Page 117 of Tempting Fate

By the time Imani and her friends returned, the sun had ducked below the horizon, and the first moon was already half way up in the sky. She greeted me with a smile, excitement dancing in her eyes.

“Welcome back. I hope you had fun on my behalf,” I said.

She ducked into my open arms for a hug. “I did. I even took pics for you.”

“Thank you, they were beautiful.” I glanced at the moon, who gazed back with a patience born of eons. “I must go and sing my rites.” The moonrise rites were the only ones I sang with any regularity now, and only because the forms and melodies were my favourite. A selfish reason, but I couldn’t find it in me to feel guilty.

“Oh!” Kira thumped her mate’s arm. “You can join him!”

I eyed the formidable corsair in disbelief. “You follow the ways?”

Reskavi opened his mouth, but Kira covered it with a small hand. “It’s so sweet. He swore he’d pray three times a day if we got back together.” She offered him an adoring smile. “He doesn’t always remember, so I’m sure he’d love to join you.”

A deep growl rumbled in her mate’s chest. “Kamevi…”

She grinned, catching her lower lip in her teeth. “Go on. Keep him company.”

Reskavi stood, whispering something in her ear I couldn’t catch but which left her giggling as she sat down. Imani laughed with her, one hand over her mouth, the apples of her cheeks rising behind it.

I wanted to know what she and Imani said, but, too excited to share rites with someone in person for the first time, I gestured to Reskavi. “My home is this way.”

The corsair followed, but once in my room, he shifted on his feet.

He was so different to me, and I wished I were better at setting people at ease. “This is my shrine. Forgive the additions.”

“They look like reptile eggs.”

“A chiyi came with me from Orith. She has adopted both me and Kri’s shrine.” Orbit was a diligent parent, and her eggs were growing nicely.

“Nothing wrong with reptiles. I have a chittersnake, Zihti.”

The corsair had a pet snake? This new world kept being full of surprises. “My lizard’s called Orbit.”

I took a neutral stance and began the moonrise song, Reskavi joining me in rough, lilting tones. I let my natural polyphony out, rather than trying to hide it as I had been taught, filling the room with harmonics. As I got used to them, the more I liked them and the subtle influence I could imbue them with.

After we closed out the final verse, I turned to the corsair. “I would invite you to join me tomorrow night, but I suspect you do not enjoy it as much as your mate implied.”

Reskavi let out a raucous laugh. “What gave it away?”

I took in his smile. Perhaps he didn’t mind me calling him out. Hoping I hadn’t read it wrong, I said, “Perhaps that you knew neither all the words, nor the tune?”

He clapped me on the arm. “Harsh words, my friend, I didn’t think I was that bad.”

“When did you last sing them?”

“When I was a youth. Academy made us.”

“Then it was not a bad effort… my friend.”

The pirate sank down on the comfy chair by the window, a wicked grin across his face. “My mate will be in trouble for this, and she knows it.”

“Trouble?”

“Trouble.” He slicked out his tongue and winked. “Is it true Orithians won’t give pleasure with their mouths?”

I schooled my expression, though I had already betrayed my shock. “I…” My cheeks heated. “My upbringing was… particular. I wouldn’t know.” But since seeing the place between Imani’s legs, not a day had gone by that I hadn’t fantasised about tasting her.

“Oh. You mean you and the pretty human haven’t—”