Sunlight cut through the trees in slashes of shade and color, bringing out the sharp green of one leaf and guiding its lead into the soothing hue of the next darker tree. It struck the dirt flung up by the hooves of the horses under and in front of me, complemented the sounds of pounding breath and thundering feet, of gentle laughter. Adrian's mare, white as the purest lotus blooms, her tail whipping like water rapids in the space before my eyes; Adrian's back, emerald and midnight with flashing silver strands; Adrian's hair, golden and streaming in the sunlight. He looked over his shoulder back towards me, his eyes warm and dancing and perfect, and I knew that as long as I lived I would never forget that sight. No memory spell could ever block such beauty.

Grinning at the challenge he called after me, I urged my black stallion forward, reveling rather than fearing in the power that propelled him onward, the strength that ate up the distance. The beast roared his answer into the air and the white ghost ahead of us sang back and raced ahead. A momentary flash of deja vu brought a smile to my face as I leaned forward, loosening the reins and surging onwards with the horse. I had had a dream of this, a few nights before. The color had not been so brilliant in that dream as it was now, the thundering in my chest not nearly so wild. In that dream, the folds of a skirt trailed out behind me rather than the brown fawn leggings and blue velvet tunic I had donned now.

That had been thanks to Adrian's household. I had been anxious, twisting my fingers in my wedding dress when Adrian had called them together after our arrival; I knew from his scent that he had been, too. They had surrounded us, beaming and curious, as Adrian had tried to frame what he meant to say into words.

“Seba, she...” he had trailed off, “that is...”

It had been the butler and his guardian, Helena, who had finally saved him, stepping forward with an authoritative touch to his arm. “We know, my lord,” she said, kindly but with a bit of amusement in her eyes. “It was—not unobvious.” I had to agree; at least some of the staff had seen me nearly naked, after all.

“Oh,” Adrian said, letting out a breath. Anxiously, he added, “This won't be a problem? Please, I hate to ask anything, but please don't mention this to anyone who doesn't need to know.”

“We know, my lord,” Helena repeated, and patted his arm, eyes glinting fondly. She turned towards me and bowed. “We have space arranged for your things when you choose to move them, honored sir. As well as a change of clothes for the meantime, if that pleases you.”

As the wind whipped my scarlet hair backwards into streaming disarray, I reflected that the clothing had fit a little too well, unnerving me despite the fact that it was a very kind thing to do on the staff's part. Someone must have taken my measurements while I was unconscious last time. Now that I thought about it, that was strange—apparently, they had suspected I would become more of a part of Adrian's life even then. The idea made me smile, something I was doing a lot, lately.

We passed the clearing by the stream, surrounded by cherry trees that were just beginning to bear fruit now. Adrian, murmuring soft words to his horse, slowed her at last, and mine followed suit as soon as we came abreast of them.

As I neared him, the man beside me glanced over my way again, his eyes still warm but suddenly shy, flickering away quickly when I met his gaze. I was both endeared and pained at his reaction. It meant that, despite his words to me these last few days, he still feared my touch and what was ahead for another reason other than giving up the throne. At least now I could finally find out why—or rather, I certainly hoped I could.

At last we stopped, halting at the edge of the forest where the rocky ground opened up to sky and the water poured off the side of the cliff. I slid off of Lance's wide back and handed Adrian the reins when he motioned for them, watching as he tethered the horses to a tree some distance away. He returned to my side soon enough, but stiffly, standing as far away as he could without offending me. I knew it was not because he had found sudden distaste in my person or that he was now questioning this wedding, which helped a good deal; instead of being hurt or impatient with him, I turned my mind towards patience and all of the goodwill I felt towards the man at my side. I sat in the grass where I was, idly picking up a stick and tossing it back towards the forest. “You know,” I said after a moment, “I am not actually expecting you to strip your clothes off and toss them to the winds.”

“What?” Adrian asked, startled, then flushed in shame, turning towards me and seating himself at my side. “I'm sorry, Sebastian,” he murmured, running his hands through his hair distractedly, then burring his face in them instead. “I'm—very sorry.”

“Adrian,” I said, surprised by the amount of his distress despite myself. “Please, calm yourself. What has you so upset?” I hesitated, not sure if my touch would more upset him than not, then, getting an idea, placed my hands on his back as I had to him on the couch at the Jewel. When he didn't shrug me off, I dug my fingers gently into the muscles there, massaging across his shoulders. Adrian didn't quite relax, but he did not tense further, either.

“I—I should be over this,” he whispered, just audible over the roar of the water. “And you—should not nearly be so understanding.” He dropped one hand from his face to settle it on my knee, the only part of me he could reasonably reach. “I have no idea what I did to deserve you, Sebastian, but I'm not altogether certain you got a fair bargain in me.” He smiled to soften his words, but I could not tell from my angle if it was a true one, or one of his self-depreciating grimaces. “I don't mean to be so dour on such a day as this one, but—all I can think about is—” Adrian closed his eyes and sighed, then straightened out so that he lay across the grass, his head dropping backwards into my lap. Pleased at this development, I smiled at him, and this time I knew he smiled back truly.

“I'm sorry,” he confessed shyly, “but I've always wanted to do this. There was an illustration in a book I had as a child—and, please stop me if I keep getting off track like this.” I nodded agreement, not wanting to chance silencing him if I interrupted, and I brushed my fingers softly down his cheek as he thought. “You have to realize that... I never met very many people outside of servants and my customers here in the woods. All of the staff I've ever had here have been very caring, but were not prone to, to physical contact. That alone makes even the simplest contact I've had with you—difficult. Not bad, please don't ever believe that, but it seems foreign to me.” He reached up, his hand lightly trailing across my lips; I repressed the urge to part them and take his hands into my mouth. “I very much look forward to changing that,” he added with a shy smile that faded too quickly for me to enjoy. “But inexperience is not the only thing that stops me.”

“I told you before that I was nervous about, ah, testing my virility because it would leave my parents heirless, and that was true, but again, not the... whole truth.” Adrian fell silent, his brilliant eyes fixed upon mine, searching me. “But this is what I stopped speaking of last night,” he said quietly. “I do not wish to bore you with stories unworthy of your ears.”

I had to laugh, the wind off the falls whipping my hair around my head like a fiery halo. “Love,” I told him, “I would not have married you if I did not want to hear you speak, to know what you have to say.” I tapped his nose lightly. “Besides that, I'm dying of curiosity. If you ever want to keep something from me, Adrian, don't hint at it so often.”

He smiled faintly, although he did not entirely look like he believed me. “It was your mother that was doing the hinting, not I,” he said. “Although, now that I know more of her, I almost wonder if she did so knowingly, that she wanted you to learn about my past.” Contemplatively, his gaze moved past my head to the skies above, watching a cloud soar across overhead. I cleared my throat softly to call his attention back, and he flushed a faint red. “My apologies. I'll stop stalling. It is simply, well, difficult. This is not something I've told anyone before, and...” his voice trailed off for a moment to resume more more quietly, “and for good reason. But I would hate for you to die of not knowing.”

“I would hate not to know,” I agreed, and felt him relax slightly as his eyes turned towards the skies again.

“I was fifteen,” he said quietly, “when I met my first lover. I was not quite a year older when I saw him killed.” He was silent for a long moment as I stared at him, shocked. “It wasn't, that is...” Adrian sighed softly, letting his eyes fall shut. “Sasune was killed because he was my tutor, and the court ruled that even though I was of age, it was gross enough misconduct that the case would be judged as if I wasn't. But it was also my age that condemned me, for the courts decided that as I was a man, I should bear witness to what justice could look like. Ah—I am doing this backwards, aren't I...”

He went instead to the beginning, his words outlining a story that was simple enough. He had been young, and hopelessly lonely; his teacher was kind, and, apparently, unable to help himself. Adrian said that it started out innocently enough, his tutor asking for his assistance in brushing out the man's long tawny hair at night, then asking the prince to read to him before bed, then asking him to do the same naked.

“I knew it was foolish,” he said softly, “but something blinded my reason. The first time I refused, he looked so—sad, and I wanted my friend to be happy so badly. He told me that if I mentioned anything about this to anyone, he wouldn't get to see me again, which was true, although I doubted even he suspected to what degree. But the fault lay with me in the end, because I did know to what degree—that he would be killed if found out. It was not the first time such a thing had happened.”

“The first time I was asked by a man to unclothe was the curse's doing, of course, for as much as I'm willing to blame something else. When I was six, my father took me to a state function—this was just before I became the 'missing' prince; it was why I was made to become it. A friend of my father's, Lord Arlnofini, drew me aside at one point into the garden and away from the other guests. He said that I had spilled drink on my clothing, and that I needed to remove all of the layers so he could take it to be washed. It was not a, a wounding experience; I certainly thought nothing of it. But the lord was forced to be sent to the front lines of the war with the Archmage, a known death sentence, and he died for it. I understood this abstractly, just enough that I had no desire to bear my skin before another again, just—just in case. And my father did not want any more of his friends killed for my misdoings, so I was sent here.”

I felt ill. He took off his shirt before the Viper. I suggested... gods. I said nothing.

“I pleaded my case to Sasune, although I couldn't put into words exactly why I thought being naked beside him was a poor idea, and for quite a long time he did not ask again, though nor did he suggest I visit him in the nighttime again, either. He stopped speaking to me at all except in regards to my schooling. And I...” Adrian fell silent for a long moment. “It was my fault,” he continued in a low voice. “I was the one that went to him. I told him I would do whatever he asked, as long as he would be my friend again. I was... so foolish. He kissed me for the first time that night, and I—I had never felt the touch of another, not like that. I loved it. I could honestly say that I wanted him when he took me. I tried telling the courts that when I testified, but they seemed not to care either way.”

“Seduction of the innocent,” I murmured in a hoarse voice, causing Adrian to briefly open his eyes to look at me. “Your... your case is famous, although you were certainly never connected to it by name. It was the basis of the new laws your mother got the Kingdom Coalition to adopt, that outlines exactly what seduction cases are punishable by death. I—please continue.”

