Wanting to taste her, I sink to my knees. She knots her fingers in my hair to guide me, making delicious noises that echo off the stone walls and send shivers through me. Her legs are warm beneath my palms, her inner thigh soft against my cheek, her scent driving me wild. Hot water beads down my face, over my breasts, and between my legs, awakening my every nerve ending.
“You’re so perfect,” I murmur against her, kissing and tonguing her until she’s gasping for air. It’s overwhelming how much I love her—her strength, her determination, her willingness to fight for me when no one else will.
“Katie—” is all she can manage.
I stay on my knees for as long as she can take it, drawing out her pleasure, wanting to give her everything I have. Moments like these, I’m not worried about whether I’m good enough for the coven or whether I can catch all the chimeras. I’m good enough for Natalie, and that’s what matters.
When she comes, she braces herself against the wall and my shoulder, her knees trembling like she’s fighting to stay standing.
I can never get enough of her in this state—totally letting go, losing control, forgetting who she’s supposed to be for a few blissful minutes.This is the side of her that only I get to see, and I’ll never stop cherishing it.
After, we lay naked on her bed, overheated and flushed. I rest my head on her chest, listening to her heartbeat gradually slow to a steady rhythm as she traces circles on my bare shoulder. My earlier worries about trapping the chimera don’t seem so bad, and my fear about having to do this fifty-five more times seems less relevant when I’m safely here with Natalie.
And that’s the thing about being with her. I always feel safe. I feelloved. Even with everything hanging over us, she makes me feel like I belong.
I need to tell her. I faced my fears today, and I can do it again right now. The words have been building inside me for months, growing stronger with every video call, every text, every moment apart that only confirmed what I already knew.
“Natalie?” I murmur.
She kisses my temple, her lips lingering there. “Yeah?”
My heart jumps into action knowing what’s coming. It slams into my ribs so hard that she must feel it. After everything—the chimeras, my trial, the Madsens—this might be the scariest moment of all. Because this is what has the power to truly hurt me.
What if this changes things? What if it makes all this even more painful? What if…
She leans back a little to look down at me, a concerned crease between her eyebrows. “What?”
Stop it, Katie.I can’t keep letting fear prevent me from saying this.
“I—” My mouth is dry. I swallow hard and try again. “I’m completely in love with you.”
There’s a pause in which my life flashes before my eyes—or maybe just our relationship. Every minute we’ve spent together since the moment I saw her through my balaclava in that vet’s office. The look in her eyeswhen we went thrift shopping for curses for the first time. The way she so easily steps between me and the Madsens. The pain in her eyes when she told me we couldn’t be together, and the joy when she finally gave in. And then—
“I love you too!” she exclaims.
There’s no mistaking the flood of relief in her voice.
I sit up, a smile breaking across my face. “You do?”
“Of course!” She laughs, an elated, almost giddy sound that I’ve never heard from her before. “I’ve wanted to tell you. I didn’t know if…with the timing of everything…”
“I know.” I lean down and kiss her once, twice, three times on the lips. “The timing is never good. But knowing we have each other… It helps me get through it. I want you to know how much I love you. How much it means to have you with me through all this.”
She tugs me back down beside her and wraps her body around me, holding me tightly. “We’ve got this. We’ll show Fiona and everyone here what you’re capable of.”
“And we’ll take down the last of the fucking Madsens,” I say, lacing my fingers through hers where they rest against my stomach.
Natalie huffs out a breath of laughter, but there’s no humor in it. “The fucking Madsens.”
I exhale slowly, my heartbeat returning to normal. With Natalie and Hazel in my corner, I feel like I could face anything—fifty-five more chimeras, the Madsens, Fiona and her jury. It’s only May 6th, and though the plan to catch a chimera per day is already off-track, I’ve got a week before term starts and several weeks after that to figure this all out. It’s not entirely hopeless.
“Question…” I tangle our legs together, needing to feel as much of her against me as possible. “When you said you want to leave here, where do you see yourself living?”
She squeezes me tighter, her lips brushing my neck. “I pictured us in a cottage.”
My heart jumps at being included in her plan. “Really?”
“Mhm. Not so far away that the commute becomes a chore, but far enough to feel like we’ve got a place all our own. We’d have a vegetable garden, maybe some chickens.”
