“Our goddess chose well,” Cornelia says when I don’t answer, and I’m not sure if she’s talking about me or the tattoo. “It’s not necessary to show it off to the entire village right now, though, and I have no personal need for your rippling pectorals.”
I smirk. “Rippling pectorals?” I ask the priestess. Icannotwait to tell Alois that she said that.
Cornelia rolls her eyes, thoroughly done with me. “Do something with your warrior, champion,” she tells Fritzi. She picks up my tunic and tosses it to Fritzi.
“Oh, I plan to,” Fritzi says, a feral glint in her eyes as she steps closer, leaning up for a kiss as Cornelia strides away.
Fritzi strokes the side of my jaw, drawing my attention back to her, us.
I don’t want to think about anyone else. I don’t want to feel the burden of peace upon my shoulders.
I only want to feel her.
I lean down, claiming her lips again in a devouring kiss, knowing that no feast around a fire will be enough to satisfy me.
She melts in my arms, and I pull back, sliding my lips down the softedge of her jaw, nibbling to the shell of her ear. “Not here,” I whisper. I can feel her body shiver at my low voice. I take my shirt from her and pull it over my head, looking around for an escape route.
“But this celebration is for us,” Fritzi protests weakly as I pull my tunic back over my head.
“Let them celebrate how they want to,” I say, biting her just enough to make her gasp. “And let us celebrate how we want to.”
She nods against my chest, her arms clinging to me. My hands snake down her body, and she spins away, grabbing my wrist and drawing me away from the fire, into the night.
There is no wall around Baden-Baden, but nature creates its own borders. There is a place where the road merges into a game trail, where the cottages are replaced by trees, where the grasses shift from harvested to wild.
That is where we go.
A clear area of land, under the stars of the night sky. There’s a single large oak tree, set away from the edge of the Black Forest.
“You deserve a palace,” I say. New daffodils are just starting to peek up from the hard ground, a sign of life and hope. “A soft bed covered in furs. Downy pillows and sumptuous feasts and… You deserve so much more than I can give you, Fritzi.”
She sits down gracefully and touches the pale green shoot of an unbloomed flower. It swirls and bursts to life, the yellow trumpet tipping toward the moon, the petals soft as spider silk.
This is the wild magic that she hides from the council, that she shows only me.
“I don’t want any of that,” she says, looking up, starlight spattering over her skin. “I only want you.”
I kneel before her, the only goddess I worship. Over her left shoulder,I can just see the black smoke of the bonfire, orange specks fading to darkness. To the right is the Black Forest, looming trees full of magic and secrets.
But this meadow is ours. This night is ours.
6
Fritzi
Otto kisses me, his lips soft and caring and full of his usual tender love, and any other night, I would fall into it. Any other time, the intentional palpitation of his mouth on mine would be enough to melt me into compliance, and I would give myself over to his touches and let the weight of him block out all else.
But tonight, I don’t want tenderness. I stand again, dragging him up with me, and he complies, eyes pulsing in a brief question before I silence any remarks with my mouth on his, tongue delving deep. I taste him, sweetness from food he’d had earlier, buthim, some headiness I can never quite name more than that it is the taste of my undoing.
His back hits the oak tree, and he huffs in surprise as I move to his neck, tasting, tasting, pulling the neckline of his tunic aside to lick the contour of his shoulder.
“Fritzi,” he gasps, and tries to push me, tries to regain control. “I want to—”
I pull back enough to look into his eyes. I can’t hide the tremor of fear beside this need, and so I show it to him, the fear that’s driving me, has been driving me.
Holda took over the tattoo. For me, for him. I can see the outline of the tree through the neckline of his tunic, and I have to believe it will keep him safe now. Safer, at least.
But safe enough?
