Page 168 of May: Bloom & Bane

“And when our seed catches,” Ashán whispers, his shadow swelling thicker, pinning her open, “my dark will wrap around you both. Every heartbeat your body builds, I will be standing guard beneath your skin—because nothing grows in this world, ash’kaela, nothing, until Death agrees to let it.” His voice cracks. “And I have never wanted to let anything live so badly in all my existence.”

“Please,” she begs, nails carving down our arms. “Please, fill me. Make this heat stop.”

Her walls clench around us, and his shadow pulses in response.

“Almost there, mamé,” Ashán growls. “Let us put our vúsha inside you.”

Her thighs tremble beneath our hands as her lavína clamps down around us. Wetness floods around my vék.

“Fuck—fuck—fuck,” she moans, bucking her little body into our thrusts. Ashán’s skelva snake between us, his thumb rubbing frantically to draw out her orgasm.

“Need your come,” she whines. “Please.”

That mouth, Ashán groans.

My cock jerks deep inside, his shadow surging in tandem, both of them pulsing as we empty in hot spurts. His thumb continues its relentless circles while thick ropes of seed pump straight toward her womb, his shadow twisting lazily to work every drop deeper.

My kná swells to meet her.

“Sage!” Her eyes fly wide as the petals push forward, seeking her warmth. I thrust forward, and her body bears down and takes it. The bloom-collar forces its way inside with a final wet pop.

“There,” I breathe, hips rocking slowly. “Not one drop leaves you now.”

The gold pulsing beneath her skin gathers low in her belly beneath my splayed hand.

Sage, Ashán whispers. Do you feel⁠—

Yes.

The point of light drinks. There is no other word for it. It pulls my warmth and his dark down into itself in one long draw—and then, so delicately, the light… settles. The scent of the altheria shifts. Content at last.

CHAPTER 47

there’s a second heartbeat

The fire in my blood has finally cooled. As I open my eyes, the air no longer smells like my rut; it smells like fresh-cut grass after a spring rain, and something beautifully new.

Eden stirs beside me, letting out a sleepy sigh.

Do you smell her? Ashán rasps.

I don’t just smell her. I consume her. The wild, intoxicating heat that has driven me mad for days has vanished, replaced by a scent so rich and maternal that it makes the vines woven into the headboard bloom in a sudden burst of pink flowers.

My hand trembles as it slides down her bare hip, my claws carefully retracting until only the soft tips of my fingers brush her skin. I press my palm against the smooth curve of her stomach, and a blinding rush of green light pulses behind my eyelids as my magic sinks beneath her skin, searching until I feel it—a heartbeat so fast and fragile it sounds like the flutter of a hummingbird’s wing, safely nestled deeply inside the warmth of Eden.

Ours, Ashán chokes out... We made a life. She’s carrying our little nestling.

Tears sting my eyes.

Eden stays fast asleep, her long, copper eyelashes casting soft shadows against her cheeks as she sinks deeper into the flower nest. She looks so small… so terribly, beautifully mortal.

We can’t let them touch her, Ashán’s voice sharpens. If that bronze-headed vreshká takes a single step toward her— (Fucker)

His panic claws at the back of our throat. The vines on the headboard twist violently, crushing the freshly bloomed flowers under the suffocating squeeze of my magic. My wings twitch, aching to rip ourselves out of this bed and build a wall of thorns and bone ten feet thick around her.

I want to swallow her whole. I want to bury her so deep in the earth that they can never, ever find her.

I press my nose into the crook of her neck, breath hitching as I inhale her scent. I sweep my wings over the mattress until they seal us into a world big enough for two… three. She lets out a breathy sigh, her hands blindly reaching out for me.