Chapter 6
NISSA
It’s difficult to keep her eyes from drifting back to Ria, sitting glum and pained by the fire, but Nissa can feel her father’s weighty gaze on her.
If she spends too much time at Ria’s side here in the flickering light of the encampment fire, she knows her father might even be drawn into making some public statement about what she can and cannot do.
And Nissa will not have her choices taken from her like this. They are hers to make. Hers. They will not be taken from her. Not on this Longest Night, the one night that suspends every other promise that might bind people to their duties.
Tonight, the priority is the light: sustaining it through the night so that the sun will rise.
Of course, even as she thinks this, half of her is digging in heels already about the way he is expecting her to give up her choices to him and his plans for the clan, while the other half scans the encampment, listing the names of those they had lost since the last Longest Night.
Too many who should be here are gone. Undril.
Scarlia. Petrovun and little Kada. Herolyn.
Even the thought of all they’ve lost makes Nissa’s eyes well briefly.
She blinks the tears away before anyone can catch sight of the Warlord’s daughter crying on Longest Night.
She doesn’t want to make anyone wonder or worry about what she might weep over.
If there was ever a moment to let the grief go, this is it. They must hold onto the light tonight.
She glances across at Ria and finds her sparkling gaze warm on her. Nissa flushes again and gives her a shy smile. How can she still be shy with this woman?
Then Oril hooks the tambor around his neck, picking up the padded sticks, ready to pound them out into the rainforest. Will Ria be whole enough to venture into the dance with her?
Her heart leaps into her throat at the thought, and she glances across at her again.
But she’s gone. A quick scan of the crowd makes Nissa frown. Where is she?
Oril gives a yell, and then begins a quick drum roll, leading the other drummers into the song. She swallows, but Kaderlyn shoves a lit lantern into her hand, and then Terisa grabs her arm and yanks her towards the forest, already singing.
Nissa laughs at her friend, raising her voice in the song as well.
She dances the steps onto the path, but a short distance into the forest, she spirals out of Terisa’s grip, off into the shadows.
The drumbeat echoes around her, in her hips swinging and in her feet, pounding against the soil.
The scent of eucalypt and other leaves gone soft and sweet and rich is kicked up by the encampment’s collective dance, even in the chill air.
Where is Ria?
Just as the cool of the night begins to bite into her shoulders, there’s a quiet noise behind her.
Ria’s arms encircle her, her nose sliding up Nissa’s neck, her breath cascading across her skin and waking every nerve.
Nissa’s breath hitches, and she suppresses a moan, sinking back into Ria’s warmth, feeling the soft strength of her torso against her back.
“I thought you might not be well enough…” she murmurs into the darkness.
“I wouldn’t miss this night for the world, Nissa,” Ria says, and her voice is somehow deeper and darker than Nissa has ever heard it. Goosebumps rise across her forearms, and her stomach tightens.
“Is that so?” she whispers. She gathers her courage and turns, raising her lantern above their heads.
This is part of the play—part of the dance. Raising the lantern like this so that its sparkling, diffuse light plays over the faces of those below it is an invitation: a request for a kiss in the darkness.
Ria’s eyes glimmer, and that confident grin flashes. “Oh, Nissa. I had all kinds of careful strategies ready to ensure we found ourselves beneath a lantern.”
She steps closer, her stocky breadth seeming to block out the entire rest of the world and slides a hand under Nissa’s braids and around the back of her neck. Nissa’s heart pounds like it might break her chest as Ria wraps an arm around her waist and draws her close.
“But you…” Nissa can’t take her eyes from Ria’s steady gaze. It drops to her mouth, and her lips part, a split second before Ria kisses her.
This kiss is sweet; tender even. Despite this, the swoop of desire in Nissa’s gut seems to tingle out to her extremities.
She slides one arm around Ria’s neck, a hand into the cropped hair at the back of her head.
The other still holds the lantern loosely in her grip.
Ria pulls back just a tiny bit, enough for a hair’s breadth to open between their mouths.
“Goddess, Nissa,” Ria breathes in wonder.
And then Nissa pulls her closer, their mouths meet and this kiss—this kiss is an entirely other world.
Ria’s tongue curls into her mouth, her hand behind Nissa’s neck turning her face up so that she might kiss her more deeply, and Nissa nearly weeps with the desire that blossoms from her gut. She moans deep in her throat, and Ria echoes the sound, then breaks the kiss abruptly.
