Chapter 35
Chapter Thirty-Five
Alderian lifted her and sat her on the vanity in front of him.
He took his time tracing her features, his smoldering gaze scorching her from within.
In an unexpected gesture, he took a tress of her hair—which now looked long and silver—and inhaled its scent delicately before planting a subtle kiss on it.
Augustine wrapped her legs around his hips, entrapping him, as a fresh wave of excitement rushed through her.
But Alderian was in no hurry. He took one of her hands and kissed her fingertips, burying his face in her palm, allowing—or demanding—her touch.
He released himself from the embrace of her legs as he knelt in front of her, refusing to let her close her knees.
Augustine felt embarrassingly exposed, yet Alderian dominated her body.
He sensually licked her legs, nipping at the inner part of her thighs before delving deeper.
Augustine recoiled slightly as she felt the contact of his tongue against her sex, but Alderian held her firm, pressing his nose against her clitoris while greedily savoring every corner of her.
Augustine exhaled an agonizing sigh, contracting from a pleasure she had never experienced before. The voracity and wantonness with which he licked and nibbled her sex forced stifled cries from her throat. With her hands clenched over Alderian’s head, she pulled his hair with frenzied desperation.
Finally, he stood up and penetrated her firmly, his gaze heavy with longing and desperation. An electric discharge ran through both of their Silver Threads.
“I’ve loved you for so long... I’ve yearned for you agonizingly, my love,” he whispered between gasps. “You may do with me as you wish, for there has not been a single day when I was not yours.”
Hearing his words, Augustine felt a searing heat in her chest—a mixture of sadness and ecstasy, a happiness that went far beyond carnal desire. A pair of white wings erupted from her back in a whirlwind of snow-white feathers. Alderian stopped for a second, stunned.
“Do not stop,” she commanded.
Without disentangling, Augustine beat her wings forcefully, and he imitated her, both surrendering to an ancient and sensual dance. They ascended, first inches and then feet, suspended in the air in an impossible position, defying gravity.
“What is this that you are doing to me?” Alderian seemed out of his mind.
“I shall do with you exactly as I wish,” Augustine whispered in his ear, smiling. The Silver Thread binding them glowed intensely, and both moaned, delighted by the sensation that flooded them in unison.
Augustine felt that something inside her had broken forever. In the following days, she would try to evoke the sensation she experienced, but it was truly ineffable. They descended slowly and lay on the cold floor of a dreamlike, unreal A’aru.
“Do you regret it?” Augustine asked later, as they rested upon the bed, her lying on his chest. Both were aware they had to return to reality, yet neither wished to end that moment.
“How could I? It’s literally a dream come true for me,” Alderian admitted, smiling with his eyes closed. After a second, he opened his eyes and looked directly at her. “Do you regret it?”
“I only regret not doing so sooner,” Augustine said, laughing.
“It happened when it had to happen... though I still don’t fully understand everything we did,” he laughed, embarrassed.
“Don’t say that. Don’t play innocent; you knew very well what you were doing to me.”
The two enjoyed that shared silence—an indescribable, ancient, and imperishable complicity.
“How many rules are we breaking?”
“I don’t want to count them,” Alderian replied with a laugh.
“Have you done this with me in dreams before? In another life?”
Alderian weighed his words before responding.
“As your A’aruin, I never thought about crossing that line.
I can be sincere now and accept it wasn’t because I didn’t want to.
It was a matter of consent... Consider this: except for you in this current life, a typical human is oblivious to their A’aruin.
Thus, it’s not possible to develop a two-way relationship; it’s always unilateral.
In dreams, we can influence our human’s subconscious, leading them to believe they desire intimacy with us.
.. but that is manipulation, not consent. ”
“But these lucid dreams don’t feel like a dream; it feels like I can decide,” Augustine insisted.
Alderian stroked her hair, smiling.
“You’ve remembered A’aru and have adopted your original form. Even now, you maintain that form with stability. You are not subject to the rules of dreams—not since you broke the Oblivion.”
“Then we should do this every day,” Augustine resolved pragmatically.
“Don’t tempt me, or I might keep you asleep for a week,” Alderian threatened, hugging her and planting soft kisses on her neck. “It’s time for us to go back, love,” he said finally, regretfully. “We’ve stayed here too long...”
Augustine opened her eyes in her garden. The crickets sang their midnight melody, and the moon bathed the leaves of the trees and the reflections of her own skin with its light. She looked at her hands closely, suddenly feeling like a stranger to her own body.
* * *
Alderian submerged himself in Lethe, examining his Silver Thread while the river surrounded him with its white strands.
Augustine was right: he knew what he was doing when they ascended together and reached the climax.
Again, he was facing things his body knew how to do without his conscious control.
But Augustine—no, Aldana—she had come to the surface of Augustine’s consciousness that night and guided his movements with skill.
He remembered with delight her exquisite face, tight with a pleasure that he had provided for her.
Aldana had surrendered herself completely.
He could still taste her body, the warmth of her skin, the softness of her feathers, and the overflowing electricity of the Thread that connected them.
His joy was so intense that he felt himself on the verge of tears.
But one question was inevitable: How was it possible that Aldana was with him?
“Lethe, reveal the past to me as you did with her. I implore you to enlighten me with the wisdom of the history you keep within you,” he begged.
But Lethe did not answer him.
He didn’t remember the Silver Thread ever reacting to his connection with Aldana, let alone uniting them in a feeling as indescribable as the one they experienced together.
It excited and worried him in equal measure.
Aldana was as untamable and unpredictable as the darkness that haunted her.
Regardless, he had one certainty: if Aldana was darkness, he would become darkness with her.