Page 32 of Vicious Fates and Vast Futures
“Aw, birdie, we should practice. We’re still fighting for our lives, here.”
“We should live these lives while we have them.” She smirks as she pulls up the hem of her white dress, giving me a nice view before tugging it all the way off and tossing it back at me.
As I watch her plump ass, covered in lacey pink panties, sashay out of the room, I decide she’s right.
I follow her back into her bedroom as I start to shed my clothes. Adi walks towards the bathroom and I cock my head,confused. She stops at the wall between the bathroom and her closet and presses her hand to a stone. The wall swings open silently on a hidden hinge. Alright, slightly creepy sithen has a hidden room. Cool, cool.
Adi pauses to drop her panties and bra and I do the same. I enter behind her. The smell of beeswax mingled with the slightly acrid tang of minerals hits me. My eyes take in the dark surroundings. We seem to be in an underground cavern, the air humid from the steam rising off a large pool of water. Candles are piled in stone alcoves, and Adi’s relaxed happiness flows down the bond.
Adi steps directly into the lagoon and sighs in pleasure. Her curls float on top of the water, like flower petals spread around her.
“C’mere, love.”
I wrap my braid into a bun, tucking the end so it will stay. I then cautiously step into the pool. The hot water envelops me as I slip all the way in and cross the pool to my mate. Muscles I didn't realize were tense start to relax. Still, I hold my sword above the water. I’m not about to lose all good sense and have my mate be ambushed in a magical grotto far from backup.
Adi takes my hand and laces her fingers with mine. She draws us to the far end of the pool where there is a stone ledge under the water for sitting. She puts her back to the wall and places her legs over my lap. Without thinking, I set my sword behind us, pick up one of her feet, and start to massage.
She moans softly and it plummets to my center, but I just keep massaging her feet and legs as my eyes take in the details of this space. It feels oddly sacred. A wooden statue of the Goddess sits in an alcove not far from us, candles around her and small offerings at her feet. I notice big fluffy purple towels folded up on a large rock near the pool. Everything about the chamber makes me feel relaxed, calm, reverent.
“Do you bring the boys here?” I ask, curious, though my voice is soft. It almost feels appropriate to whisper in this cavern.
She doesn’t open her eyes. “No, of course not. This is a feminine space. Womb of the earth and all that.”
I ponder that in silence while my thumb works a tight spot on Adi’s calf. Time seems to slip away in this space as I soak up the warmth and energy of both the cave and my mate.
“Your turn, En,” Adi says softly as she sits up and reaches for my legs. The feel of her hands on me is wonderful, as it always is. Will it feel this way forever?Goddess, I hope so.
“I’ll add your handprint to the door so you can come in and pray or meditate or whatever it is you do for your Goddess,” she says while rubbing my feet. A pause, then she adds, “Who is your Goddess?”
I clear my throat, feeling awkward. “My mother worshiped Badb. I suppose she’s mine. I haven’t kept much of a religious practice for the last few decades.”
Badb is the harbinger of doom, the battle crow, bringer of fear and confusion. The sight of her was believed, by humans, to foretell destruction and carnage.
Adi chuckles. “So your mother was a warrior too?”
I nod, smiling at the memory of my mother, her black hair, that I loved to comb, braided tight down her back and a merry smile on her face that seemed reserved for me alone. She gave me my first edged sword at only fifteen years old.
“She was. A true child of the Battle Raven. She fought in the last Great Fae War.” I pause. “She raised me alone, which was common enough. But with her position in the Court Guard, I was often left to my own devices.” I had told Adi that both of my parents had died decades ago, before I was old enough to join the Guard, but we hadn’t really gone into the details of our upbringings yet.
A rustle of cloth has me jumping up and grabbing my sword. Adi grabs at my arm, pulling my blade down.
A deep laugh emerges from a tall slender female with grey skin. Black hair drapes down her back, and she sits at the edge of the pool, skirts pulled up and her legs in the hot water. Her legs are toned, muscular. Next to her is a pale female, also with black hair, also sitting with her feet in the thermal spring.
Adi takes the sword, tossing it behind us.
The grey-skinned female speaks, her amused eyes taking in Adelaide. “I’m not insulted, little queen. A child of mine should respond as such.” Her voice is low and rich, her face breathtaking. The Goddess of War and Death’s feet paddle softly back and forth in the water as she watches us.
“Badb,” I say flatly, shocked.
“Indeed. When my sister told me of her child here taking one ofmineas a mate, well, I couldn’t help but be interested enough to come through the veil to meet them.”
Next to her, the Morrigan smiles in a manner that I’m not sure is friendly. I mean, she is the Goddess of Wrath; a safe assumption would be that it is indeed not friendly. She looks to Adi. “And you, child,whateverare you doing?”
Adi shrugs, completely unbothered by a Goddess giving her an attitude. “Killing anyone in my way.”
The Morrigan’s eyebrows rise. “Yes, yes. That’s all well and good. But you don’t intend to rule?” There is an edge to her tone, though I can’t figure out what it is.
My mate squares her shoulders. “I do not. I don’t believe that in our world today any one person should hold power completely. I intend to set our people up for success and integration.”