“I didn't know,” Adrian said softly, then swallowed and closed his eyes again. “It was a foolish thing he was found out for. I started falling asleep in my lessons since I was doing so little of that at night, much to the annoyance of my tutors. They all assumed I had found some dalliance with a local girl or boy, of course, and simply began lecturing me on the appropriate times which I should be seeing a lover; none of them, not even Sasune, knew I was the prince, after all, and I had not yet heard of your mother's new law. Then my father hired a political tutor who was told, and she immediately took me aside and wanted to know if I had intercourse, telling me that I would lose the throne if I had. I insisted I had not, that my lover only entered me, and that was all that was needed for her to pierce together what had happened. I, being, ah, uneducated in certain fields as it was, did not realize what the social implications of the way Sasune took part in me meant; I had just assumed that he was the dominant partner in the relationship because that's the way it was, and not because he was so much older. I didn't even realize people had a choice in the matter, and the courts used that as proof I should be judged a minor.”

And that was why the rules were clearer now, why now no person in a position of power could sleep with one under their control without permission or explicit written agreement. Because Adrian, my Adrian, had been coerced by another into giving up his body to another against his will, without him realizing it was so. This was nothing like the prostitution I engaged in, no matter that we were nearly the same ages when we had our first sexual encounter; that, I had entered into with full knowledge, of my own choice, and eagerly so. Adrian had done it to keep the one person he saw as his friend in his life, blackmailed without his knowledge.

“His death was horrific,” Adrian whispered, and I stroked my fingers down his cheek and neck, not knowing what I could do otherwise. “I can't imagine a death that isn't, though I have been told others do not see death as I do. But after he was executed, I became paranoid that such a thing should never happen again. Instead of simply resigning myself to never being touched in that way by others, I avoided contact at all costs. Eventually, it became such that I couldn't... I couldn't pick up something else someone had recently handled, even. I wanted no harm to come to those I felt for, so the more I cared about a member of my staff or another teacher, the more I avoided them. Staff—quit because of my behavior, as did my tutors. I could not blame them. For months I would not even talk to others, during the worst of it.”

“And then, near my nineteenth birthday, a delivery woman named Persephone came to my house with a package, bearing supplies for the cooks. She was a very physical person—that is, she touched others whenever she could, wrestling with the guards, draping her arm around the maids and... me. The first time she put a hand on my shoulder I nearly leaped out of my skin, so fearful of contact I was then. She thought it was, well, amusing, I suppose. She began to do it whenever she stopped by, nudges, pokes, pats on the head. Never anything harmful, simply contact. At first it bothered me a great deal, but eventually I came to ignore it. I opened up to others again, a little.”

“But...” Adrian trailed off, then sat up suddenly, drawing his legs up to his chin and wrapping an arm around them, using the other to brace himself in the dirt. The loss of his warmth made the afternoon air seem suddenly freezing, the spray from the waterfall landing like ice on my skin. “There was a man working in my household then, Su Feng, who had decided my acceptance of her contact meant that I was in love with her, or so I had guessed he thought at the time. He urged me to seek out Persephone's company, to spend time with her; he teased me often about kissing and bedding her, an idea that still horrified me. I ignored him, for I did not feel that way for the woman, though I counted her a dear friend.”

“Then one day Persephone heard Su Feng's teasing. She yelled at him for it, and I was so horrifically embarrassed that I avoided her for days, not wishing her to believe that I had had anything to do with his joking plans. When she finally succeeded in cornering me again, she confessed that she was not uninterested in the idea of me... of me courting her, but that she simply wanted me to come to that conclusion on my own without Feng's prodding. I hadn't known what to say. She kissed me; I let her, and she asked me to think about it, and that she would return on the morrow.”

“Except the next day, both of them were arrested, along with several others I didn't know—in a multi-part plot to remove me from the throne and blackmail my parents into ruling as they wished. Feng had turned himself in, so his sentence was lighter; exile. Persephone was higher up in the group, however, and so she, too, was executed. And that... that's really all there is to the story.”

His story struck a chord in me I did not quite recognize, not for a long moment, but then sudden inspiration hit me like quick blow to the head. The sky went blurry as my memories came back to me, the spell I had placed on myself dissolving at last. I had read the unicorn letter, but the seal had bothered me, making a thought dance just on the edge of my mind. It had been years since my mother's law had been put into action, enough so that it had not crossed my thoughts when I had learned the identity of the man of Lavender's vision; a trip to Blued Moon's library had resolved that problem. Wonderful, I had thought—now, in addition to finding out that I had to discover some way to love the prince in order to save his life, I needed to seduce the man without ever consummating the seduction.

But the text I had chosen to research the Mitsurin Pact from was a law document, and the article beneath the pertinent one had caught my eye. It was an account of a group that had conspired to exploit the law, who had set out, though failed, to seduce one of royal blood. The very prince I had been seeking to do the same to, though for a much different reason, was the one they had been killed for. A choking fear had briefly taken me, as I contemplated my mortality surrounded by the scrolls of Moon's study.

Then I had grinned into the dim light. These criminals had been sloppy, not to mention unsuccessful. How could I, prodigy of the Crowned Jewel, possibly fail in my task, with the force of righteousness behind me? I would continue on with all of this, consequences be damned.

But—there was no point in worrying myself unduly, either. I would forget all I had learned that day, so as to better complete my task without distraction. I wanted to have all the time I could possibly need, after all.

We were both silent for a long time, lost in our own thoughts. To block out my stupidity, as well as the overwhelming weight of Adrian's tale, I closed my eyes and listened to the wind instead of my own mind. I listened to the rustling of the horses off in the distance, the cries of water birds down below, the chirps of forest birds behind. I listened to my own breathing and the rustle of cloth as my chest rose and fell. I sniffled, a little bit, and tried to keep as silent as I might after that.

Finally, when I could bear no more, I asked quietly, “Adrian, why did you come to the Crowned Jewel?” I wasn't certain if I could look at him that moment, so I kept my eyes on the water plunging down to the ground far below. I could not have known what touching Adrian would mean to him, not in that way, but I wish... I wish I could have. Gods, what he must have thought of me. I was treating him as I would a rape victim, but it wasn't that which was the problem. He was afraid of my touch, but not for himself, not really—every time I did so, it was their deaths he saw.

“That is an interesting question,” was the soft reply. “My father told me that he had an arranged a betrothal, after all these years. At first I panicked, unable to sleep and without appetite, but then I realized I needed to be much more constructive in my approach if life for my bride was to be anything but torment. I knew I needed to reaccustom myself both to touch and to the company of others that weren't in my household, and I could not think of where else to do such a thing in the time necessary but at the Crowned Jewel I head heard so much about.”

“When I met you, I had high hopes that I could accomplish this; you are excellent at calming even the most frantic of souls, after all, although I suppose you had help in the way of the pain spells I was using.” I was too down to even scowl at this belittlement of my courtesan skills. “Your touch did not outright terrify me, although...” his voice went softer, “although I still could not bear to stay with you in darkness, which was why I left early. Some foolish part of me has been afraid of the night since Sasune was killed, as if it were the time of day, and not our actions, that killed him. And Tuesdays—well, this is foolish as well, but Tuesdays were the days when Persephone delivered elsewhere and did not stop by the house. One of my tutors was particularly superstitious when I was young and some of it, I admit, has rubbed off on me; I thought I might be able to bear the presence of another longer if it was during times fortunate to me.”

“And then... then you insisted on seeing me when I was ill, and I saw you in a different light. I—this is a touch embarrassing, I'm afraid—became rather enamored of having you as a friend. I admired your stubbornness and kindness, enough to make my ridiculous request of you at this very spot; when you agreed, I was too happy to question it. I suppose one good thing came out of failing to recognize your love spell: your visits gave me enough courage to come to the Jewel on Hallowednight, where I met you again as the Black Viper.” Adrian paused for a moment, then added with embarrassment rich on his scent, “I am sorry, this is not what you asked for. It has simply been on my thoughts.”

I did look over at him then and felt a fool for not doing so earlier; there was sharp pain and fear on his face, so much deeper than mine, but it lightened perceptibly when I acknowledged him at last. Did he think I would turn him away, after that story? I wondered, aghast, and then considered how I would feel in a similar situation. I rose briefly, swinging one leg across his crossed ones, and sank down in one fluid motion to perch in his lap, my arms settling around his shoulders. “It answers questions I have had, which is reason enough for me to listen,” I told him softly, “but do not apologize for telling me things. Adrian—” I paused with a sigh, realizing this was a question that I should have asked a few moments before embracing him. “Does my touch still bother you?”

The most fleeting of smiles rippled across his face. “No,” he said softly. “I cannot say that it does.”

I swallowed, then said, more a statement than a question, “But you fear that I'll die like the others who have wanted you. Or... or that I, too, will betray you.”

Adrian shook his head, pulling me forward to press his forehead to my shoulder as his arms encircled my waist. “Betray—no. I would never suspect that of you. Even if I was prone to suspicion, there have been plenty of times for you to do so, but have not—wasn't it even your mother that said I could cause a disgrace by marrying a man? It would have been the easiest thing in the world for someone in your position to have simply told one of the Emperor's party that I had offered to wed you. As for dying... I do not think that exact thing, no, for this time I would be able to do everything in my power to save you from the courts if danger came up. But at the least, it seems no lucky thing to court me so.” He smiled, achingly sadly. “Of course, I have rather condemned you already by marrying you.”

I blew out a breath, scattering the blonde hair falling into the man's eyes. “I do not feel condemned,” I told him, eyes narrowing faintly. “And while I believe it would be unlucky for anyone else to court you, I feel that I am well out of danger.” My gaze softened when I saw him blush, turning his face away from me; I touched my fingers to his chin and guided his head back. “But to restate, you no longer fear my touch, but are not yet comfortable with the idea of consummating this wedding?”

Adrian was silent for a long time, his pale-and-dark eyes watching mine intently, solemn and still. Instead of answering, he raised his hand and lightly ghosted his fingertips across the curve of my face, around my cheekbone to settle on the back of my neck; I shivered as it tickled the pale hairs there. His breath was calm and steady, light on my lips where it landed as he brought his face closer to mine, gently pressing his mouth upon my skin. I let him explore my face with air and lips, waiting for his answer as he softly kissed my brow, my eyelids, my nose.

The wind brushed past us, swirling the grass around our legs and sending Adrian's pale hair cascading across his face. He ignored it, leaning up to pour his love into my mouth, pulling me close until I could feel his heartbeat through my skin, resonating with my own. And still he did not answer, not truly, not as I wrapped my arms around his back and buried my fingers in the folds of cloth there. Light as a butterfly's wings, he traced the curve of my collarbones with his hands, the curve of my mouth with his tongue, testing and worshiping and pleading.

