Chapter 5 JADE #2
"There," I breathe, running my hands over his shoulders to where the wings emerge, feeling the heat and power concentrated there. A purr rumbles from my chest, loud enough that Stellan definitely hears it. "See? You can do it. You can call parts of it without losing yourself."
Stellan's eyes widen a little, glowing orange from the inside out, but he's aware.
Present. In complete control, even while his essence blazes around us both.
His hands find my waist, pulling me closer, and the heat should be unbearable but I've never felt better.
My body responds to the contact, arousal mixing with hunger until I'm not sure where one ends and the other begins.
"Do it again," I say softly, pulling back just enough to watch his face. "Call them back, then dismiss them. Let's see if you can control it."
Stellan's brow furrows in concentration, and the wings flicker, growing brighter before fading completely. He lets out a frustrated sound. "I don't know how I did it the first time."
"That's okay. We'll figure it out together." I press a gentle kiss to his jaw, then another to the corner of his mouth. My hands slide down his chest, feeling the heat radiating through his shirt. "Try again. Focus on how it felt when they came out."
He tries. The wings flicker back into existence for a moment, before disappearing again. Stellan's frustration bleeds through his essence, and I taste it on my tongue. It does nothing to dampen my arousal. If anything, the emotional intensity makes the hunger worse.
"Hey," I murmur, tilting his face to look at me. "You're not as quiet as you used to be."
Stellan blinks, confusion crossing his features. "What?"
"When I first met you, you barely spoke. You were always trying to make yourself smaller, quieter, less noticeable." I trace my thumb along his cheekbone, enjoying the way his breath catches at the contact. "But right now? You're telling me what you're feeling. That's progress."
"Because our mates need me," Stellan says quietly. "And I'm trying to be more than just the guy who's afraid of his own fire."
The words hit me harder than I expect. "Stellan..."
"It's true though, isn't it? You're all so strong and I'm just..." He trails off, but I can taste the self-doubt in his essence. It's sour, wrong, and completely at odds with the powerful being standing in front of me.
"You're a phoenix," I say firmly. "You're literally made of rebirth and transformation. And yeah, our mates need you right now. But they also need me, and I'm trying. Trying to be more than just the Incubus who takes and never gives back."
Stellan's eyes soften as he cups my face with both hands. "You give more than you think you do."
The kiss this time is gentler, but no less heated. My body presses against his, seeking more contact. When his wings manifest again, they're more stable, still flickering at the edges, but holding their form for longer. The sight alone is enough to make my cock throb.
"There," I whisper against his lips. "You're doing it. Try to hold them."
We spend the next hour working through trial and error.
Sometimes the wings come easily, other times they refuse to appear at all.
I learn that touch helps ground him, that gentle encouragement works better than pressure, and that feeding on his fire essence in small amounts actually helps him stabilize rather than lose control.
And I learn that watching him succeed, seeing those wings hold steady, affects me in ways that have nothing to do with hunger. My arousal never fully fades, a constant throb of need, but it mixes with something deeper. Pride. Affection. Something dangerously close to love.
At one point, Stellan manages to hold the wings for a full minute before they flicker out, and he lets out a triumphant laugh that makes my stomach flip.
"I did it," he says, grinning at me with those orange-tinged eyes. "I actually did it."
"You did." I pull him in for another kiss, savoring the taste of his fire on my tongue. My hands slide down his back, gripping his hips. "Again. Show me you can do it again."
He does, and this time the wings are even brighter. The wings rustle with a sound like crackling embers, casting dancing shadows across the training room walls. Heat radiates from them in waves I can taste on my tongue.
"Perfect," I murmur, running my hands along the edge of one wing. The heat is intense but not painful, and I greedily drink in the essence. My cock strains against my pants, desperate for friction. "You're perfect."
Stellan's cheeks flush, the wings flickering brighter in response to his embarrassment. "I'm really not."
"You are to me."
The words slip out before I can stop them. That’s when I realize the truth. I'm falling for him. Maybe I already love him just as much as I love Rumi, in a different way but no less intense. The realization should terrify me, but instead it just feels right.
"Jade..." Stellan starts, but I shake my head.
"We don't have to talk about it right now.
We have training to do." I step back, giving him space even though my body protests the loss of contact.
"Dismiss the wings, then call them again.
Let's see how many times you can do it in a row before one of the staff come looking for us.
" The lack of consistency in Grimrose is giving me whiplash.
Sometimes every step is watched, and other times, like now, we're barely even monitored.
Until someone decides to care that we’re not with the rest of the students.
We continue to work through it again and again, building muscle memory, learning the triggers and the limits. By the time we finally leave the training room, Stellan can manifest his wings on command about half the time.
It's not perfect, not even close to what we'll need when the Council shows up. But it's progress.
Now we just have to make sure the Council doesn't take him away.
Because if those essence hunters try to strip Stellan's essence, they'll have to go through me first. And I've spent too many years starving myself, suppressing myself, and trying to make myself small and harmless.
I'm done with that.