Page 27 of Measure of the Stars

The library was like a sundial, casting a long shadow over the island as Wes rounded the final bend.Gargoyles in the shape of wyverns perched over the door, but whatever ominous threat the door posed was ruined by the vegetable garden directly next to it.

Inside, the library was shaped like a bizarre lighthouse, with a winding staircase hugging the walls and narrow landings and bookshelves stretching up to the high ceiling.Librarians scaled the walls without the stairs, using a series of ropes, pulleys, and thin ladders to navigate the shelves.Wes had been there a few times, but it still alarmed him how casually the librarians navigated the shelves.

The librarian who found a book for him read the usual list of terrifying things that would happen if Wes tried tampering with the spell that would whirl it back to the library in three weeks, including “snails” and “sending the wyvern after you.”She ended the speech by stamping a page at the back of the book, which glowed faintly as she handed it over.

“What if I need more time?”Wes asked.He’d finished his other books on time before, but he wasn’t certain how long Delauney needed.“I might have trouble with my letters, you see.”

The librarian’s stern expression softened somewhat.“Oh,” she said, waving a hand toward the book.“Just wait until the book starts disappearing, then shout ‘extension’ until it solidifies again.That’ll give you another week.”

Wes returned the book to their room at the inn, but Delauney must have still been out searching for supplies.Wes set the book gently on the desk, wary of witch-librarians riding over on wyverns to chide him for treating it carelessly, and returned to the sunlit streets.

It was easy enough to find Vee and the other sailors from her coterie.They were playing cards with a group of scantily-clad men with long, colorful hair and dark eyes.

“This is Wes,” Jim said, when Wes pushed between Vee and one of the strangers to examine the bets.“He’s about as shameless as you are.”

One of the men smiled brightly at Wes.There was something feral and sharp there, an edge that stirred Wes’ cock and made him shift uncomfortably.

“I’m Leland,” the man said.He nodded to his two companions.“They’re Coran, and he’s Marlow.”

“They say that they’re sirens,” Vee said, rolling her eyes.“But I don’t see any sunken ships around here, so they can’t be very effective ones.”

“We aren’t in the business of sinking ships,” Coran said.They looked Wes up and down.“We have other conquests to consider.”

Wes met his gaze for only a breath before looking away.The three of them had a dominance that seemed woven into every move they made.Marlow gestured quickly with both hands, pinching his fingers together and pulling back as though pretending to tug a string.

“Marlow says that you’ll look pretty on your knees for us,” Leland said.He lay a hand on Wes’ thigh, pushing him down so that he was no longer crouching between him and Vee.He slid his hand up Wes’ leg, fingers curling around the hem of his trousers.Wes’ cock jumped, desperate even after his exhausting stint at the library the day before.

“No one doesanythinguntil I win back what Vee stole from me,” a sailor named Ginnie said, glaring at Wes and the so-called sirens.Leland only smiled.

The sirens didn’t seem entirely interested in the game after that.They kept eyeing Wes, finding excuses to touch him or smile at him.Leland kept his fingers hooked around his trouser hem, as though quietly staking a claim.When Ginnie finally accepted defeat and Vee suggested they retire to a public eating house, Leland gently held Wes down.

“We might have a walk with your pretty submissive friend,” Leland said.“If he’s interested.”

Wes bit his cheek.After a day spent trying to ignore thoughts of Delauney’s mouth and enormous cock, he could use a proper distraction.

Vee laughed.“Gods help you, Wes.Come back in one piece.”

Wes gasped as Marlow crouched over him right there in the street, his long, curly hair falling like a multicolored curtain over his face.He ran his hands up Wes’ chest, unlacing his shirtfront, and bent to catch his mouth in a teasing kiss.When he pulled away, he flicked Wes’ nose with a finger and made a gesture that was so suggestive that Wes almost didn’t need a translation.

“He just called you a slut,” Leland said.

“I’m not exactly denying it,” Wes said.Coran signed something to Marlow, whose smile broadened.He kissed Wes again, reaching into Wes’ trousers to palm his cock.Wes jerked at the touch, moaning faintly into Marlow’s mouth.

“He’ll do,” Coran said.Marlow stood, drawing Wes up with him.Leland took the laces of Wes’ shirt and pulled him toward the edge of the docks, where a quiet beach lay out of view of the anglers fishing nearby.People could still see them from the docks if they knew what to look for, and Wes could even see the upper floors of the inn from beyond the dunes.That didn’t deter the sirens.It certainly didn’t deter Wes.He exchanged messy, fervent kisses between them all, melting into their touches as they stumbled along the sand.They tugged at his clothes as they passed him between them, until Wes was naked and breathless, writhing in Leland’s grip.

At first, Wes dimly wondered if they’d brought him there to suck them off.Then he felt hands on his ass, and he gasped as someone’s tongue probed at his hole.It had to be Marlow, since Leland was kissing him and Coran was slowly stroking his cock.Wes held onto them both as Marlow practically fucked him with his tongue, working him open.

“Pretty little human,” Leland said.They reallywerededicated to pretending to be sirens, Wes thought.Leland held Wes’ mouth open with a hand on his lower jaw, watching him pant as Marlow drew back to shove two fingers inside.He pressed on the spot that always made Wes moan, eliciting a low sound of pleasure.Leland’s smile went predatory and beautiful.

“He likes an audience,” Coran said.

“He does,” Wes agreed.

“Does he like being made small?”Leland asked.Wes shook his head.He’d never been one for degradation, even if some people might consider being fucked in public to be a form of humiliation.He much preferred being appreciated.

The sirens were nothing if not appreciative.Leland and Coran kissed him until he felt lightheaded and dazed.Marlow worked up to four fingers, thrusting them shallowly inside Wes as he moaned into Leland and Coran’s mouths.

“Marlow wants to know if you can take his fist,” Leland said at last, unlatching a bottle hanging from a small belt around his hips.A pale green liquid rolled inside, clinging to the glass.“This will make it easier.It will also heighten touch.”He dipped a finger inside the bottle and trailed it over his own mouth, then kissed Wes again.Wes’ lips tingled as though he’d just bitten into a pepper, but without the sting of pain.He shuddered as the tingling sensation rolled through him, his cock hard and aching in Coran’s hand.