He got back to the room at half past two and Yara was already there.
Not in the corner.
Sitting on the edge of his bed with her hands in her lap, in the middle of the room, in the light, which she never did.
The rest of the pack was in the other room. That was Yara’s doing and he knew it, because Maren did not voluntarily sleep anywhere that wasn’t on top of him.
"You moved my fox," Soren said.
"I asked your fox. She said, and I’m quoting, ’fine, but you owe me the good blanket.’"
"That does sound like her."
◆◆◆◆
He shut the door.
The system had been sitting in the corner of his vision since the yard, and it fired properly the second the latch caught.
[DING! — Obsession Index: Yara Hale. Value exceeding measurable band. Recalibration REQUIRED, not advised.]
"You’re spiking," he said.
"I’ve been spiking since you said okay instead of screaming." Her voice was steady and her hands weren’t. "Master, you have no idea what you did to me on that seal."
"I said one word."
"You said the right word." Red eyes came up. "I have been waiting three hundred years for something to look at all of me and not flinch. I built you. I hollowed a boy out and poured you in. And then I told you and you asked a follow-up question."
"It was a good question."
"It was the best thing that’s ever happened to me."
◆◆◆◆
She stood up.
"There’s a thing I’ve never done," Yara said.
"Which thing?"
"This, without hiding something." Her hands went to the tie at her collar. "Every single time. The first night in the reinforced room, I was hiding the door. Every night after, I was hiding the year. There has never once been a version of this where you had all of me."
"And now?"
"Now you have all of me." The cloth came off her shoulders. "It’s the only thing I have left to give you and I’ve been saving it since before you were born."
Soren crossed the room.
"Then stop talking about it."
She came apart faster than she ever had.
That was the difference and he clocked it immediately.
Yara in bed had always been controlled underneath the devotion, a goddess running a suppression field on herself so the man under her didn’t burn out.
The field was gone.
Shadow poured off her skin the second his mouth found her throat, filled the room to the ceiling, wrapped his back and his arms and the bedframe, and the temperature dropped and the light went out and none of it hurt at all.
"You’re not suppressing," he said against her collarbone.
"You went to B." Her nails dug into his shoulders. "You can hold me now. Do you understand what that means? I don’t have to be careful."
He got her onto the bed and she pulled him down after her and the dark closed over both of them.
"Then don’t be," Soren said.
"You’ll regret that."
"Probably."
"The bed won’t survive it."
"The bed’s academy property."
Yara laughed against his mouth, and it was the last coherent thing either of them said for a while.
◆◆◆◆
Clothes went fast. His hands slid under the last of her shirt and pulled it off. Her skin was cool and smooth under his palms. He pushed her thighs apart and found her already wet, slick and ready.
She made a low sound into his shoulder.
"Please Master. Please, I’ve been good, I told you everything, I told you all of it."
"You did."
"So have me. All the way. Nothing left in reserve."
He lined up and pushed into her slow. Her pussy was tight and hot around him. She arched off the mattress, mouth open.
"Ahh~oh. There. Mhhh."
The shadow in the room surged with it. Every dark corner leaned in at once and the window went black.
He set a steady pace, pulling almost all the way out then sliding back in deep. She fought it the same way Maren did, hips lifting to meet him for more.
"Harder," she breathed. "Please, harder."
Unlike Maren she had the strength to take it. He put a hand flat on her chest and pressed her down into the mattress. Her body went still under his palm and a soft whimper slipped out.
"Say that again," she said.
"I didn’t say anything."
"You put your hand on me and I stopped. Do it again."
"Behave and I will."
"I’ve never behaved for anything in my life."
"Start."
She behaved.
He fucked her deeper, longer strokes that made the bed frame creak. Her legs wrapped tight around his back. Nails dug into his shoulders. Every time he bottomed out she moaned into his neck.
"Mhhh~yes. Like that. Ahh, Master~"
"Mine," Yara said, over and over, voice rough. "Mine, mine, I found you, I made this, you’re mine."
"I know."
"Say it."
"You made it." He caught her jaw and turned her face up so their eyes met in the dark. "And I stayed. That part’s mine."
Her red eyes went wide. He kept thrusting, harder now, the wet sound of him sliding in and out filling the quiet room. Her pussy clenched around him.
"Ahh~I’m~Master~"
She came apart around him with a long broken moan that shook the shadow off the walls. Her body shook under him, tight and pulsing. The sheer output of it should have cost him everything.
It didn’t.
That was the part he’d remember. The channel opened all the way, both directions, and instead of draining him, the wire filled.
He kept moving through her orgasm until he came too, pushing deep and holding there while he filled her. Pulse after pulse. She clung to him, still making small soft sounds.
"Mhhh... stay. Don’t pull out yet."
He stayed.
[DING! — Recalibration complete. Trust Event: TOTAL DISCLOSURE.]
[DING! — Soul integrity: recovering. Net gain.]
[DING! — Obsession Index: Yara Hale. Value remains outside measurable band. System advisory: no further ceiling available.]
He read that last one twice with a goddess asleep on his chest.
◆◆◆◆
He thought about the kitchen in the morning.
Four women, one file, and a goddess who had asked to sit beside him instead of across from him.
He’d said next to. He’d meant it when he said it and he still meant it now, and some cold working part of him noted that meaning it did not make it a smaller problem.
She wasn’t fully out. Her hand kept moving on his ribs, small circles, checking he was there.
"Master?"
"Mm?"
"Tomorrow. When I tell them." Her voice was small and blurry. "Will you sit next to me or across from me?"
"Next to you."
"Even after?"
"Yara."
"Mm?"
"I sat down on your grave and asked what else you moved." He put his hand on the back of her neck. "There isn’t an after. You used it up."
She made a sound into his chest that he’d never heard her make before, and then she was asleep, dead weight and shadow, taking up two thirds of a bed built for one.
Soren stared at the ceiling.
The count had one live column now, and tomorrow morning four people were going to sit in a room and hear what their goddess had done.
And then, if Yara was right, they’d have to go next.
He fell asleep wondering which one of them would break first.
It wasn’t going to be Joan.