“Sebastian,” he whispered when he drew back, his voice raw. He shut his eyes quickly, but not quickly enough to hide the wetness in them from me. “To be honest, I... I want your touch so badly I feel I may perish from it. But I cannot shake the feeling that I damn you through this desire. I do not... do not know how to answer you.”

His words did not offend me, not with the cocktail of scents that reached my nose accompanying them. The true fear was no longer there, nor the self-revulsion; instead, a deep shyness and enough nerves for a cadre of first-time patrons had replaced them, and that was more than satisfactory to me.

Keeping the odd, bubbling laugher his words had welled in me from reaching my eyes, I rose in response to those scents, stepping a few feet away from my seated beloved. The wind was stronger the closer one got to the edge of the cliff, and it whipped my hair up into a fury, fire lapping around my shoulders as I reached up and undid the simple clasps holding my sapphire tunic on. I let it slip from my shoulders inch by inch until I could drop it down into the grass, then reached up to pull the chopsticks I had placed in my hair to keep it in some order, letting it tumble down as it willed to its full length, still unchanged from the wedding. Then I turned towards Adrian.

Although the last few weeks had been hectic, I had found some scarce time to make my way to the Hospital-Healing center and asked what could be done about my scars. Given that the procedure was more cosmetic than life-threatening, the healer demanded gold beyond the normal allotment given to Jewel customers, but I had that in plenty, now. Most of the marks had been reduced to thin red lines that I did not care enough to notice, all but the worst of the wounds, the one that wound across my hip to the inner thigh. For that, however, the ever creative Ash Star had had a truly stunning idea.

That idea was inked from the faint curl at the base of my neck to the base of my spine, slithering down in a twisting pattern across my anterior where the black scales turned to follow the arch of the scar before sinuously returning, the viper's dark head lurking on my hip. I watched Adrian's eyes follow the tattoo downward curiously, his eyes narrowing at the spot where the ink strokes vanished beneath the waistline of my leggings as he attempted to determine what the artful piece resolved in. After a long moment he realized where exactly he was staring. I smiled, amused, expecting him to blush and turn away, but instead he raised his gaze to mine, eyes dark and intent. “Show me,” he said softly. If I had not already been aroused by his very presence, I would have gone up in a heartbeat at that moment.

Slowly I undid the ties at the sides of my waist, slowly I slipped out of the material, lifting one leg and then the other with carefully honed perfection. Adrian's household had not thought to provide me with undergarments; given the extent of the man's blush now, I did not think he had known this prior. But he did not flinch as I returned to him, bending down into a light kneel at his side, or when I raised my hand to his chin, pulling him forward to brush my tongue into his mouth. When he gasped, though, it was all I could do to keep my other hand from latching onto the front of his tunic and ridding him of it in one sharp pull.

“I,” I whispered into his lips, “do not fear your curse.”

His hands settled lightly on my back, seeming unknowing of where to settle, first brushing against my ribs, then sliding down to the small of it, then jerking up quickly away again to my shoulders. I reached back with long practiced grace and set one on the back of my thigh, the other on my chest above my heart. Adrian was shaking so badly his fingers were leaving furrows in my skin, but it was not entirely nerves that drove him so, though nor did I mind. After a moment of hesitation, he very tentatively brushed his fingers up across the back of my leg, trailing them across to my hips, and I realized I had made one unexpected error—I had forgotten how much I wanted this man.

He gently shifted me from his lap, stilling my whimper of protest with his lips as he tried to simultaneously unfasten his jacket and keep his balance; my skin burned so fiercely wherever his touch landed that I could not stop the soft noises from spilling from my throat whenever his hands landed on me. We eventually came to the compromise of my fingers streaking across the binding of his clothes while his braced me from toppling over in our ungainly position, and I shoved the jacket down his arms near frantically while his hands traced maddeningly soft patterns across my chest.

I fell into his grasp the instant I could do so again, wrapping my bare legs around his still covered hips while I kissed him hungrily, over and over again, trying to transmit as much of the feeling pounding through my blood via my tongue and teeth and lips. Of all wonders, Adrian was equally passionate, devouring whatever I had to give him and then some, his hands skimming my bare skin in ways that tore helpless cries from me. If I had had more control, I would have burned with embarrassment, but as it was, I was doing well by keeping from begging him to touch me there and there and there again.

But I still technically—and how I hated that word that moment!—did not have a true answer from him. I had to draw back, my chest heaving, and brace his head in both my hands so that he could not distract me more than he already was. Adrian was peering up at me with those stunning eyes, so dark with desire they were both nearly black, his cheeks flushed and lovely, his breath coming in soft pants through swollen, rose red lips. I bit my tongue so hard that I tasted blood before I could control my words again, then asked in one swift exhale, “Will you please?” It was not the most sensical of questions, but Adrian was brilliant and wonderful and understood.

He laughed breathlessly, a sound of joy that somehow increased my desire a thousandfold, and whispered, “If you are willing to take the chance, then—yes.” I barely let him get through closing his mouth on the last syllable before I opened it again, kissing him for all I was worth while my oddly trembling hands fell to the folds of his cloth belt.

Then, faster than a striking snake, a crack ripped across the sky, echoing down in the valley below. I would have ignored it, except that a moment later, even the least observant soul would have realized what had caused it—within a blink of an eye, a summer monsoon had sprung upon us and we were both hopelessly, sopping wet as water dropped from the sky in one roaring wave. My jaw dropped in mid-pause and I blinked in stunned silence, splashes dropping off of my lashes as I turned my eyes to the heavens in disbelief.

I thought that I had seen Adrian laugh at the wedding practice the night before, but that was nothing compared to now. He fell back against the ground, sides heaving as tears and water streamed down his face; he would pause for a moment, briefly under control, then see my face again and break into further peals. I could do little but sit and gape as my hair plastered itself to my head, running in rivulets down my back and pooling at my hips. I wasn't quite aware of what was so funny; I wanted to cry. To be foiled by the weather was not something that happened at the Crowned Jewel. If we had been there, we would have been laying on silk sheets, propped on gold pillows and surrounded by gilded murals. Here, my heels were starting to sink into mud.

Adrian slithered out from under me, in control at last, and rose, holding a hand out to me. I took it numbly, reluctantly rising at his light tug. Don't worry, we'll try another day, his smile said, and I had to look away lest my disappointment and unending frustration appeared on my face. I had been so close to finally having everything that I wanted, so close to putting Adrian's fears to rest at last, and now the world itself was denying me the pleasure. If I ever meet a rain god, I thought grimly, then I will spit on his feet. The prince led me over to a thick grove of pine trees, where at least the rain only fell on us in the occasional drop rather than a continuous downpour, and I reached up to twist my hair in a spiral, urging the water futilely out of my thick, soaking curls.

Adrian stopped me with a light touch, drawing one hand around my waist to pull me beside him again. “You look so sad,” he murmured, laying a hand against my cheek and leaving a faint outline of mud there. “Why?” I could not put my hopelessness in words at that moment, but he did not let me anyway; he tightened his grip, grinding me flush against his chest and hips, and kissed me as if paradise awaited him on the other side. I didn't understand entirely, not until his hands slid down my back, shudders transversing across my skin wherever his touch landed, to cup the tender flesh on the rear of my legs. My heart began beating again in my chest, filling me with life again as I realized that Adrian was not going to let rain put an end to this.

“No reason,” I told him, laughing, as plastered myself to the front of him, now relishing, rather than fearing, the wetness of his skin, the way it had molded the cloth still binding his legs to his frame. He gasped shyly as I trailed my hand across his chest, gasped more passionately when I traced my fingers around the more sensitive areas there, lightly pinching the hard round nubs on his chest. A drop of rain rolled off his shoulders and I traced its path back up to his neck with my tongue, pausing at the soft skin of his neck, taking a moment to just breathe in his scent. The pine needles crushed underfoot and the misty tang of rain mixed with his warmth, and I realized that I was more content than I had ever been in my life.

I raised my head and he met my gaze, solemn and joyful all at once. This close I could see the intricate shades of color in his eyes, dazzling me with their splendor. I had seen many pairs in my time, what scholars called the windows of the soul, but never a view so lovely as his, eyes with a promise not just for the next hour but for the next year and the one after that and forever now until we both were gone. These were the windows into a soul that loved me and that showed me a sight I had never seen before.

“I—I hate to bring this up now,” Adrian murmured, hiding himself from me with suddenly lowered lashes and a rosy blush, “but I am not going to be very good at this. I thought I should warn you, since you... since you seemed so interested in, ah, sleeping with me.” His shoulders slumped under my fingers, sheepish as his gaze begged my forgiveness. “I simply don't know that much.”

I kissed him, too amused to answer him that moment, then pulled back with a smile. “It is fine,” I told him. “I should know enough for both of us.” Although that does not mean I know what you want. I regarded him for a moment, looping my arms around his waist, then asked, “When you went to bed with your lover Sasune, did you enjoy whatever he did there?”

Adrian paused a bit, clearly uncomfortable with the conversation, although as far as I could tell it was more that he wasn't used to talking about sex whatsoever than of memories of his dead teacher. “Well,” he said hesitantly, “it was a bit—painful. He didn't hurt me or the like, but it...” He sighed and looked away, cheeks red. “My apologies, I simply don't know what to say. I enjoyed kissing him and his caress, but did not like the rest quite as much. Helena told me that lovemaking is less painful the more one does it, and it was only a week before Sasune was, was discovered, so I assume that we simply weren't lovers long enough.”

I sighed mentally as I brushed Adrian's fine hair out of his face with idle fingers. No, he simply did not know how to treat you right, damn the man. “I see,” I murmured to soothe him. “Very well.” As much as I, and any courtesan, simply wished, it wasn't always wise to assume what a patron would or would not care for; of course, we were well trained on how to back out of mistakes once they were made, but a few simple questions asked beforehand could often make all the difference. “Then, when you pleasure yourself, what do you dream of? Do you prefer the exhilarating rush, or to relax in the sensation?”

My response was a politely blank and utterly confused stare. I blinked, adding, “At night?” and when that too brought no comprehension, I made a vague but recognizable motion in the air; now a slightly pained expression had crossed Adrian's face, as if he realized that he should recognize my meaning but I was speaking in a foreign tongue he had not yet mastered. Finally I placed a hand full across his groin, an act that sent a pink flush across his cheeks but no greater understanding. Unable to resist, I ran a thumb down his length as I asked, “Do you never touch yourself here?”

