Take Flight - 3. Chapter 3

“Fuck!” His leg barely moved as Birch tried to jerk away from Sayer.

“Careful!”

His stomach heaved. Birch swallowed desperately but the pain was too much. Bile rose, and he vomited sideways. His eyes slammed shut when his stomach rebelled against his control; seeing it was always worse.

This is not what he wanted to do when he saw Sayer again. Humiliation rivaled the taste in his mouth for bitterness. Now he’d ruined the bed and made a disgusting mess.

Birch flopped onto his back. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. His heart was thumping hard, and he could feel it through his whole body. He was afraid to move in case he got sick again.

“It’s okay.”

“How can you say that?” Birch opened his eyes. “The bed is a me—”

There was nothing there. The acrid taste in his mouth and the pain in his chest and stomach proved he’d just thrown up, but the mess he expected wasn’t there. Sayer was sitting on the edge of the bed, his arms extended.

A breeze swept through the room and, in a bizarre and sickening sight, Birch watched as the vomit flew across the room and out a door.

“There, all gone.”

“That was surreal.” Birch stared at Sayer.

“I told you I am fae. Some of the stories you used to read are true, some aren’t. We’ll have plenty of time to talk about that later, Birch. I’m sorry if you feel like I’m forcing you into this, but I can’t have you hurt. Please let me help you.”

Birch shook his head, then moaned at the pain lancing through his temples. “Take me to a hospital. People break legs all the time. They’ll put me in a cast and give me some meds.” He looked around suddenly. The pain must be making him stupid. “Where are we?”

Sayer took a deep breath. “I brought you to my home. This is not the Earth you know.”

“This is not the Earth I know,” Birch repeated. “Seriously?” The nausea and pain were not going away, if anything they were growing, and Birch was damn tired of Sayer’s mysterious crap.

“What do I have to do to get you to take me home?” He rubbed his palm against his forehead, desperate for everything to go away.

Sayer sighed. “We have to exchange souls. That’s not why I want you to do this, though. Damn it, Birch, I love you! I always have!”

“You have a fine fucking way of showing it, disappearing like that,” Birch snapped. “I’ve been alone, Sayer.”

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “If there had been any other way ….”

His voice trailed off under Birch’s stare. The taller man was still strong but his face had an angularity he’d never seen before. Everything about him was sharper, more vivid. Birch could have chalked that up to growing up, but not the wings. No … the wings he could not explain.

Even that changed face couldn’t hide the pain Sayer was in too, even if it wasn’t physical. His hands shook, until he noticed Birch looking at them, and then he clenched them into fists and tucked them against his thighs.

“Please, Birch. You are my beloved. We belong together. Everyone thinks I’m crazy, for letting you grow up in the human Earth, for leaving you at college alone … for believing you are my beloved in the first place. It is unheard of for a ruler of the fae to share souls with a human.

“But I don’t care,” Sayer said fiercely. He slid down to his knees beside the bed, reaching for Birch’s hand. “I am crazy in love with you. I will spend all our long life together making this up to you. Just … say you love me too.”

Sayer was sincere. Birch knew that. There was a hole inside that could only be filled by this man and four years of trying to fill it with someone or something else had proved it. He was tired of hurting.

“If we do this … If,” Birch said, “I do this soul exchange, what does that mean for me as a human?”

“What do you mean?” Sayer’s hand tightened on his.

“Will I become fae?” He had no real idea what Sayer really was yet either and that was scary too.

“No. To be honest, though, I’m not sure of what exactly happens. It has been a long time since someone who exchanged souls with a human found them as an adult. Usually they are brought over as infants; living here brings its own changes.”

“So you don’t really know?” Birch slumped against the soft pillows under his head.

“I’m sorry,” Sayer said. “But Haverlseen cannot help you until we do this. Please, Birch.”

***

Sayer waited. His beloved was pale, two spots of color high on his cheeks the only sign left of Birch’s temper. Sayer rubbed his thumb over the rough hand he held cradled in his.

“I’ll do anything,” he said.

“Do I have to stay here?”

Sayer’s heart froze. “You want to leave me? Even if we do the exchange?” Sayer’s voice shook.

Birch opened his eyes. “No, I’m not saying that, but I have a job back home and it’s something I love. I worked hard for my degree. You lived in the human Earth before,” he paused, giving his head a little shake and then winced, “so why can’t we go back?”

“It’s not that simple. That is why I wasn’t there, part of the reason anyway, when you went to college. We lost my parents and I am now the ruler of the fae. I cannot just leave.”

“So I’ll be stuck here?”

Sayer took a deep breath. “We could work out a compromise.”

“You’d do that for me?”

“I’d do anything for you.”

Birch’s mouth stretched into a small smirk. “That’s right, you’re crazy in love with me.”

