“I agree,” he said as he finished his shot. “May I get another, please?”
Frustrated, I pushed the open bottle towards him. He took it with a soft movement, raised from his seat to fill my glass, then retreated back onto the sofa and filled his own.
“Anwen, our peoples did not always have the best relationship, an unfortunate fact but a reality nonetheless, so I would suggest, rather than listening to everything your device tells you, that you ask me everything you need to know. Since humans might have developed not too pleasant versions over the years, which is understandable and unfortunate. I promise to answer as truthfully as I can and to the best of my knowledge.”
He seemed honest and with a true desire to help me understand. Of course, this was his version and I only knew his point of view, but if supernatural, a fae being, the stuff of legends and fairy tales and still afford to be picky with the source of the information.
“Fine,” I said and leaned back, reaching for my can of cosmo and popping it open with a fizz, taking a few heavy sips before sliding his.
“What is this?” he asked immediately.
“A cosmopolitan.”
He smelled the can incredulously, then pressed onto the top, tapping into the aluminium seal with his finger.
“You have to pop it open,” I told him and showed him mine. He frowned and then tried to push the hole with his thumb and through some miracle, he succeeded to rip the seal open without using the key. Ansgar took another sniff and smiled, pleasantly surprised by the fruity smell. He took a sip. “I like this too,” he nodded and raised the can towards me, imitating a clink of glasses.
“Everyone loves a cosmo, it’s human nature,” I raised my shoulders with the explanation. “Now, tell me something that is fae nature.”
Ansgar took a moment to think, checked the paintings on the walls, from side to side, up and down, dragging his reply.
“We only eat meat at dinner,” he stated then took another sip from his cosmo while I drank from what was my fourth or fifth shot of vodka, I did not exactly remember.
“Why is that?”
“Out of respect for the creation. We can hunt them during the day but one meal is more than enough to honour the flow of energy. I don’t exactly know where the tradition comes from, it must be from the early times, closer to the goddesses than to my world.”
“Is that part true? About the goddesses? That this place is more special than other woods because of some kind of energy?” I tried to remember all the information I accumulated through the day and how it fit with Erik’s travels.
“This is the place of burial of the Goddess Catalina, she was our goddess, of the Earth Kingdom. We are descendants from her creation and keepers of the earth as a realm. Everything you see, everything that grows, is flowing from our energy and the connection my fellow keepers establish through their presence around the realm,” he explained.
“So what we call Mother Nature that is you? Your people?” My head spinning from the realisation, I took yet another shot, even though my stomach was beginning to burn from the amount of vodka I had forced into it over such a short amount of time.
“Part of it. We are closely tied together in our work with the waterlings and windlings, the two other kingdoms that prevail on the realm. Together, we generate the growing force around the globe through which plants and animals can coexist and flourish. There used to be another one, it still resurfaces from time to time to bring trouble in its wake, the firelings. Every time you hear about natural disasters and calamities, their escape had something to do with it. Any encounter with them is not a pleasant one, most of the time it brings war and death to our people and yours,” he sighed and sipped some more of his cosmo.
“Do you have to fight them?” I asked, imagining something like a scene from a fantasy movie, where two bands run into each other on a big field, my heart stopping at the thought of Ansgar in the middle of it.
“We do, depending on which territory they erupt in and how escalated the situation is. Sometimes one kingdom can hold the force within and sort out the battle on their own, other times there is an entire battle in which all the kingdoms must take part. I’ve participated in a few battles within our kingdom and two wars so far, the occurrences are more and more often these past decades,” he explained and finished his cocktail, licking the side of the can to save every drop. He did the same to his lips. I breathed heavily at the sight and automatically went towards the fridge to bring another round, in the hope that I might see the gesture again.
This time I opened his and instead of sitting in the chair opposite the table, I took a seat on the sofa next to him. As I handed him the cold can, my fingers lingered and touched his own as he picked up the drink. They remained intertwined, and our eyes followed their lead, locking. “Ansgar, are you planning to hurt me in any way? Is there some kind of revenge on humans or some kind of tradition you need to perform that involves a human?” I asked as shivers travelled from my fingers towards the rest of my body, not from the cold can but from his soft touch.
“Anwen, I swear, I would never hurt you,” he murmured as he paused our connection to place the can onto a safe place on the table, before cupping my face with both his hands.
“I did not know you were here. The first time I met you was when you were attacked and since then, I can’t stop thinking about you. There is absolutely no reason why you should fear me, I promise,” he reassured as I relaxed onto him.
A smile took over my face and I unconsciously puckered my lips, readying them for what I hoped would come. He smiled and pressed his mouth on mine, his tongue slipping inside and inundating me with an acidic cranberry taste.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Her hands grabbed onto me, onto my stomach, everything she could touch, everything she was able to. I held her on top of me, her legs spread wide around my waist and kissed every inch of her neck. She tasted sweet, a mixture of fruit and sugar from the drinks we shared, her tongue moving restlessly, trapped in a waltz with mine, circling and spinning between breaths and caresses.
I held her in my arms, able to touch every forbidden part of her and murmured my desire in her ear, a prayer to her body and heart, one that her mind could not understand, but I hoped her heart would respond to. “Sostja dum lahns menelenth denentum, fahrenor,” I breathed into her, my hands impregnating into her skin, holding, touching and scraping along her hips, her back, her thighs.
Her core undulated onto me, making me hard and wishful, barely able to contain myself as she slid up and down with swift and pressured movements, making me feel the wetness that emanated through her short pants. I slid a hand over her bottom and touched protecting her slits from my hands.
In an abrupt movement, she pushed back and pulled away her shirt, giving me a full view of her breasts. They were positioned so perfectly at the same level with my mouth that all I had to do was move my head forward. When I did, one of her nipples fell captive to my mouth. I used my free hand to cup her other breast, not stopping the circular movements that my tongue drew around her nipple, burying myself into her generously round bosom.
An annoying repeated ringing made her react, forcing my mouth to let go and my fingers to stop stroking. She pushed away from me and gripped her shirt, focusing her attention towards the device that occupied so much of her time.