“Of course not,” he replied, breathing shakily as I skated my thumb upwards again. “Should, ah, should I have?” Oh gods. There was a difference between inexperienced and kept in the woods without a father or siblings to explain the basic principles of life, apparently. I squeezed gently and he gasped, turning his head to the side and laying it on my shoulder as I moved closer to him; I used the opportunity to press my lips again the soft skin on his neck as I tightened my grip again, smiling when he outright groaned.

“I'm sorry,” he whispered, muffled against my skin, “I feel such an idiot, stumbling blind in the dark along a path you know so well. But that... that feels wonderful, it really does.” I reassured him with butterfly kisses across his bare chest and shoulders, pressing him downwards until we were seated on the damp needles below. Cradling Adrian against my chest, I continued my gentle stroking, each gasp and shudder he made a balm upon my spirit. This was what I wanted, what I needed as much as the cool summer air swirling around us. It had taken me countless spells gone awry, crucial mistakes, foolish misunderstanding, and near-fatal lies to get to where I was now, the man I loved wrapped in my arms as I introduced him to everything that had given my life meaning up until the point I had met him. I judged the twisting path worth it as Adrian's back arched, his wide eyes filled with passion and wonder, not a trace of his forced reserve or old fear left within in.

“Wait,” he gasped as bent my head to trace the cleft of his mouth with my tongue, “if you do that much longer, I'll, I'll come to my full.” He nearly bit through his lip when I lowered my hand to the area between his legs, pressing my fingers up against each of the sensitive spots I knew there.

“That's rather the point,” I murmured with a smile as I flicked my fingers down the front bindings of his pants, exposing his flesh to the air and drawing out another groan that made my hips twitch in need as I replaced my hand back on the sweet pale skin there. I could only be glad that Adrian's lack of experience would prevent him from realizing how close my control was to slipping; even I did not realize it until my shy, reserved lover began thrusting up against my palm, a sight that drove me wild with desire. “If,” I had to swallow to speak in anything but a throaty growl, “if you do do so now, the next part will be more enjoyable for the both of us. Please trust me on this.” I kissed the skin behind his ear, the closest I could reach, then murmured to us both, “Simply focus on this feeling. Cling it close to your chest until it envelops you; do not turn away from this, or ask me to stop if you can help it. Fall into it, but not too quickly, for the longer you wait, the better it will be.”

“A-alright,” he replied, licking his lips and unknowingly driving me just that more closer to the edge. He tipped his head back, looking up at me with wonder in his eyes and embarrassment on his cheeks. “I... this is foolish, I know, but I... I simply wish to hear your voice,” he murmured.

I tightened my grip around him again, hastening my guiding strokes as Adrian's gaze unfocused, and I met his tongue between words, coaxing every nerve he had back into pleasure as I sought to show him what his foolish request did to me. “I want you,” I gasped, really the only thing I could think of at that moment. “I need you. You're beautiful, so lovely, and I love you so—” My prince interrupted me with a soft gasp and came into my hand, his spill sliding across his damp flesh to mix with the rain water and mud beneath us. There was something holy about that, I thought dizzily as he gasped and trembled against me, the life of this child of the forest merging with it.

“I didn't realize I was that good,” I teased gently, though my words shook with a sudden knot of emotion in my throat. I had never thought of the lovemaking at the Jewel as artificial until that moment, but this was so much more real that the feeling near overpowered me. This is what it is like to hold someone you truly care about, I realized.

“My apologies,” Adrian managed between gasps, sagging against my chest bonelessly as the stupor of orgasm took him away, murmuring under his breath as I continued my light handling for a few moments more. “But you are.” He sighed then laughed suddenly, sounding far younger than his years for a moment. “I fear I've made a mess.”

I smiled and nuzzled his hair aside, pressing a kiss to his temple. “Then I shall clean it up,” I said, and snapped my free fingers sharply, watching Adrian lean back against the ground with a contented sigh as the glisten down his side dissolved into the air. He looked up at me, then lit suddenly with a smile as he reached up to touch my cheek.

“Mud,” Adrian murmured as he gently brushed it away. Covered in soil by the side of my beloved, I was perfectly content again. I rearranged myself to more steadily sit by him, easing my leg from beneath his hip where it was beginning to go numb, and couldn't have cared less. “Is there,” he paused for a moment, watching me with eyes wide and curious and unafraid, “is there anything I can do for you? I can't help but wish there was some way to show you how that felt.”

I had to smile in pleasure in his interest, lifting my shoulders in reply. “I can wait until you've recovered,” I told him, amused. Well, as long as I make no sudden movements. “If there is something you'd like to try, however, just ask.” At the sudden trepidation that came into his eyes, I added gently, “I don't expect perfection from you, Adrian. You have years to learn in, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't start as soon as possible.” I tweaked his nose playfully to bring a smile back to his face. “I enjoy your touch regardless.”

He watched me with an indescribable look, then asked softly, “Will you lay beside me?” I obeyed immediately, stretching out at his side and flicking a rock away from under my head, lowering my face down inches away from Adrian's. He smiled softly and reached out to place his hand on my hip, a motion that made me shut my eyes to keep from trembling. I could not quite place if it was the lack of my mask or this particular lover that made his touch affect me so, but my skin was all but singing in reply. “May I touch you?” he asked. I had forgotten about the agreement we had made in his bedroom a few weeks ago, and I smiled as I murmured my accent to his question.

He trailed his hand across my stomach to rest on my lower belly; I was still so aroused that the head of my cock brushed the back of his fingers, and I shuddered at the contact. He massaged his fingers unconcernedly into the area, twinging them in the trail of hairs that led down from my stomach, tugging and releasing them until I whimpered. He then traced his touch to the inside of my leg and I quickly shifted my weight to give him access; even as the Viper, I had always loved to have my thighs handled.

Adrian, to my disappointment, did not comply with my unspoken request. “Why do you have your eyes closed?” he asked quietly. Startled, they flew open to look at his intent features. “I may be working on somewhat limited information,” he continued, sliding a hand across my hamstring and elevating my heartbeat wildly. “But it seems to me that when it comes to your own pleasure, you are much more guarded than you expect others to be with the same.” He moved his touch up to my cheek instead. “Such as wearing a mask to hide your own emotions, to keep others from knowing what would make you most pleased.”

I stared at him, well shocked. “I don't hide my emotions,” I replied; if anything, I had always displayed too many, been too bold. But... I did prefer assignations in the dark, where I could fall into a patron's pleasure and let it become my own. When I had first spoken to Adrian as myself I had become downright cold simply to spare him the knowledge of my feelings, hiding everything I was behind an invisible screen; I had not told Lavender what I knew of Adrian until nearly too late, because it meant admitting that I loved him. It was something I had half-realized by doing the showing with Jade but hadn't had to acknowledge until now. “Perhaps you are a little right,” I admitted, turning my gaze down to the pine needles. “I... I do not mean to.”

“I do not blame you,” Adrian replied softly. “I simply wasn't sure if you knew.” He leaned forward and kissed me lightly, apology on his scent. “That said,” he murmured, “please tell me what you want.”

What I wanted? “That I did not lie about,” I told him with a faint smile. “Everything you do feels perfect.” He twined his fingers up into my long curls and I sighed in contentment, nestling against his side. “As long as I am here at your side, I am pleased.”

“I didn't realize I was that good,” he murmured back, well amused. He stretched his long arms outward, pillowing his head against one of mine. “Then you won't be offended if I fall asleep here, as long as I stay beside you?”

I gasped and sat upright, my skin boiling again in frustration at the very thought. “Asleep? I, I don't—” I realized Adrian was trying and failing to keep from laughing, muffling himself with his hand as his eyes danced. I narrowed mine at him. “Very funny,” I snarled, leaning down to tickle his sides in retaliation until he laughed aloud, curling up helplessly on the dirt. “You'll sleep when I let you and not a moment before then, you fiendish prince—” He cut me off by reaching up between my tormenting arms and pulling my head down for a kiss, pressing his lips to mine with a ferocity that echoed my own. I gave into him, ceasing my assault as he pulled me down on top of him, my legs splayed on either side of his hips and my groin pressed into the warmth of his lower belly. I bit down on his lip until I could think straight again, repeating a silent mantra in my head over and over again, wait. Wait. You've waited this long, you can wait a little longer. Trust in yourself that much.

“Sebastian?” Adrian asked when I released him, dabbing away a drop of blood at the corner of his mouth; I winced faintly in guilt, although he did not seem overmuch bothered by it. “Is something the matter?”

“I'm sorry,” I managed to grind out, my voice dropping lower when he shifted beneath me to a better position. “It's just... I am used to taking what I want, not asking for it.” My hands twitched as I noticed the cloth still partially wrapped around his hips, itching to strip this last barrier away from between us. I dug them into the pine needles to silence my mind, focusing on the scratches and pricks that gave me as I worked on cooling my blood. These sudden rushes between contentment and overwhelming desire were making me dizzy; I really was used to addressing lust first at the sake of all else, but here with Adrian, my mind did not want that even if my body was continuously rebelling against this point. I felt like I had the night Viper had first caught sight of Adrian, but this was not driven by a love spell, this was driven by love, and therein lay the conflict. I didn't want to hurt him, but I did want him, overwhelmingly.

“Then do so,” he breathed out after a moment, eyes hazy and lovely as they met mine. My blood roared at his words so fiercely my vision went briefly dark, but I reined it back in with every ounce of preservation I had. “Don't limit yourself for my sake, Sebastian.” His voice shaping the syllables of my true name made things a thousand times worse—or better, as I would have thought of it before. Gods.

“No,” I whispered, bending down to kiss the cool skin of his chest, trying to focus my mind upon something else for a moment. His faint indrawn breaths whenever my lips touched down did not help overmuch. “No,” I repeated again, then swallowed a sudden hesitancy past my throat. “I... I want you inside me this time.” I knew that ever since I had first contemplated the thought that I would be able to touch a unicorn to marry this man. In some foolish part of my mind, I felt that if I let him do this, it would be the final sign this union could not be annulled, that I wouldn't have to wake in the morning without him at my side again. It was idealistic, but the thought would not leave me alone.

