Page 273 of May: Bloom & Bane

She pled guilty, Sage marvels.

She always folds on the baby, I muse. Noted for future trials.

“And sentencing?” Sage asks.

Eden’s heartbeat races against our chest.

I lower my mouth to her ear. “For crimes against her mates,” I murmur, “and one very hungry vúsha… the accused is sentenced to a full night of our undivided attention.”

Her breath hitches, and our wings snap tight behind us.

“And if you behave,” Sage murmurs, “which we believe you will, since you’re a very good girl.”

“We may even let you finish your sentence early,” I say.

“That’s not how any of this works. You can’t just⁠—”

“Overruled,” we say together.

Her fists curl into our wings, and even now, cornered, the little menace grips the membrane just hard enough to make our spine shiver.

She’s going to fight us the entire time, Sage says, his voice thick with delight.

Gods, I hope so.

CHAPTER 84

i have waited three lifetimes to put my name in your blood

—ASHÁN & SAGE

We climb until the cold stops being weather and becomes privacy instead. Up here, the world is reduced to what matters: the moon, the dark, and the woman wrapped around us with her heartbeat tapping against our ribs like a small, insistent guest.

I will become for you.

I made that vow in the void when I had no body to keep it with. I remember her voice in the dark—I want your body, not his—and the way it split me open. That she would wait. That she would refuse everything, even her own need, until I was whole enough to be worth claiming her. And now she’s here, in arms that are mine, held by wings that did not exist this morning. There is not one part of me she has to wait for anymore.

“Where did all that fierce mortal defiance go?” Sage asks.

“I am… adjusting,” she mumbles, her fingers curling tighter around our shoulders. “To the altitude.”

“Are you sure it’s not the two very hungry monsters who have absolutely no intention of taking you back down?” I roll my hips slowly, pressing the twin heat of us directly against her.

Her breath hitches, body going rigid in our arms. “Ash.”

“Wouldn’t you rather adjust to us instead?” he murmurs, fangs grazing the sensitive skin right under her jaw.

“Here?” she splutters. “There’s no way! How are we even supposed to…”

“We’ll show you,” I whisper, hands sliding down her thighs, gathering the fabric of her dress and rucking it up. “Do you want us to take your panties off, angel?”

“Say yes,” Sage pleads.

“Yes,” she whispers against my throat.

Vresh, he groans.

With agonizing slowness, my hands slip beneath the waistband and slide the damp lace down her trembling thighs, letting them fall away into the open sky—a tiny speck of white fabric tumbling into the abyss. The air up here is freezing, but inside the heavy cocoon of our wings, she is burning.