Sayer groaned. “I knew that was going to come back to bite me in the ass.”

~~~<>~~~

Haverlseen muttered to himself as he slid glowing hands over Birch’s prone body. “If you had him here he would not have been hurt like this, my lord.”

Would everyone feel the need to remind him of that? “Heal him without the lecture.”

“I cannot.” Haverlseen straightened. The fae’s side braids glimmered in the light. He brushed them back. “He must awaken and consent to the treatment.”

Sayer shook his head. “No. He will be in pain and scared. Heal him now.”

“His aura—”

Sayer took a step forward. His eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared. “He is a human, and as such, you can heal him with your magic. He is mine, and I will have him well. Nothing else matters.”

The healer bowed, staring at the floor. The air whipped his hair around him. “He is yours, my lord. His aura is already too imbued with our magic for me to heal him without his conscious consent.”

Impossible. Sayer staggered. “But … he didn’t ….” It wasn’t possible. Unless? Sayer leaned over his beloved’s body. He didn’t wear a necklace or any other jewelry Sayer could see. The only part of his body hidden from their eyes was under his tight underwear.

Haverlseen turned away when Sayer’s hands went to Birch’s hips. The fae was a healer but no one viewed his beloved unclothed but him. White curls much tighter than the ones on his beloved’s head surrounded his limp cock. It rested over his tight balls, making Sayer yearn to caress the smooth flesh until it rose firm until the small ring registered.

A gold cage surrounded a small rock disc that glittered hung from the ring. It was the first gift he gave his beloved. Had he pierced his cock? Sayer’s fingers trembled as he reached for Birch’s cock. No, there were no holes; instead the ring was attached to something that went inside the slit in his beloved’s cock.

Sayer blinked rapidly, not sure what he was seeing.

“My lord?”

He tugged Birch’s underwear back up.

“He is … marked as mine.” The stone wasn’t his amulet, but he’d been young when he’d begun the courting cycle. He’d whispered of his feelings and imbued the rock with the love he felt for his beloved before he’d given his first gift.

Had he imparted part of his soul to the stone? In accepting it, had Birch given up part of his? Had the claiming started so long ago?

If Birch already possessed a part of him, what had their separation done to him? What pain had he felt, being so far apart, the bond incomplete?

Had that been why he’d always looked so wan after the summer?

Birch would be in pain, and he might not understand, but they had to finish the exchange.

“I need Croll.”

Haverlseen rushed over to the doors. They swept open. Croll stood there, the box still in his hand.

“Was I the only one who didn’t notice his aura?”

Croll shrugged, a smirk stretching his plump lips. “I knew you’d figure it out, and having your amulet in the room might have confused the healer. I have guarded it for you, and even this short of a time, has been an honor.” His smirk had faded to a genuine smile. “Your bond will be very strong.”

He entered Sayer’s room when beckoned and carefully handed over the small gold box. “You still need to learn how to tie a damn bow.”

Sayer let a sharp gust of wind push his friend out of the room and slam shut the doors. Haverlseen fidgeted. “My lord, I think I should step out.”

“You may use my grotto.”

Once he left there was nothing to distract Sayer from Birch. Gingerly he sat down on the bed next to his beloved.

***

The voice calling his name was as familiar to him as his own. He’d heard it so many times in his dreams, calling to him before the gorgeous man would appear in his dreams. Whatever he lay on was fluffy as a cloud; so he must be in a dream.

Pain radiated through his body when he moved. It was worse than ever before, but it always hurt in his dreams, like he was broken.

If Birch didn’t open his eyes he’d miss seeing him. His eyelids were heavy but he forced them up. A blurry face met him at first, sharper than normal, the hair longer.

“Birch.” Sayer’s fingers trailed white hot paths down his cheek. What had happened to his ears …?

The memory slammed into him.

“Sayer,” he gasped. He tried to move away and the pain in his leg hit him. The room swam as he fought down the urge to vomit, swallowing convulsively.

“Shh, beloved. I’m sorry; I wished to have you healed before you woke but Haverlseen cannot help you yet.”

He’d never hurt this bad before. “Why not?” Birch asked.

Something tickled his stomach just above the waistband of his underwear. Sayer was looking down. “You wear interesting adornments.”

What? Birch didn’t wear jewelry, except ….

“Oh,” he said weakly. His whole body felt hot. His penis plug. The slim metal tube hollowed inside so he didn’t have to take it out but for the occasional cleaning. He’d had the first stone he’d received added to the plug. It made him feel good.

He never imagined anyone else would see it.

“The stone inside is the first I gave you. I think, in my youth and haste, I might have started a process between us I never intended to begin until you were old enough. We have exchanged parts of our souls, but it isn’t enough. Nothing less than the full half of my soul that belongs to you will be enough to allow Haverlseen heal you.

“This limbo we’ve been in … it is my fault. I’m sorry for the pain you suffered.”

Birch gawked at him. “Exchanged souls? Are you serious?”

“We have no choice now.”

No fucking way. “Excuse me? No choice? Fuck you! You can’t make me do anything!”