That, and the hot, fierce burning in my mind whenever I contemplated it. I needed to be with him like this; I needed to see his face when he lost himself to pleasure at last. I need you far too much, my love. I simply hope you're brave enough to bear all I want to give you.

Adrian's eyes widened faintly, then creased in what looked like resigned kindness. He touched my cheek, so gently that I suddenly felt like weeping. “You are no longer contracted to test my virility,” he pointed out. “Nor do I have some sort of moral or societal aversion to taking the submissive role.” I quirked a brow faintly as his unusual way of stating such a thing, and he shrugged sheepishly in reply. “I did some research after the trial on sexual convergence, so that I would not be able to be judged a minor again.” His tone was light, but even my desire waned a bit at the distant expression in his eyes. “Moreover, your friend at the Jewel spoke with me on the issue. He warned me that such a thing for you would mean more for you than you would let on.”

My cheeks flamed at his statement and I turned my head in the approximate direction of said friend to glare that general way. Jade, you had better begin looking for scorpions in your bed when I get back, I thought darkly. I had hoped he and Adrian would talk, but had not suspected that the subject would be my various sexual interests. I almost asked the prince what else they had spoken of, then wondered if I really wished to know. “I see,” I replied, then took a deep breath. “That is true, but if you also... also have no moral and societal aversion to not taking the submissive roll, then that is what I ask of you. You did say you wished to know what I wanted,” I added, a touch of anxiety in my voice.

“Sebastian,” Adrian said warmly, sitting up to see me better; the action caused my groin to be more tightly embraced against his flesh, and I had to fight down another dizzying wave of arousal. “I am not refusing you, if you notice. It's just that...” His brow furrowed slightly as he struggled to bring up the words he wanted, “as, as far as I have been able to tell, and from what the reading implied, the penetrative role is the more pleasurable one, is it not? I don't—that is, it does not take a very great deal of pleasure for me to—” A pink blush fell across his cheeks, preventing him from continuing. “Even in the short time I was with a lover, I learned that much. I am just not certain it is a role you wish me to be in.”

“Adrian.” I had to fight down the rich urge to laugh, not wishing to hurt his feelings and unable to properly explain what it was I found so amusing about his statements. I settled for pulling him closer to me, brushing my lips lightly against his and reveling in the way he was already stirring again against my hip. “There will be a hundred such times as this,” I told him. “I am your spouse, a courtesan no longer, so there had better be. I cannot nearly be satisfied with one afternoon of you, no matter how precious this time might be.” I adjusted my grip to nuzzle his ear, feeling him sigh and relax in my arms. “I meant what I said before,” I whispered to him, feeling the wind pick up again, the coolness on my bare back nothing compared to the heat emanating from the man to my front. “I am not saying that this is what I will desire all of the time, for we have a hundred such times to find out what it is we both want. This time is only the first; it need not be perfect. It is enough as it is. You cannot fail in this role I request of you, not in any real way.” I drew back to study the truth in his face, however, suddenly concerned. “Unless the reason you disagree is because you truly don't wish to, you find the idea distasteful, or some such...” I trailed off, watching him hesitantly.

“No,” Adrian gasped, then ducked his head, hopelessly embarrassed. “That is, I, well, the idea, I, perhaps—” I had to kiss him again to get him to calm down, then he took a deep, steadying breath and managed more reasonably, “It is not a remotely distasteful idea. I simply do not wish to hurt you in any way.”

“There is always some pain involved,” I admitted, “as your Helena told you. But pain is not a concern of mine.” At the faintly skeptical look that crossed his face, I leaned forward and lightly nipped his lip where I had inadvertently split it before. “Some people quite enjoy it,” I purred, eyes dancing. No need to tell him I had never known myself to be one of those individuals, although the way his groin twitched at my words certainly drew my interest.

“Then,” Adrian managed after a long moment, voice holding a delicious tremor in it that set my soul afire once more, “please tell me what I should do.”

“First, you should get undressed,” I told him, a smile dancing around my lips, and I shifted off his hips to do so, mourning his loss almost immediately. I couldn't say I minded the way his gaze fixed unconsciously between my legs, nor the way his fingers seemed suddenly incapable of the simple motions to remove his pants. I bent my head to ease off one of his boots, my long hair trailing down my neck, half covering my nakedness. Setting the first one to the side, I turned to the second and repeated the action, then glanced up to the beautiful sight of my scholarly prince at a loss for words, unable to do anything but stare my way. When finished with that task, I took Adrian's hand and guided him gently into a standing position then sunk into a kneel before him, unfastening the rest of the ties on his leggings before sliding them downwards, trailing my hands over the firm, pale skin of his thighs and calves as I did so. He shuddered helplessly under my touch as I brushed my fingers against the sides of his feet, leading him to lift them clear of the cloth that I bundled beside his shoes.

Adrian went to sit beside me again but I halted him by grabbing his hips when he would have moved them, keeping my eyes focused on his dazed and curious gaze as I ran my thumbs in gentle circles across the soft flesh guarded by the bones beneath my fingers. I tilted my head up, pleased to discover that I was just the right height as I slid one hand up to cup the area between his legs.

“What are you—” he gasped, cutting off into a surprised hiss when I wrapped my lips around his stirring flesh, drawing his length firmly into my mouth. Adrian clasped one hand sharply over his mouth to prevent any further noises as his knees buckled helplessly under my administrations. I was prepared for that, however, and sported him on my chest as I wound up my free arm to bring his hand down again, pinning his wrist sharply to his side when he attempted shyly to tug it back to his lips. I wasn't confident of when I would be able to convince him that I wanted to hear his soft cries as I flicked my tongue under and around and beneath again, that they made my blood surge as nothing else ever had, but I would make sure he learned eventually.

“Please,” he panted after a few further moments, “please, it feels too much, I beg you...” I released him for a breath and he fell upon me, pinning my shoulders to the ground with his hands as he kissed and licked and stroked my chest, my face, my stomach, passionate and breathtaking. I gasped in surprise when he bit down again my neck, a deep groan tearing from my throat when he released it to stare at me, panting. His eyes were more intent than I had ever seen them as he said hoarsely, “Show me.”

As he dove into my mouth, tongue sliding against mine with a passion that left me mindless, it was all I could do to manage to snap my fingers, grabbing at his groin blind and coating his still wet head with the lubricant I had summoned. I lifted my hips to do the same with my entrance but found that it was nigh impossible from the particular angle I was pinned at, and there was no way in all the heavens I was going to remove Adrian from the position he was in to move. Well, why not. “Give me your hand,” I gasped around his lips, and smoothed the rest of the poultice on his fingers before lowering his hand between the back of my legs, positioning it as well as I could without sight. “Inside,” I whispered, trying to pull my mind away from the way his tongue was now sweeping against the bruise on my neck to give more coherent directions, but luckily my lover was a clever man.

The result shocked me. I had told him I was prepared for pain, but the overwhelming amount of the feeling shocked me, darking my vision and making me briefly glad that cries of passion and agony could often be mistaken for the other if one was not listening too hard. The pressure was unbearable, soaking my mind in darkness and twisting my desire until I all but forgot that Adrian was there as the world narrowed down to myself and this surmounting ache. I began to fear that fairy physiology was perhaps fundamentally different in some way I had not expected as he eased his fingers further in a way I technically knew had to be gentle and the agony only intensified, to the point where he pulled his hand slightly out and I nearly fainted.

Suddenly Adrian's other arm was around my shoulders, tugging me up to hold me tight against his chest as he murmured constant reassurances in my ears. “Sebastian, just relax, you're alright, just calm down, you're doing fine,” he crooned, and surprised at having another person appear in my shrinking view, I did relax; the pain immediately faded to a bearable level. I blushed in humiliation, feeling that I must be at least the most foolish courtesan to have ever been in the land while Adrian kissed my forehead, worry thick on his scent. “We don't have to continue if you'd like, just let me have my hand back, I promise it won't hurt as much this time...”

“No,” I replied stiffly, shifting my weight until he lowered me back to the ground again. “I'm fine. Just—try again, please.” I was still too embarrassed to even consider clenching my muscles again as he hesitated, then slowly continued—the pain returned, but it was only a sharp sting now, not the previously unbearable burn. How many times had I whispered similar words to patrons in the past, only to be too stupid to remember them myself? At least I felt a little more kindly towards Adrian's past lover if he was the one that had prompted the man into doing such a thing. After a few more moments the sting faded to a dull ache and I nodded to him silently.

“You can change your mind,” he said, the faint edge of a beg in his voice as he ran a hand through my damp curls. “I wouldn't think less of you, or regret it. We can find another way if you wish, if you don't want to take me, we can do what we did in my bedroom, or whatever else you'd like.” I looked up at the man who had burned his face weekly for years, sat silently while his blood flowed out of him to pay penance for those he thought he had led to their deaths, and smiled faintly.

“I want this,” I told my prince. “Please do not deny me my one desire.” His eyes searched my face, then he exhaled softly and nodded. I lifted my legs, binding them close to his sides as I guided him into me. Adrian obediently moved forward and I let out my breath in a long hiss as my skin slowly parted for him. Pain flooded over me again, but this time I could not mentally excuse the one that caused it, and I was able to focus on his murmured words of comfort until the feeling passed once more. When I was able to appreciate such a thing, I was surprised at the brilliance of his control as he carefully, carefully shifted into me, his gaze never leaving mine as he whispered to me. The perfect sight of him made it all suddenly bearable.

While he made his way, his warm skin passed over a spot that made me start slightly in surprise, my phallus twitching in anticipation, but he moved past quickly enough. That, of all things, made me realize with a sudden foolish start in my stomach that I was not in control of these proceedings, that I was fully under Adrian's whim and whatever he chose to do. Pinned down like this, he could pull away from me and this act at any time and I would be helpless to stop him; my rational mind pointed out that he would at least listen to objections, but I could not shake the realization that I was defenseless for the first time in years. There would be no Diamond to console me later if I did something foolish, no Mother to extract me from whatever problem I got into, no Jade to make witty and sarcastic comments until I cheered up again. It had been ages since I was in a position where I needed to place full trust on another.

Adrian fully sheathed himself at last and shut his eyes for a moment, a faint tremble making its way down his frame as he carefully controlled himself. “Sebastian,” he whispered, looking down at me once more, “I love you.” Well, I thought, faintly giddy, there was always that. Perhaps trust was something I could do, after all.

