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Cordelia sits on the edge of the platform with her feet in the water and opens her legs as she touches the buckles clasped around my thighs and skims her fingertips over the shaft again. “Is this still just for fun?”

“I’m not sure it ever was.” I press her knees open even further, and she lies back on the towel covering the stones.

Bracing a hand on the platform, I lift the rounded head of the dildo to her slit and nudge into her. She lifts her hips, but she’s never taken anything more than my fingers, so I want to go slow.

I hold myself still, letting her stretch around it until she says, “More.”

I inch forward and withdraw, pushing in a little further. Every time I pull back, I sink in another inch.

She cups her hands over her breasts. I’m obsessed with the faces she makes whenever I lick and touch them.

“Tease your pretty nipples,” I instruct her because I love watching them tighten into mauve rosebuds. She plays a game of hiding them from me and rewards me with a peek as she spreads her thighs wider.

My aura is thickening with her desire. I feel it so keenly, stirring a deep need inside of me.

My aether gathers near my hips, where my core is aching. It condenses around the shaft, coating it like it’s a part of my body.

With one stroke, I push all the way in to the hilt, burying myself in her. “Oh.”

I can feel her walls around me, her wet channel gripping the aether as I pull back.

“Yes,” she says, struggling to keep her voice low. “I want all of it.”

I can’t contain myself. I reach down for her clit, coaxing more slick wetness from her as I pump my hips, her tits bouncing from the movement.

I’m delirious.

Nothing can be as good as this.

My aether swirls around the shaft, feeling every squeeze, every flutter within the tight warmth of her sweet channel. Her back arches, and she blows air through her lips like she always does before she comes.

I work my hips to meet her at the edge, the energy of my aether moving to surround her naturally now that I know how to bring her in so close to me. She makes the prettiest sounds as she finishes, mewling softly as I pull out.

I dry her with a towel and wrap her up in it, holding her in my lap until our hearts stop racing.

After we’re dressed, we find Orla setting up the board for Queen’s Quest at the kitchen table.

“I’m going to teach your beloved how to play while you make our crepes,” she says.

“She’s not my—” I stop myself because she is. Maybe this is the only place where I can fully admit it.

I make crepes and listen to my beloved laugh with my sister as they play a game we used to fight over when we were younger. Orla wins and shows us the bizarre gifts she’s received as repayment for the elixirs she provides to those who need them.

Talking for hours is easy because none of us have to hide who we are around each other. I can’t have this forever, but I’m grateful for the one day the three of us get to spend together.

When I walk Cordelia down to the beach, she grasps my forearms. “Orla is so delightful,” she says. “I wish we could stay another night.”

“Me too, but the sun will be setting soon, and we’ve got work to do.”

I envelop her in my aether, and we vanish into the golden sky together, arriving on a grassy knoll on Crossbill Haven. Cordelia stands tall as she makes the climb to Blustery Heights on her own.

23

CORDELIA

The guards posted at the castle doors block my entrance.

“Don’t come any closer,” they warn in unison, swinging fire irons above their shoulders. “We need to prove that you’re not infected.”