Ivy shifted uncomfortably. She was dripping into her dress. She could feel it pooling down her thighs. He had to smell it. She was right next to his face; there was no way he couldn’t.
Vale took his hand off her leg. Ivy bit back a moan, clutching his antlers so tightly her hands ached almost as much as her cunt.
“You are dripping on me,” Vale said.
“Sorry,” Ivy gasped. But her hips were working, tiny thrusts she couldn’t control as the pollen took over.
Vale plucked her off his shoulder and pressed her into a tree. The bone-bark was smooth and cool, just like him, and Ivy writhed against it.
“You did not say anything,” Vale said, his green eyes flickering as he stared at her. “Again. Why?”
“I knew you w-would smell it,” Ivy said weakly. She squirmed against his grip, gasping when his grip tightened around her waist. But still, he didn’t reach for his robes. He just stood there, watching her squirm.
“Master Skullstalker,” Ivy whined. She sounded pathetic and needy, but she couldn’t stop it. “Mate me.Please.”
Vale’s tail lashed wildly. He leaned down, and Ivy’s heart slammed in her chest as she thought he might kiss her. He had come close, she was sure of it, but he’d never closed the gap.
But before he could touch those strange pale lips to hers, the ground shook.
Ivy’s mind lit up with panic. Not her own, she realized blindly as her vision whited out and her mind filled with borrowed emotion, too big for her head to handle. She cried out, grabbing her head as the panic slowly retreated, only a headache to prove it had been there at all.
Vale was frozen. He still had her pinned to the tree, but as soon as Ivy became aware of him again, he lowered her down so fast she stumbled.
“Whatwasthat?” Ivy gasped, tears streaming down her face.
“The void,” Vale replied. His glowing eyes were closed, his voice strained. Like it had pained him, too. “Stay there.”
“No! I can help!” Ivy protested, wiping wildly at her face. She managed one step before falling to the ground, the pollen surging through her so hard it made her cry out.
Vale stumbled along with her. Despite all his attempts to hide it, he got worse along with the void. He took a hesitant, jerky step toward her. Then he stopped, and she imagined her wet scent filling his lungs. How pitiful she must have looked.
But Vale had bigger things to worry about than a pollen-stricken assistant. He turned and fled, following the void to where it was hurting.
Ivy fell to the ground, panting, trying to stop herself from reaching between her sore legs. She wanted to help Vale, to beusefulfor once. But even with the void’s panic still fading from her mind, the pollen couldn’t be denied. It was coiling, threatening to burn her up if Vale didn’t come back.
And soon.
Nine
The silver pool was turning milky white.
“There is nothing I can do,” Vale told it, scratching uselessly at the pale cracks spreading through the ground that surrounded the pool. “Why did you call me here if I could do nothing? Why strike my mortal down with a pollen-frenzy and then pull me away? What are youdoing?”
There was no answer. Vale roared, furious and more worried than he had been in millennia.
“I should be hunting down those mortals!” he snarled, straightening and shaking dirt off his claws. “Or—or a spell! Anything to cure you! Yet, you insist I spend my days with the usual errands. If I do not find a way to cure you, you will die. We willbothdie! Is this panic, thisshaking— Is this you only realizing this now, after it bleeds into your precious pool? Just tell me where to go, and I will go!”
He closed his eyes, listening hard.
Weak wind through the trees. Distant root-deer hooves. Ivy’s whimpers, full of pain and need.
Finally, the void gave him the smallest whisper:go to her.
Vale laughed, sharp and rumbling. “Andthenwhat? How is she helping? She has only made thingsworse!”
The void trickled a thin river of disappointment through him. Vale did not have to ask why.
Go to her,it whispered again, so quiet that Vale could hardly hear it over the wind.