“Goddess, Nissa,” she says again, almost panting. “I… I had no idea…”
“I think it’s probably as well we waited for this,” Nissa whispers, similarly awestruck. “But now…”
She gives her head a little shake, turns to plant the lantern firmly into the soft earth, and then turns back, sliding both arms around Ria’s neck and pulling her close, her mouth determinedly closing on Nissa’s.
When they next part, they’re both breathing heavily. Ria looks dazed, and Nissa smiles helplessly at her. All she wants is to bear Ria down into the dirt, right here, right now, and slide her hands beneath her clothes.
“I…” Ria shakes her head as if to clear it. A couple spirals out of the darkness, carrying a lantern, and her mouth twitches in irritation. “I have a question for you.” She bends, wincing only a little, and picks up the lantern. “But come with me.”
The drumming is echoing in the trees around them as Ria leads a wending way through the trees.
Shadowy figures are still beating out the rhythm along the bare paths, the lanterns glimmering like dancing glow worms in the darkness.
It is beautiful, the tiny sparkling lights an echo of the thick swathe of stars in the skies occasionally visible through the treetops.
“Here,” Ria says, and she bends to thrust the lantern’s stick into the dirt once more.
She holds out her hands to Nissa, who takes them, charmed and wondering what the next step in Ria’s plan is.
Ria swings her into a series of well-known steps, echoes of those they’ve been performing around the fire with the rest of the encampment for months now.
Nissa laughs, the sound resonating off the trees, until Ria slows, drawing her closer, then spins her swiftly.
Nissa’s breath gasps out as her back strikes a tree, and then Ria’s mouth is on hers, teeth grazing her lips, her body pressed tight against Nissa’s.
Nissa’s heart swells as the kiss deepens, and she whimpers in the back of her throat.
Ria slides a well-muscled thigh between Nissa’s legs and Nissa’s breath turns ragged.
The pressure against her heated core makes her eyelids flutter, pleasure setting her body resonating.
Ria presses her tongue against Nissa’s neck, drawing slowly upward until she reaches the spot that makes Nissa gasp and turn her face up towards the stars, clutching at Ria’s arms. And then she scores her teeth against that point, kissing open-mouthed against her skin, until Nissa shudders, the feelings cascading through her too much to bear.
“I want you, Nissa. I want so much of you it feels…” Ria gives a short laugh, then ducks closer, nuzzling against her neck. “Nissa, I want the honor of leaping the Longest Night flames with you,” she murmurs into her ear.
Nissa shivers again, barely able to understand the words. Ria draws a slow breath, and Nissa can feel it tug against the fine hairs of her neck. Her heart beats hard, and somehow it feels like fate is stitching her to this moment.
“And if you will, I want you to choose which of those flames you wish to leap with me.” Ria draws back to meet Nissa’s gaze, to see if she understands, and her expression is somehow both confident and hopeful. Ria’s thigh between her legs presses tight and Nissa’s eyes flutter shut again.
“I—I don’t… I can’t,” Nissa tries to speak, to find the words adequate to the anguish of feeling her duty pull against her desire. Uncertainty makes Ria’s brow twitch into a brief frown. “No wait, I… wait.” She pulls Ria closer, burying her face in the curve of shoulder to neck.
Nissa forces herself to think. Her father can want whatever he likes, but he does not get to make this decision for her.
And right now, her body feels like it is formed of longing, shaped by desire for this woman.
She gulps, forcing herself to caution, despite the veritable tempest flooding through her.
“I will leap the eventide flames with you. And let me sleep on the thought of the daylight flames,” she whispers against Ria’s neck.
Ria chuckles softly into her hair. “Oh, Nissa. Do you really think that if we leap the eventide flames there will be any sleep in our night?”
Nissa smiles against her neck, then nips gently at the skin of her neck. “You were injured today, love. Will you even have the stamina?”
She feels more than hears Ria’s laughter. “I think that I am going to wring such pleasure out of your body, Nissa, that I will only stop when you tell me to.”
Nissa grins, then hesitates. The forest has darkened, their lantern casting a glowing circle in the shadows.
“It looks like they’re already leaping the flames,” she says in a rush. “We should hurry!”
And so they hasten hand in hand back through the dark forest to where the encampment fire glimmers between the trees.