Page 62 of Flamesworn

“I met him once,” she said, pushing Ares on their back, climbing on top of them. “I was very suspicious of him.”

“Me, too.” Ares went to their back easily, and Kataida settled over their hips, running her hands up and down their chest. “He was so ready to love me just because I was there.”

Kataida leaned down and kissed them, but she wouldn’t allow them to hold her there. “I have something to tell you,” she said, looking into Ares’ fiery eyes, “and something to show you. But first I want to do something. I have a mark of our bond above my heart. I want to give you something too.”

“You have,” Ares said, blinking. “You’ve given me everything.”

The feeling that washed over her was no longer indescribable to her, she knew that it was love. “A gift, bright eyes. You’ll like it.” And the gift would settle them, too, put them under as much as a god could be, so that she could tell them about Atreus and her vision, show them the coins she’d found in her pocket.

But first…

“Will it hurt?” Ares asked, breathlessly. “Please say yes.”

“Yes,” she murmured, delighted, leaning down to bite lovingly at their neck, their shoulder, and lower. “It will.”

“You’re so good to me. Ah, but where are you going?” they whined, as Kataida slipped from their grasp and off the bed.

“You’ll see.” She went to the small trunk near the wardrobe and rummaged through it until she found the small leather kit that had what she wanted. It wasn’t something she did often, mostly because she didn’t have a partner who wanted her to do it, but the thought of it was making her blood heat, her heart beginning to race faster.

She put the kit on the bed, then went to her dresser and opened the wooden box carved with a crude ribbon dragon in a flame to find what she wanted. It was a pair of earrings shaped like daggers on a chain that she’d found at a traveling merchant’s booth a few years ago. She didn’t wear jewelry, but the shopkeep had told her they were actually sharp enough to cut skin.

She carried them back to the bed and climbed on Ares again. “I’m going to give you this to wear.” She touched the tip of the silver dagger to their mouth, pressed in, dragged it across their lower lip until it turned crimson with blood.

Ares moaned, arching beneath her, so beautiful that she could barely breathe. She took the leather kit, which held needles used for piercings, and opened it. “I like this because it means I have to be focused and very precise, andyou,bright eyes, have to be still.” She tapped their nose, leaned in and kissed the blood from their mouth.

Ares tasted like ash and ozone, a firestorm. She shivered and sat back up, laughing softly at the eager look on their face. “Have a cock for me, lover. I want to ride it while I hurt you.”

“I love you so much, more than arrows, more than war axes, more than daggers,” Ares praised her, and Kataida had to laughbecause that was, honestly very flattering considering who she was, and who it was coming from.

It wasn’t a difficult piercing, but she teased it for as long as she could until Ares’ cock was hard and she could take it deep, ignoring their pleas in lieu of riding them slow and easy. It felt so good, and Astra’s boon had her feeling rested enough to enjoy taking her time, and of course, denying Ares pain wasalmostas good as giving it to them like they wanted. She got herself off, she let Ares get her off, and then she finally put the needle to their ear and pressed it through. She doubted it really hurt, it was a quick and easy pain, but Ares was caught up in it and they made a pretty, little sound, near a whimper.

Kataida slid the earring in and fastened it, then nodded when she saw it dangling there against Ares’ skin. “There.” She took the delicate dagger between her fingers and pressed the tip against Ares’ neck, and this time, when she dragged it across slowly and deliberately, theydidmoan, crimson staining their fair skin like paint on a canvas.

She made them wait, hard inside of her as she rocked back and forth while piercing her own ear, which was a torment because she made Ares watch instead of help. Once her own earring was in place, she braced herself on Ares’ chest with her hands and said, “Fuck me. Go on, god of vengeance. Let’s see if you can conquerme.”

Ares gave a playful growl and flipped her on her back, and Kataida closed her eyes and lifted her legs, wrapping them tight around Ares’ hips as they fucked her hard into the bedding. They spoke low and quick in her ear, telling her how perfect she was, how beautiful, how they loved her and would be hers forever. The intensity of their devotion fell around her like rain, like the storm for which she’d been named, and her lover’s body was a firebrand, around her and inside of her and on top of her, and she’d never felt more like shebelongedin her life.

The very thought made her come again, and Ares followed soon after, sobbing their release into her neck and shoulder, tears burning her skin. The sight of the drops, red as fresh blood, made her remember the coins, but she lingered for a bit in the aftermath, stroking her hands up and down Ares’ back and tangling in their messy hair.

“What did you want to tell me?” Ares lifted their head, and Kataida was struck by the difference in them since they’d first met. Ares was still otherworldly and strange, and still tended to remind her of one of the ribbon dragons drawn to her family, but there was a difference in the way they spoke, the way they asked questions, referred back to things that happened not hundreds of years ago but a few hours. They had always been a being of the present moment, but now they seemed to be fullythere,no longer forced to exist only in the heart of conflict.

She reached up to touch them, thinking of the wings she couldn’t see. “Would you promise me something, first, before I show you?”

Ares eyes flashed, and she noticed if she stared deeply into them, she thought she could see them flickering like they reallywerefire. “Anything. Everything. I will sack cities and see them razed to bring you any treasure you desire–”

She smacked them, hard enough their head snapped to the side. “Stop that. No sacking or razing cities necessary. When this is done, the war, and we’re together…I want you to find something you love, or like. Something that isn’t me,” she said, gently, when they opened their mouth.

“I love my family,” Ares said, “and weapons. I love a beautifully crafted shield, the way a forge smells, the sound of steel sharpening on a whetstone.”

She touched the little dagger dangling from their ear. “You’ve changed, and so have I. We both have to figure it out, but I want you to be in this world, really in it, not just here for the wars.”

Ares studied her, present and serious, and nodded. “Yes. I know. I’m something new now. I’ll have to find out what it is. But I will always love the sting of your nails, the way you hurt me--and weapons, beautifully crafted shields, the smell of a forge and the sound of steel against a whetstone.”

“I know that. I like those things, too, but there’s more to life than weapons and war, bright eyes. Let’s find it together.”

“Yes,” Ares said, kissing her on the forehead. “We will. Together.”

With a deep breath, Kataida got out of bed one last time. She found the coins and the volume of Atreus’ letters, and brought them to Ares.