“Slowly,” I murmured to him, biting my lip as he as requested began the process of pulling back from me; the feeling was so strange, but in a way that held a faint glimmer of prospect. The soft skin of his stomach brushed against my groin at the same time he pulled across that particular spot and I cried out more loudly than I had meant to, my fingers scrabbling helplessly against the pine needles below. If I didn't come soon, I realized, I would promptly go insane. Unfortunately, I knew from stories from my coworkers as well as observation of my own clients that first time experiences seldom resulted in such endings without particular care; I would have to bear it regardless. Either way, I would not have given any of this up for the world, not a single flutter of Adrian's eyelids or his swift intake of breath when I skirted up a hand to brush it across his chest.

“Was that a good sound or a bad one?” he murmured to me, reversing his course when I swiftly nodded and dissolved under his touch. At least, by the gods, he was a quick learner. Adrian pulled out nearly fully, then slowly came back to me again, lowering his waist to brush against my length the entire way this time and leaving me gasping. I smoothed my hands down his back, across his thighs, gripping and pushing and finally whimpering in pleading when he slowly, so slowly, repeated the action again and again and again.

I was used to the burning heat that spread out across my belly to run tingling down my legs and up my chest, but the warm stir from my backside was new, as was the intimate sense of Adrian's own arousal, flowing not just to my nose but emanating outwards from the very skin he held inside me, pressing outwards on the sensitive flesh that lined the passage he transversed. Though sweat stood out sharply on his skin and increasing urgency was transmitted through the frantic kisses he began pressing against my mouth, he kept his strokes slow and careful until the lingering pain in the act subsided altogether and then some, until I wanted to weep from the waves of pleasure that replaced it.

Another pass and another, slowly and slower, with the same maddening patience the prince always showed in everything he did, hitting that spot unerringly but at a cost that was my mind. I dug my fingers into his back as each gasp from my throat became a helpless, begging whine, felt him bury his face in my shoulder but move at that same agonizing precise movement despite even himself. “Adrian,” I gasped, my voice breaking off into a cry when he flexed his hips back and left me nearly empty again, “please—!”

And suddenly, thankfully, he was pounding into me, slamming pleasure through veins and pathways I had never known existed as I clung to him and wept and hollered my desire into the trees as his breath grew ragged against my skin. A distant place of me felt him bite down against my shoulder, clinging helplessly to his control as my hips pulled and twisted at his beautiful skin until he could not bear it any longer, words I could barely hear bursting through his lips as he bucked one final time. His voice broke into curses and blessings as I continued to drive him onwards, wringing every ounce of pleasure from his release as mine at last overtook me, blinding my mind with light and stars as warmth eased out of my skin.

This is all I ever wanted, I thought as his gasps at last slowed, beads of his sweat mixing with the water in the air as they trailed down my chest and legs. Plastered hair and rocks in my back and the touch of his skin everywhere upon me, the movement of the breath in his breast, the summer storm rumbling its pleasure overhead. This is what everything has been for. I smiled, unafraid and unhidden.

The rain had stopped when at last I recovered my senses truly, staring up blankly at the sun filtering through the pine branches as my mind slowly focused. After a long moment, I realized that Adrian, half curled on my chest, was still breathing roughly; my eyes softened until I realized it was actually that he was weeping, and that narrowed my attention more quickly than anything else. I reached out to tilt his head up towards mine, something he refused to comply with. “Love, what's wrong?” I whispered to the top of his head instead.

“Stay with me,” was his wavering reply, his voice breaking over the words even as he muffled them into my skin. “I don't think I could bear it if you were gone. I can't lose you, not you.”

My heart clenching in my chest, I stroked his hair gently, trying to keep my tone soothing. “No one is going to take me away, Adrian. Not now, and not ever.”

“It's not that, so much,” he said, raising his head at last to look at me with such heartbroken eyes I felt like crying myself. “I know—I know it's selfish, but it's you I—if someone came to take you away, I would die before I let them, don't mistake me, but if you left, I...”

“Adrian.”

He swallowed, turning his gaze away. “I realized how little I have to offer you, truly. You're as interested in the throne as I am, and without that, what am I but a foolish stone-carving hermit who prefers books to all company but yours? Even so, I can only ask—”

“Adrian.”

Adrian took in a nigh hysterical breath before continuing on, “You can leave at any time, marriages can be annulled if need be, no court would convict you, but—”

“Adrian!” Finally, he stopped to look at me and I grabbed his head with both hands before he could possibly turn away again. My senses will still slowed from remnants of passion, but I was able to force out the words with every ounce of feeling I had left. “I will not leave you. Not ever. Not even if you ask, unless it's your truest and deepest desire that I go. Even then, I'll take some convincing.” He watched me disbelieving, his lip caught hesitantly in his teeth as I reached up helplessly to trace my fingers around the side of his eye, following the path that scars once lay upon. “I mean it,” I said fiercely. “No force could ever make me go. I—I love you that much.” Some truths were still a little difficult for me to say, but it was easier each time to tell him how I felt. Adrian swallowed, his eyes on mine, and I felt his groin twitch from where he was still inside me; he glanced away, cheeks flaming as I raised a brow.

“My apologies,” he muttered, “but you are impossibly stunning when you say things like that.” I laughed aloud at his comment, well amused. I was a bit sore, perhaps, but not, I decided, uninterested in pursuing arousal again. Before I could inform him so, however, he pressed a finger lightly to my lips, eyes warm. “Thank you,” he said simply. “You have given me my life back.”

What could I say to such things? I blushed and laughed again to hide it, reaching up to encircle my arms around his neck. There was one response that I, at least, always judged to be appropriate, and I pulled his head to mine, though this time I stopped faint hairs away from his lips. Letting my eyes fall closed, I breathed as lightly as I could upon his, and smiled, hopelessly enthralled, as he closed the gap and sealed my offering. I breathed in his taste as I pulled him into me, memorizing each inch of his skin as it passed under my fingertips.

“Define 'impossibly',” I murmured to him when I thought I had him fully stored into my memory, and he laughed, the beautiful sound that made him so perfect, before pulling me down against the pine needles and bliss once more.

Tilting my head to the side, I eyed the bulging bag on my bed contemplatively, then held up the two garments I was considering once more. Only one would fit; that, at least, was nothing to decide upon, although that could change if I allowed myself another bag. That would mean breaking my word, though. When I had gone to thank my parents for all they had done for me, my mother had waved me off, only telling me that I should take a single container of my outfits here or risk being thought of as hopelessly vain. I had agreed with her then, though now I was wondering if I could get away with two bags and be thought just a little hopelessly vain if one of them was smallish.

“The light blue one appears to match your eyes more precisely,” Cameo piped up, wrapping its arms lightly around its bare legs as it balanced expertly on my vanity chair. “I prefer that one.”

“True,” I reasoned, squinting slightly, “but it's rather risque, don't you think?”

“Black Viper,” was the mildly pained reply, “all of your clothes are. I highly disbelieve that your husband will suddenly stop caring for you if you wear what you always do.”

Something in the way the child said those words made me pause and look over its way. The dragon pointedly refused to meet my gaze, fiddling with a loose string at the edge of its white kimono instead. I carefully laid the garments down before crouching down in front of the chair, placing my hands over Cameo's thin pale ones. “Sebastian, please,” I reminded it gently. “I don't work here any longer.”

“But why must you go?” Its huge crystalline eyes filled with tears and Cameo wrenched its head around, pressing its lips together tightly as it struggled to regain its usually cheerful air. “My, my apologies,” it whispered. “It is your decision.”

“Cameo...” This close, I could see a bruise high on its neck, and I narrowed my eyes suddenly, feeling my blood boil as I reached up to lightly brush over the area. “The Emperor didn't hurt you, did he?”

“Not in any way I didn't ask,” the child murmured, a faint pink spreading across its skin. “He is very kind—” Cameo's lips pressed together in a scowl as it turned back my way. “You seek to distract me,” it said accusingly.

“No,” I replied softly, “I am simply concerned for you.” Its righteous anger faded, turning back to sorrow instead, and I swallowed as I gently brushed hair from the dragon's forehead. “I won't be gone for good,” I told it softly. “I'm sure I'll be able to attend the occasional night soirée, at least. You'll still see me there.” At least, I hoped. Traditionally, a wife was not supposed to venture from her husband's holdings for the first year of marriage, but on the other hand, I was not exactly a traditional wife.

“It is not the same,” Cameo murmured, disheartened, and I stayed silent, unsure of what to tell it. I wanted to be with Adrian; that was undeniable, but I too loved the Jewel and my friends within it. I had no perfect words of reassurance. “I am sorry.”

“I am, too,” I agreed, then rose again, unable to dwell on this sorrow now. “The blue one, right?” I turned to the bed and folded that shirt carefully, ruffle-side outward, and tucked it into the remaining space in the bag. My whole life, packed where I used to keep riding crops and leather ties.

“Bl—Sebastian,” Cameo said suddenly, drawing my attention again, “there is a letter addressed to you on your dresser.” I turned, curious, and sighed at the sight. The child handed me Adrian's long neglected correspondence to the Viper and I took it, resigned as I realized that I really couldn't put off reading it any longer, irrational fear or no. It's a little late to be afraid of rejection after all, Sebastian. I broke the seal with a fingernail, then scanned the contents within, my shoulders slumping as I trailed down the page. Unfortunately, all words within were formed in the hopelessly complicated loops and curves of scribe alphabet, and I could not make out more than the occasional letter, let alone figure out what it said.

“Can you read this for me?” I asked, a little embarrassed as I handed the letter over to Cameo's curious look. “Ah—to yourself, that is. You could summarize the contents if you think that I should hear them. I'm still not confident I can bear whatever it says.” Nodding solemnly, Cameo unrolled the letter, and I watched its eyes widen as it read, a very peculiar expression stealing over its face. I waited with growing curiosity as it scanned the note a second time, wincing as the child bit its lip in hesitation. “Is it that bad?” I asked cautiously.

“Bad,” it echoed, then broke into sudden giggles, throwing the letter down and burying its face in its hands as it laughed helplessly. Shocked, I snatched the parchment up again and attempted to scan it for myself again, futilely.

“What does it say?” I demanded, madly curious, but Cameo was laughing too hard to reply. “Please—” My voice cut out in an ungraceful squawk as the letter was snatched away from me by graceful fingers with carefully colored nails, and I scowled at Diamond's amused expression as she observed the pair of us with a gently mocking expression. “I just want to know what it says!”

