Page 122 of Ruby
“I would need to train again,” I say slowly.
“You would,” Thivoll agrees.
“I would likely fall.”
Ani grins. “You already do that.”
I nudge her lightly with an upper arm. She laughs.
The sound is light. Free.
I look at her wings—wide now, strong, catching the last light of day.
“I am proud of you,” I tell her.
She rolls her eyes, but she smiles.
“For flying like a chicken?”
“For growing.”
She goes still at that.
I let my gaze sweep over our aerie.
Broken wings. New wings. None of us fully airborne.
And yet—
“We will all fly,” I say quietly. “In our own ways.”
Ani squeezes my hand. “Together.”
For the first time in a long while, the sky does not feel lost.
It feels… waiting.
44
Szhe’ka
Soon after, Thivoll leaves, chuffing as he tells us to find somewhere else to pet each other.
“Get a room,” Kira calls out as she jumps off another rock. “I don’t need to see all that gooey shi—”
Her cursing is cut off as the wind picks up and she loses her balance, crashing to the ground. She starts off a steady stream of curses in every one of our languages to make up for it after a long groan.
We both laugh, and then scramble to follow their advice, our limbs mostly keeping to socially acceptable places as we make our way into our tree.
Ani starts making very different sounds as soon as I let my hands roam where they really want to. After observing her the last time, I know how best to treat her body in moments like this. As my kisses trail lower, her lips carry sweet songs of my name tomy ears. Her voice is low, quiet, but it only serves to arouse me even more.
My tongue wraps around one of the mounds on her chest, one of my hands holding on to the other. I have always marveled at how tender they are and how tiny gasps escape her mouth when I touch and taste them. Two hands spread her legs apart, the final hand slipping a knuckle inside her.
My finger faces only a slight resistance before she takes it in nicely. She hums out my name again, amidst gasps and sighs. Her body moves in the direction of my fingers, following the rhythm I have set for us. Seeing her like this pushes an urge to push my coil into her until her eyes can no longer stay open but I have to be patient.
She is not there yet. No matter how much she begs, I cannot enter her now. I have to cherish every movement and make her crave my body, enough for her to never leave me.
“Szhe’ka,” she sings, roughly pulling at my feathers. She is getting more desperate now. The knuckles playing in her are thoroughly soaked, rocked by the vibrations of her body.
