The play, this time, belonged to her.
The two embedded themselves deep into the community.Unknowns at first, they spread rumors—quiet whispers of nefarious deeds done behind closed doors.Desire.Sex.Fantasies fulfilled.At first, only a select few indulged, the circle expanding with intentional strategy that she fed like kindling to a forest fire.Neyu’s promised immeasurable pleasure after death, and with her gift of lust, it went unquestioned amongst the community.
The pledges gathered guaranteed a majority of the village would follow them into death.At the top of the tallest verdant hill at sunrise, the townsfolk planned to join the two demons who made their final preparations the eve prior.
Neyu had arrived first and stood atop the knoll, gazing down at the village with a wistful expression.Her slender waist was too tempting for Saer as he stepped behind her, strong hands gliding along her hips and around, pulling her body back into his.He heard rather than saw her smile as she murmured, “Evening, Dearest.”
With a soft, possessive growl, Saer leaned down and kissed the delicate spot where her shoulder and neck met.“Evening, Dearest.”
Neyu’s hands slid over Saer’s, holding herself close in his embrace.She laced her fingers through his and together, with Saer’s chin on her shoulder, they watched the village in silence.
The lavender and rose scent of her skin, the warmth of her body close to his, the smallest realities of her presence continued to settle something in Saer.Her body accompanied by the far-off sound of waves crashing into the cliffside, the smell of grass and seawater, and the feel of his heart beating against her back were suspended in perfection.A rightness persisted in the way they fit and understood one another.A knowing.When things fell apart around or atop them, Neyu grounded him.He realized, standing there with quiet, mutual appreciation of the village, that they’d stayed here longer than any other.
Neyu must have been thinking similarly, though she voiced it first.“We don’t have to destroy it.We could stay?”
“If we hadn’t promised so much,” he replied, “I would stay forever.”
“You mean ifIhadn’t promised so much.”
Saer’s arms squeezed gently around her.“We do what we do as a pair.”
“I was the one who spoke with Father.”
“And the vastness of the harvest was my suggestion.Does it matter whose lips relayed the message?”
“No.”Neyu leaned further into him.“But I’m agreeing with you because it’s not worth arguing about on our last night.”
No one could prompt a chuckle out of Saer like his beloved.“Good.”His hand crossed over her body to take her opposite wrist in his grip, and he turned Neyu to face him.She rested her hands against his solid chest, adorned in a simple gray-white cloth shirt.A faint, hazing steam wafted from all skin left exposed between the pair.
“Do you think the next place we find…?”Neyu let the question taper off, but raised her gaze to meet Saer’s with sadness tinged by hope.
Saer brushed her hair and let the back of his hand glide along her jawbone.“Yes, I’d like to stay longer, wherever we end up.”
Neyu lifted herself on her toes to press her mouth against his.A warm assurance existed in the kiss.A vision and promise of a future they could both see.A perfect world in which they belonged to no one, where they could make a life for themselves without regard to consequences.
She smiled against his mouth and parted her lips to speak.
A sudden blaze ignited nearby, blinding the hilltop with its roar and light.The pair startled, jerking away from one another.
Unexpected.
Panic flared in Saer’s chest.
Unmistakable.
Saer blinked hard as the glaring fireball faded and reminded himself to breathe, to calm the hammering of his heart.
Errshek’s tan wings unfurled from the blaze as it cooled.The Sixth’s appendages shook out and lengthened with a light tremor, revealing Errshek in his full, original form.He lifted his olive green irises from the ground, met Neyu’s gaze, then snapped his gaze down and away.
Alarm ricocheted into bewilderment.
“Errshek?”
Errshek shrank away to Neyu’s quiet inquiry.
What in the Hells was he doing here?
Saer unstuck his tongue from his dry mouth to speak—then Errshek’s body stiffened.Heat filled Envy’s body in a swelling rush, starting at his hooves and expanding upwards, outwards.Errshek’s frame lifted and straightened, eyes closed, shaking.
