“It’s fine. I thought of that. Don’t worry.” She pressed herself against his chest and grazed his skin with her teeth.
“You… are you sure?” Four words, and they took as much conscious effort as a fucking sonnet.
“Yes, Felix. Yes. Please,” she sighed against him.
Like she had to say please, or ask at all. As if she wasn’t a goddess at whose altar he should beg to worship. He fully intended to go slow, to be gentle and considerate, but she hooked her ankles behind his back, angled her hips, made a sound somewhere between a moan and a whine, and that was the end of that. “Sweet fucking hells, Isa,” he groaned when he thrust into her, his voice strained, his fingers digging into her flesh.
Felix held still for a moment, kissing her jaw, then pulled out almost fully before sinking back in, finding a rhythm as the waves of pleasure washed over them. She clawed at his shoulders as she met each of his strokes with breathy little moans that would have driven him over the edge from their sound alone. Soon he was lost to all thought, and nothing existed except the two of them, like two missing halves of one whole, finally reunited here in this most unlikely of places.
When he opened his eyes and drowned in the blue glow of hers, it was as if a part of her – a part of her magic – wrapped itself around his very soul.
Felix would be unusually fond of rain for a long time after that night.
***
They snuck back into the keep soon after, soaking wet and shivering. Felix insisted on giving Isolde his dry shirt, not least because it meant he got to peel the sodden one she was wearing off of her. He drew her down onto the bedding, pulling the blankets around them both. She immediately burrowed into his chest and sighed contentedly. He twisted so her head rested on his shoulder.
He lay staring at the ceiling as her breathing gradually slowed. She was falling asleep in his arms, which made him feel a strange kind of soft and vulnerable that was amazing and terrifying in equal measure. He hadfeelingsfor Isolde; he knew he did. She had awakened something in him he wasn’t quite sure he was ready to examine. He’d never cared if a woman he slept with lost interest, or decided to fuck someone else. Some had tried, to see if they could get a rise out of him, and it left him indifferent.
He’d never had a lack of lovers either, once he gained some confidence with women, and outgrew that awkward phase young men went through of being all legs and elbows. Sex was much like fighting – a bit of a challenge, a way to scratch an itch, a release.
But this, with her, was not that.
He’d never wanted a woman to behis.He’d never wanted to be better, to do better, for anyone. Now he did, for her. He didn’t know what it was about her, not exactly. He wanted to save her and to be saved by her at the same time. As if they were both falling, but if they stuck together, they could fly.
***
When Felix woke up the next day, Isolde had somehow managed to pull all the blankets off him. He cast a wry grin at the way she had bundled herself up, leaving him to freeze.
He was sorely tempted to kiss her awake, but they were not alone, and maybe she would be embarrassed. Instead, he untangled himself from her as carefully as he could, trying not to wake her. Leif and Mia were asleep near the fire. Biscuit came bounding up to him, his little tail wagging. Felix knelt down to rub the dog’s ears and quietly left the keep, walking a wide circle around his sleeping companions. The puppy followed on his heels.
Outside, the rain had finally stopped. The sky was still moody and grey, but patches of blue were visible here and there. The air smelled of wet earth and sulphur. Biscuit yipped at him, excitedly running in circles as Felix exited the courtyard to look at the landscape. It was a strange place, even without rain. The plants and even the rocks were odd. To the north, he could just make out the vague silhouettes of mountains. The Veilcrags. He stood for a moment, lost in thought, until Biscuit snapped him out of it with a bark.
“Let’s go get a drink, mongrel.”
Felix wandered over to the well and brought up a bucket. The icy cold water did nothing to dampen his mood. He didn’t think anything could at this point. He poured water for the pup, too, and hummed a bawdy tavern tune as he washed and tied his hair back.
“What in all the… Are youhumming?”Luella’s voice sounded from behind him, laced with disbelief. He turned to grin widely at her incredulous face.
“Morning, Lu. Sleep well?”
She glared daggers at him. “Stop this right now.”
“What?”
“You know very wellwhat.This… cheerfulness. It is terrifying.”
“You told me to apologise, if you recall.”
“That’s what you understood by ‘apologise,’ was it?”
“I think it worked,” he replied, unable to wipe the smirk off his face.
“Ugh. Spare me,” Luella said, wrinkling her nose. Biscuit growled and tried to attack her boots, which she quietly ignored. “Garren is still considering whether he is going to kill you.”
Felix laughed. “He can try.”
“At any rate,” Luella continued, frowning, “I hope this” – she waved her hand vaguely in his direction – “will not distract you. And her. From whatever comes next.”
