She heard him say, "I trust you explicitly." The Dragonborn replied with a small laugh. His actions and his lack of supportive words deemed differently.

"Don't come out here and give me your bullshit Argis, you don't trust me with those potions because you know how tempted I am to drown my sorrows with them," She started after a long silence, "I just want to end this as quickly as I can for your sake not just my own. I want this to be so fucking over so that we can move past this and get on with our lives."

Eve slid off the rock and moved towards him, careful with her footing, "You know me, and you know me better than anyone else."

"Aye," She was close to him now, head barely reaching his shoulders. Her gaze slid to his, his face painted in shadows.

"I'm going to make you believe in me-"

"-Eve you know I do," He interrupted, his hands on her shoulders, holding her there.

"Don't," She retorted, "You listen to me you big oaf; this is going to end. I'm going to beat Boethiah, and you're going to believe that I won't do anything stupid."

"Aye."

The sincerity of his words failed to penetrate the shadow that had grown between them. He didn't believe her, no matter how many times he told her that he did. She understood why, he barely had enough reason to trust her after all that she had done. Believing her was something else but she'd make damn sure that she kept her word this time that she wouldn't do anything reckless. That she'd keep them both safe, save them both. After all, all of this mess was because of her, and she was the only one who could possibly fix it.

X

Argis was snoring quietly next to her, the blanket thrown loosely around his waist revealing the luxury of his bare chest to the open air. Eve stared blankly up at the canopy, sleep evading her. She'd always struggled with sleepless nights and she wasn't surprised to find herself in this predicament. Even Argis' calm breathing wasn't enough to dull that vicious emptiness that was slithering like a beast in her chest.

She tossed and turned, trying to find that comfortable position which might enable sleep. Rocks and pebbles which shouldn't have bothered her bothered her and her exhaustion quickly turned to annoyance. She shot up, throwing the blankets over in Argis' direction and pulled on a thick woollen jumper and her boots.

High-tailing it out of the tent she was greeted with the darkness of night. The fire was dead and the moon was mysteriously hidden behind a thick set of clouds. It cast a sickeningly eerie form, one that vaguely lit up three feet in front of her. Eve looked upwards, the cool night air curing all those aches in her body. If only it was enough to cure all of the aches unreachable in the moonlight. Stars glistened incandescently between thick tufts of dark grey clouds; the darkness of the sky between such stars was an abyss.

The sight of them reminded her of her family, of the stories that her father used to tell when she had been younger. Tales of the Companions were written in the tiny grossly luminescent dots, stories of wonder, of hope and success. She'd believed once that it was possible to have a life like that, to win at everything that you did, and to actually be a hero. Such illusions had cursed her from the moment she'd left the nest and abandoned all hope of having a normal life. But she had been a hero once. She had saved Skyrim from the black winged beast and stopped the end of the world. She'd thought maybe she'd be revered from the rest of her days, bathe in riches and be this famous Nord where everyone knew her face. That never happened, her story lived on sure but nobody recognised her face anymore. Nobody really knew who she was and maybe that was for the best. Maybe deep down she couldn't handle that kind of fame.

Eve walked slowly towards patches of moonlight, following the trail towards the wooded area that they had camped by several metres away. She found a comfortable spot at the base of the tree and sat down, resting back against the hard bark. The moonlight lit up the area around her, a milky sick glow. It was comforting at least, in some strange way.

The story of how she defeated Boethiah was a tale that no-one except those involved were to hear. It wasn't as if she would be helping Nirn at all, she knew that it was impossible to destroy the Daedric Prince completely, but she'd do her best to banish the twisted being to Oblivion until she'd lived her days and the witch couldn't bother her no more. A feeling of pain sliced through her. There would be a day when she wouldn't have to be fearful to walk around, where she didn't have to constantly look over her shoulder and watch her back. There would certainly be a day where she could forget that anything with Boethiah happened because she'd be free, free from it all. And it was such a painful feeling because it was hope and that kind of hope was obliterating.

Eve didn't know what was going to happen in the days to come. They were close to Boethiah's sanctuary and the end was in her grasp but she was fearful. They didn't have any sort of plan and that terrified her. It would be a complete bloodbath and she hoped that Argis was ready for that. She, of course, knew the sort of tactics that the cultists used and she knew that it wouldn't be a fair fight. Divines it was two against however many still lingered there. It was going to be a deathtrap for certain and they were walking straight into it. Boethiah wanted this, she'd planned it all along, everything that had happened was her doing like the mad Mage had said; Divines those potions had seemed the only reasonable and sane option for survival.

