FOREVER KNIGHTS: #15 Insatiable Beasts
A Different Woman

She turned back to the mirror. Staring at her silhouette with the long white wings outstretched from her shoulders. Almost not feeling them at all until they touched something.

“Might I help you?” He asked. Hands lifted so she could see them as he tentatively approached. When he stood behind her meeting her look in the mirror, he saw her nod.

I can make it more comfortable if you let me.

“Yes.” She swallowed.

She knows I’m going to touch her. He walked behind her and wrapped on arm over her breasts and grabbed her shoulder. To keep her dress in place. Tilting to the side he tore the back of her dress to free the wings. Splitting the strips.

“Hold them there.” He whispered along her neck.

She reached up to cup the dress above her bust. Blushing furiously.

He slid his arm back around to tie the straps around her neck. Freeing the back so she could move.

She sighed in relief. The fabric no longer restricting the skin and muscles beneath.

“Better?”

“Much better.” She smiled over her shoulder.

“You always said open back gowns were more comfortable if you needed your wings.”

“I did?” She blinked. Sighing. “Of course, I did. Aren’t they hard to find?”

“I had them made for you.”

Tentatively touching the edge of one wing she gave him a surprised look. “It’s shockingly soft. Like down.”

“It’s feathers…” A grin teased the corner of his mouth.

Running her fingers through the feathers made hardly any sound.

“How’s it feel?”

“Strange…But kind of…nice.”

Deragan didn’t move. Quietly watching her explore the new limbs. It’s nice to see them on her again.

As she relaxed them, they folded to rest along her back and bent where they rested along the ground. The feathers such pristine watch they nearly looked satin.

Backing to the taller mirror she turned and saw the wings connected to her spine between her shoulder blades. Reaching back to sweep up her hair she pulled it over a shoulder.

Her knuckled brushed the lumps that’d formed where her skin separated to make room for the wings. The bumps were hard like pebbles.

“Quickly becoming scar tissue to shelter you from the pain. As they smooth it’ll lessen.”

“I hardly feel it now.”

“Then they’re already doing their job.”

In the mirror she saw where wings curved to drop down her back to her thighs. Imagining lifting them made them rise higher. Like shrugging her shoulders. Lower feathers tipped out to point at the walls exposing her narrow waist and the flare of her hips in her skirts.

“Now try concealing them again.” He said softly.

Focusing on putting them back she opened her eyes relieved to find them gone. She shoved her fingers through her long blonde hair. Letting it rest over the knot he’d tied at the back of her neck and drape down the bare skin of her back.

“So strange…”

“Not strange, My-Nora…” He corrected. “Beautiful. A lovely gift. They unlock your power when you possess them.”

“My power?”

Ethereal abilities.

“To heal, to shine, to grant immortality and I’m unsure what else. I’ve seen you do some miraculous feats over the centuries.”

“Was it odd to keep losing me then finding me again?”

“Odd is the furthest word from what I’d use.” Sorrow wrote over his face.

Excruciating.

“Then what?”

“Anguishing. Misery. I hate losing you. And then trying to draw you back again.” He couldn’t help thoughtlessly reaching to lift a handful of her soft hair. Feeling the tips roll over the back of his hand familiarly.

“It seems, from the book, that you’ve succeeded.”

I have.

“So far.” His hand dropped and he met her look as she turned around. Blue eyes flickering from her lips to her cheekbones and settling on her blue eyes. “But who knows when it may stop working?”

“You think it will?”

“I fear it.”

It’s my worst fear.

“Why?”

“I can’t imagine my life without you.” He said in a low voice.

“But haven’t you endured it before?”

Unbearably

“Time and again. But always there’s the hope I’ll see you again that gets me through it.” He drew a pained breath. “Without that hope…”

“Don’t say that.” Her brow knitted and her hand touched his cheek lovingly without ever intending to.

He reflexively tucked his face into her hand. Missing the feel of it. For far too long.

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