“The letter you've so disgracefully been ignoring?” she mused, smoky eyes dancing wickedly as she ignored my request. Instead, she read it to herself, her gaze flicking quickly down the page. I growled in frustration when they blanked in obvious surprise, my perfectly composed friend for once at a loss and just as unwilling to explain why.

“What does it say?” I growled as she covered her mouth with her hand, little hiccups of laughter escaping her painted lips. Diamond sagged against my vanity desk beside Cameo and they both roared helplessly together, clearly not noticing the fact that I would, if provoked much longer, throttle the pair until they at last complied with my demands.

“Oh, child,” Diamond managed at last, wiping tears from the corners of her eyes, “this is not a letter demanding apology, it is... it is... I cannot quite place it, but I suppose an 'ode' would do. I would say your Adrian had taken drink beforehand, something quite strong.” She broke off, laughing too much to continue as I clenched and unclenched my fists in frustration. “For surely he realizes that 'unending longing' has far too many syllables for that particular poem structure, and 'perfection embodied' does not rhyme with 'your body' by any stretch of the imagination.”

“What?” I shrieked, lunging for her again as she flung up her arm to keep the letter out of my reach. “Tell me what it says!”

“What which says?” came the mild voice from the doorway, and Adrian walked in just to see Diamond climb up onto the vanity, holding the letter teasingly over my head as Cameo clasped its hands over its mouth, squealing with giggles as I paused mid-jump to stare towards the entrance. Adrian acknowledged the scene with a faint quirk of brow, not commenting until he saw what piece of parchment was being waved about. “Is that... my letter to Black Viper?” he asked, brow furrowing as a note of confused question came into his voice. “You didn't—”

An extraordinarily peculiar look of disbelief fell over his face as he neared us, halting his words. “Is that a green seal on the outside?” he asked hoarsely, making Cameo bite down on its sleeve to keep from falling over with mirth again. “That's the... that's the one that... Helena, you vexing—Please, madam,” he said, a note of desperation in his voice as he held out his hand, his eyes shooting over to me and back as a ferocious blush started across his skin, “may I please have that returned to me?”

Grinning brightly, Diamond thrust her hand behind her. “Something this amusing? I think not!” Flummoxed, Adrian made a move to take it again and she held it over her head, then, getting a better idea, slid it down the front of her dress. My lover gaped with such an impossibly lost expression that I, too, could not help breaking into laughter as I watched him struggle and utterly fail to determine what to do about that particular problem.

“I didn't read it,” I reassured him when I could. “I was so worried about what you might have said that I couldn't bring myself to do so, and now, well—”

“Please, make absolutely no effort to remedy this,” he said fervently, eying the parchment protruding from between Diamond's breasts until he seemed to realize what he was doing and quickly averted his gaze to the floor, blushing. “Madam,” he addressed to the ground firmly, “I will let you keep it as long as you do not divulge its contents to the pertinent party.”

“Hey—” I started, but Diamond managed to sneak in before I could get an objection in, “I certainly agree to your offer.” I pouted at her instead, and she smiled angelically back.

A faint hiss from the doorway drew my attention briefly away from Adrian's stammered thanks and I turned to see Lavender's dark head peeking in through the crack. She shot her eyes to the side, requesting me to speak with her in the hall and I nodded my consent, catching Cameo's eye and squeezing my hand into a fist twice, the signal for keep the patron occupied, before joining my friend outside.

Lavender looked unusually frazzled, smiling briefly at me in greeting before her expression fell again into a look positioned somewhere between firm and lost, bouncing quickly back between the two extremes. When I touched her shoulder, somewhat concerned, she blurted out, “Fawn was right.”

“Right about what?” I asked, brow furrowing, before I caught on, my mouth dropping in shock. “About—”

“I'm pregnant,” she replied crisply, then covered her face with her hands, voice falling to a pained whisper. “I don't know how I was so foolish, Sebastian, I just don't know. I can't even imagine who the father is. I never forget the anti-gestation spell before an assignment with a man, never, you know that!” I put my arms around the distressed woman silently and she buried her head in my shoulder, taking a few deep breaths. Lavender did not seem distraught, I was glad to note, nor did it seem that she was ready to take her life or that of her child. She did sound most annoyed at herself, however.

I stroked her hair sympathetically, trying to think myself. My friend and resident star wasn't one to make mistakes. “Did you take an assignation where you didn't expect to sleep with someone?” I asked, mind flashing back to Adrian's first request of the Jewel. “One where you would have expected no chance of sex, something like that?”

She laughed faintly. “I never have assignations like that, and I always apply the spell regardless even if the patron specifically doesn't request a bed partner because—well.” She knew she didn't need to explain it to me, the one who had spent the first half of my life hopelessly jealous of the way every man and woman and child fell in thrall with her at a moment's glance. “The only thing even close to such an assignment was when—” Lavender paused, her lovely eyes going enormous in her face as she trailed off. “Was when we ran the trial for Cameo,” she finished numbly. “That was the only time.”

I pressed a hand to my forehead, staring at her; after a few moments, I had to laugh, even though her face immediately turning into a sharp, disapproving pout. “I'm sorry, Lav,” I said, trying to halt my mirth, “but that—you have to admit it's amusing. Gods, that is not a scenario any of us would ever imagine. You and Cameo?” I reached out and touched my fingers lightly to her chin, voice softening. “At the very least, it will be the most beautiful child ever.”

“That doesn't help, you brat,” she snapped, but relaxed slightly under my touch. “I just... I'd rather not burden the poor child with this information. Cameo's been under so much stress with the Emperor being here and everything, and it has to entertain him for two more days still. It's really done more than anyone so new should expect to have to—almost seems a cruel joke to tell the poor thing it's produced a babe.” She sighed, laying her head against my chest. “Especially because of my foolishness.”

“Sweet...” I thought my words over for a moment, then sighed myself. “Listen, if there's anything I've learned through this whole debacle with Adrian, it's that keeping secrets at the expense of others may not be the wisest idea. For one, Cameo is a very responsible person—if you don't tell it that it has a child, that would break its heart, in addition to making it very upset with you, and that's the last thing you need. For another, don't put the entire blame on yourself; it takes two to make one, after all.” She gave me a very droll look, and I shook my head. “Even if it's something not expected here, you aren't the first to have made this particular mistake. And to have just missed once and have this happen, it seems you must both be very virile. I know you won't make the error again, but Cameo needs to be warned to be careful, as I would have to guess it doesn't take anti-gestation spells or anti-production ones, and that needs to be remedied.” Lavender nodded, rather thoughtfully. “Whether you decide to visit the healing-hospital or keep the child, I really think you should let Cameo know. I'm not saying it will be easy, but it would be right.”

My friend surprised me by laughing softly, wrapping her arms tightly around my waist. “I will take your words into consideration,” she murmured. “I don't—I don't know what to do about this pregnancy yet, but I'll certainly think it over. Sebastian... you really have learned a lot, haven't you? We're all very proud of you, you know. ”

I blushed, hopelessly pleased as I returned her hug. “Thanks,” I muttered, and she smiled at the sight of my face. “Just... let me know how everything turns out, please.”

“Sebastian, are you—oh.” Adrian had stuck his head out of my room, falling politely silent at the sight of our embrace, although I noticed a very unfamiliar whiff of jealousy on his scent that made my skin prickle deliciously. Lavender may not have had my sense of smell but she was the best in her own right and certainly noticed my lover's agitation, though instead of apologizing or breaking away from me, she held a hand out to the man. A puzzled expression crossing his face, he took it and stepped forward.

“Let me look upon the one that stole our Viper's heart and disgraced me so,” she said, releasing me to catch his other hand. I narrowed my eyes faintly and she winked outrageously my way. “You swear you will take care of our Viper, Prince Adrian?”

“Of course,” he replied solemnly. Lavender peered up into his face and sighed, a touch of annoyance in her tone, and released his hands. Adrian looked mildly puzzled and worried about what he had done wrong, but I knew what had prompted her action—she had truly been testing his reaction to her grip and found that he was no more enamored of her than he had been the day they met beside the unicorn. And, I realized, this time he had no spell dampening his libido, either. I raised a brow and mouthed, Better luck next time over Adrian's shoulder. Lavender wrinkled her nose, then glanced into my bedroom, the humor falling from her face as she realized who was seated inside.

“Excuse me,” she said, bowing lightly, her eyes flicking up to my face. “I have a task I must complete.” I made a symbol for luck for her as she went in. Be brave, my friend. It will be all right in the end.

“Is something the matter?” Adrian asked when she was gone, and I shook my head in reply, curious as to why he asked; he lifted his shoulders when I tilted my head in question and touched his hand to my arm. “You seem—sad.”

“Contemplative, if anything,” I told him as we started down the hall, pleased to discover he had my bag thrown over his shoulder, though he adamantly ignored me when I went to take it from him. Reflecting on his concern, I was a little sad; I had just realized that I was not going to be here to comfort Lavender if she did decide to give up her child, nor watch it grow in her if she didn't. The thought made me pause as Adrian started to turn us towards the main doors. “Do you mind if I run a few more errands?” I asked him hesitantly. “They shouldn't take too long, it's just...”

“Take as long as you need,” he said gently, cutting me off with a smile. “I'll wait here, if that's alright.” He swung my bag onto one of the ornamental benches lining the halls, reaching out to squeeze my hand lightly. I smiled back at him and thanked every star in the sky once again for the sheer pleasure he was.

“I'll be back soon,” I assured him, hurrying off down the halls. There was one more person I should see before I left that I could think of, sulking behind a hidden door in the wall.

I ran into someone else before I reached the intended spot, though, a slim figure that melted out of the shadows to walk beside me with careful, docile steps. “Brown Fawn,” I greeted, a little surprised. “Did Lavender tell you that you were right about the—what you told me?” No point in advertising information at our gossip-heavy workplace before it needed to get out, and I knew the lithe woman certainly wouldn't spill her secrets.

“Of course,” she said, blinking her large dark eyes at me. “I told you it was true, after all.”

“Of course,” I echoed, shaking my head slightly. Well, I wouldn't ask how she knew. “You look nice,” I told her when I glanced at her again, which was true. Her long black hair was half-bound in an elegant knot, the straight lines accenting the warm red kimono that clung seamlessly to her thin frame. On closer inspection, however, her sash was partway undone and a distinct bite mark was darkening on the side of her neck; I raised a brow, inviting elaboration, but she merely mimicked my expression, choosing privacy. Lucky Fawn.