Argis had wrapped them up and stored them in the depths of one of the bags, and she didn't dare check if they were still intact. Eve didn't want to give Argis anymore reason to not trust her word. After all of this they still needed to have some basis on which to continue their relationship. Hell, not that long ago they had spoken about marriage and Divines she had even proposed! Eve felt her face heat and she folded herself, cheeks pressed against her knees as she stared out towards the iridescent shrubbery.

Her chest ached at the thought of losing him, losing him not to Boethiah but because of their disagreements and after everything that was happening right now. She didn't want him to leave after this was finished, she'd given herself to him, she was an open book, completely unprotected against his headstrong attitude. She couldn't bear the thought of Argis not being part of her life anymore, to simply cease existing from it. It was such a terrifying thought.

The pain of losing Bran had been enough to knock her down, but losing Argis would be that final straw that might utterly break her. If she didn't believe in Mara's fate she certainly did now. In some inconceivable way they were bound together, souls intertwined and betwixt all of this madness. Mara had given her something to live for again and she wanted to live for it, to live with him. No matter the consequences of what was to come she wasn't going to see things through on bad terms with him.

Eve listened to the quiet rustle of leaves as the wind caught the branches of the trees above her. She was going to make Boethiah burn for what she had done to her. After all of her suffering after Bran's death and the emotional torment the Daedric Prince had inflicted she would see Boethiah's Sanctum tainted and destroyed, she'd bless it with the Nine and burn it to the ground. Eve was going to see the statue depicting the Daedra's presence reduced to rubble. She was going to see that the Cultists would be reduced to ashen bones, with nothing left for Boethiah to call upon from Oblivion.

x

"It's so good to see you Evie," He stormed through their house, arms enveloping her, crushing her against his warmth in an embrace that was utterly too tight.

She buried her face into his neck, the scent of him filling her senses. Her arms moved around him, claiming him with the same ferocious need. He was home. The thought ran circles in her mind, he'd been gone weeks this time and she had missed him.

"Bran-" She barely got the words out before he reared back then claimed her mouth in a hard kiss. His lips crushed hers, one hand moving into her hair whilst the other pulled her further into him at the waist. She returned his urgency, glorified in his hunger for her.

The back of the knees struck the wooden table leg, the corner jabbing into her lower back. He pulled back and she watched his lips curl into a smile she had grown infinitely fond of. She noted the shadow of hair growing over his neck and upon his cheeks and she remarked how manly he looked. He grinned again, pushing his hands into her hair by the side of her head, keeping them there before kissing her again. His fingers curled into her dark strands, pulling her head back gently until she allowed him better access to her mouth and her throat.

"I missed you darling," She whispered between kisses and he gave her that smile which made her chest tight, "You keep smiling and I'll have to ride you now." The wicked playfulness in his dark eyes heated and a current of pleasure rippled through her.

He opened his mouth to speak before he stopped, moved backwards and adjusted himself.

"Wait there," He told her as he moved away, edging towards the front door. She pouted, missing his warmth, the heat of the moment dulling her senses. She should have known really what was going to happen and she cursed herself for never realising.

She watched his body move out into the night, a minute gone and returned, closing the door behind him and stalking once more, towards her.

"Were you followed?" He asked, all hints of sensuality gone from his voice. Her eyebrows rose and she looked at him, confused.

"I've been in the house for days whilst you've been gone, I haven't been followed," She answered, slipping off the edge of the table and landing nimbly on her feet.

"Then-" He stopped himself, sighing.

"They haven't found me," She said quietly, "I'm too far out of their scope, we've crossed the border now, we'll be safe," She assured him, planting her hands gingerly on his chest. He reached up; seizing them and giving each knuckle a little kiss.

"Indeed Evie," He smiled but the smile never reached his eyes, she always remembered the worry he had been so bad at hiding, "Nothing's gonna happen whilst I'm here with you," He pulled her closer, "This is our new beginning, a chance to start again." She grinned, reaching up and pulling his head down so she could kiss him.