“By the way, have you yet figured out my riddle?” she asked, and I winced in reply, tilting my head back. With everything that had been happening, the favor I owed her had been the furthest topic from my mind. She saw the motion and sighed, but did not look too upset at me.

“I'm sorry, Fawn,” I told her shamefacedly. “I really am very bad at riddles.”

“We all have our shortcomings,” she agreed. “But don't worry. It was supposed to help you fix all of your problems, but the time has passed for it to do so, and I will just solve it for you instead. The answer is 'love'.”

I was silent for a long moment, all the way until we reached Lime Jade's door.

“Yes,” I said finally, “that would have been helpful to know.” And how by Xing-Jinu's tits was I supposed to have figured that one out? 'The serpent in contemplation' is love? I... very well, I guess the Viper did think about the people I cared about. And the rest... gods, riddles make my head hurt.

Fawn smiled with unexpected brightness and patted my arm. “Don't worry,” she assured me, “I'm sure next riddle you encounter you will be able to find out the answer in time.” Without waiting for a reply she strode off, humming a cheerful tune that only viewing another's misfortune would incur under her breath. I sighed, rubbed my forehead, and knocked on Jade's door.

“What,” was the dull reply, so uncolorful I was taken aback. I frowned faintly, surprised.

“It's me,” I called out, and the door was immediately opened this time, the wall swinging outwards and just missing my head. Jade was standing there with his weight to one side, looking unconcerned except for his haste in letting me in, which gave everything away.

“What do you want?” he asked, his gaze focused blankly at around the level of my chest. Hesitantly, unsure of why he was so upset, I reached out to place a hand on his slim shoulder, an act that made the man turn his head away. Neither the shade of his hair nor that of his eyes were as vibrant as usual, I noticed, as he gently lifted his shoulder to press my hand against his cheek, the closest he came to an embrace.

“Jade...” I said, “what's wrong?”

“Should think you of all creatures in the world should have guessed,” he muttered to the doorframe. “It's your favorite topic.”

I blinked, a little blank. “I'm sorry,” I said softly, “but I couldn't tell you what topic that is.” Had my mother put him off of assignations again?

His eyes flicked back towards me, a note of annoyance in his gaze. “Yourself,” he snapped.

“Oh,” I replied. I lowered my head, unsure of what to tell him. I owed him so much for his friendship these last few weeks and all that he had revealed to me about myself, enough that nothing seemed proper at all. “I will miss you,” I said quietly. It didn't seem like quite enough, but I had never been one with words.

“I doubt it,” he said, voice flat although not hostile. “You have—much better things to be thinking about.” His shoulders lifted defensively, like an owl's. “And you shouldn't, either. I've got no claim on you. And there's no love lost between us, and I don't begrudge that, but... well, maybe it wasn't so bad to have you coming in and bothering me all the time. That's all I'm saying. Nothing to miss here.”

“Jade,” I said. “Jade.” I gave up on decorum and pulled him close to me, burying my hand in his spiky hair and closing my eyes. “I will be here for you, you know. Any time you need me; you know Adrian's address, just send a letter my way and I'll come back as soon as I can to bother you. You aren't going to get rid of me that easily.”

“I...” he sighed, then lightly placed his hands on my back. “Yeah. I'll, I'll consider that.” He pulled back at last, clearly uncomfortable but with a little of the life back in his eyes. “You... you may be a bit of a spoiled brat, but you aren't that low-down after all.”

“Don't I have an A-rate stunning glowness soul?” I reminded him in a teasing voice to see a flicker of a smile appear. “You have to promise me to stand up for yourself and make my mother let you out of this room now and then, now that I'm not here to yell at her for you. After all, now you have to tell people they can never see Black Viper again.”

“Oh, I have been,” he replied grimly, “day in and day out. You're a whole rosebush of trouble, I hope you realize in that empty head of yours.” He smiled at last, tilting his head back to look at me. “But I might be able to quiet their yapping soon. I've been thinking of taking up your slack load while you're away, you know.”

“You, the new Viper?” I asked, quirking a brow. “Where'd you get this idea?”

“Your present,” he replied. “The quick-smart kid. He was real sharp, against all expectations of reasonably thinking souls. He says he might come back to see me, and won't your mom just be tickled if that should happen, the may-he-live-forever-Emperor's git visiting her paper pusher? Never thought I'd meet royalty that liked such a rough hand as he did, but it wasn't too mud in the troughs I discovered.”

I smiled, well pleased. “Excellent,” I replied. “I'm glad that things went well.”

“Yeah,” he said, shoving his hands into his pockets. “You've got a good eye for that sort of thing, even if it does spend rather too much time focused on your reflection in the mirror.” He offered to walk me back towards the front door, keeping a companionable distance from my side as we wandered that way. “How are you thinking the sun will shine when your fair frog prince takes the throne, anyway?”

I let out a breath, brushing my curls back behind my shoulders. “I don't know,” I admitted. “King Martin is in good health, so hopefully he rules for enough more years that we're given some time to brush up our political skills. Apparently my job will be mostly making nice with the nobles, which is surprisingly close to the one I've always had—except that we would almost always have all our clothes on.” Jade laughed, and I smiled his way before I grew a little more hesitant. “You know, we might need a secretary when the time comes, if you're interested.”

“Leave the Jewel?” he replied, letting out a breath and hooking his hands behind his head. “I don't know about that, kid. But I'll spend a few precious moments of my overly filled schedule to consider your cause, maybe.”

“That's all I can really ask for,” I said, glancing at him with warm eyes. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad, after all.

We reached the area where Adrian was seated and my attention was abruptly diverted as I hurried back to my husband's side, heart lifting as he rose and took my hand again. I couldn't help it: any time I was around but not with this person I adored so, I could not feel quite at ease until I had returned to his side again. Every time I did, I felt like I was keeping the promise I had made to him in underneath the trees and rain. And it was oddly fulfilling, to know that someone was waiting for me in turn. Jade sighed and rolled his eyes, clear in his regard for this kind of thinking, but his expression softened somewhat more than it usually did.

“Thank you for returning Sebastian,” Adrian told Jade solemnly. My friend nodded, equally serious. Then, to my jaw-dropping surprise, the prince dropped my hand, taking a step forward, and kissed him. It wasn't a long kiss, but neither was it the brief gesture of luck or farewell, and my roaring jealousy warred with disbelief. Jade broke away, grinning wickedly at me.

“See, I told you it would work,” he informed Adrian, who also turned my way and nodded thoughtfully at whatever it was he saw. My infuriating acquaintance bowed mockingly and disappeared down the hall with a jaunty wave of his hand.

“What was that about?” I snapped at Adrian as he bent to re-shoulder the bag, taking my arm and steering me towards the exit.

“Oh...” he started, trailing off. “I don't think I can tell you. It would ruin the test.” The great front doors opened for us as we came up to them, the black carriage of Adrian's household already waiting for us. He handed my bag up to the driver, then turned to face me, the hint of a smile dancing around his lips. “He promised me that the way would you react would be worth it, though.”

“Get in the carriage!” I snapped and Adrian, laughing, complied. I knew what Jade had intended—what he knew Cameo had pulled off during the seduction, that making me angry would have a particular effect on my libido. And that was what Adrian wanted, was it? I glanced at the secluded, otherwise empty carriage space and grinned myself, jealousy washing away in pure giddy joy.

But as I mounted the first step to the door I paused, glancing over my shoulder at building that sprawled behind me. There were the slowly closing doors, the windows that opened into places I knew every inch of, the balcony I had stood at for so many years, leaning out into the wind and wishing for freedom. A slow sadness stole over me, forming a lump in my throat and a hesitation that grew as the doors finally shut with the soft thunk I had heard all of my life. I had that freedom now, and yet... I could not deny that the place drew me even still.

An equal pull urged me into the carriage and the man that awaited me within, but I could not deny myself a few last, lingering glances at the spot on the roof I used to sulk in while the guests laughed and drank around me, the stables where the unicorn was now in happy retirement, the room where I had laid eyes upon a golden prince for the first time.

“Sebastian?” he called softly. “What is the matter?”

I swallowed away my feelings the best I could, turning back to him. “It just feels strange to be leaving,” I confessed, “knowing I may never return. It's been my home for so long.” I enjoyed my new residence and all that it contained, but I knew a part of my heart would remain behind these grandly carved doors for some time to come. With those who had raised and nurtured me, with shy army boys and ill wide-eyed patients and swirling ball gowns.

Adrian was silent for a long moment before he leaned outside to where I was, a sort of resigned surprise on his features. “My love,” he said, “did you honestly think I would keep you from here?”

He sighed and added, “No, don't answer, for I know your mother felt the same when she commissioned that statue from me. I never meant that you should stay away from those you care for, not this place, not for a moment longer than you wish to. I confess I did hope that you would take me along with you sometimes, however. I don't believe I've properly been able to meet your friends yet, and some of them seem to have such... intriguing ideas.”

The smile that spread across my face was slow but unstoppable. It seemed that even if I hadn't followed the precipices of the Girl Who Went To Heaven exactly, I had ended up at the same place all the same.

Adrian took my hand and guided me through the door. “Forgive the interruption,” I said. “Now, where were we?”

He smiled at me from the darkness, voice light but filled with promise. “I was hoping we were now at the part where you were about to ravish your helpless lover,” he suggested.

“I thought so too,” I growled, and shut the door.

Dream-Cameo was wrong; it didn't end in tears the way it began, even though there was one point in the ride where I hit my head on the roof of the carriage hard enough to see stars. It ended in laughter, the way it should have begun. It ended in my lover's arms, the way it never could have began but so, so beautifully perfect all the same. The story began there again, as well, a new life split between the man I loved and the building I would always carry with me, a place of intrigue and plotting, of secrets no one kept and dreams everyone shared.

And I hardly need to tell this to you, but it began, without a doubt, happily ever after.

A/N: And... IT'S DONE! :D This is actually the first story I've ever completed. I certainly didn't think it would get this far (or be so crazy long!)

I won't hold you here with my drivel, but thanks one last time to everyone who read my mixed-up fairy tale. I hope you had as much fun as I did writing it!

Until we meet again,

IM.