Chapter Twenty-Three Furi #2
‘I was wrong. We are so much more than death and violence. We are like the Tree of Souls; each death grows into a leaf, making us stronger than before. Our grief need not be a thing that tears us apart but something that grows us together.’
Yeeran pressed a kiss to her brow and Furi could feel her cheeks were wet with tears.
‘I love you, Yeeran.’ She would never be tired of saying it. ‘I love you, and I’m going to meet your terms on the training ground, then I’ll show you exactly how much I love you too.’
Furi didn’t regret the deal Yeeran had suggested. Not entirely, anyway. It’s hard to not regret living when you’re attempting a push-up on sand.
‘There you go, you’ve nearly got it…’ Yeeran was trying to be encouraging, but her cheering only reminded Furi that she was still only nearly there.
Her knees were tucked together and her ankles crossed–not even a full push-up. Going down was easy, but now her arms quivered in stasis, unable to make the full upwards motion. She was glad they were on Conch Shore, where none of her subordinates in the faeguard could see her.
‘You can do it.’
‘Shut up,’ she spat out.
Yeeran ignored her. ‘One last push, come on.’
‘I said, shut up, you’re not helping.’
‘A tiny bit more, you got it…’
Furi pushed herself up and turned to Yeeran with a growl, her fangs slipping out from her top lip.
‘You are so annoying.’
Yeeran gave her a lopsided grin. ‘Worked, though, didn’t it?’
‘Only to spite you.’
‘Anger has always been like fuel to you.’
Furi lunged at her. Yeeran fell beneath her charge, though Furi knew it hadn’t been her strength that did it–Yeeran was letting Furi dominate her.
Furi straddled her and placed her trembling hands against her shoulders, pushing Yeeran into the sand. Then she lowered her mouth to Yeeran’s neck, trailing her tongue until she reached her ear.
‘Twenty-one,’ she whispered.
‘What?’
‘Today marks twenty-one days.’
‘Ah.’
‘Three weeks, Yeeran. You’re mine.’
Then she kissed her; a crushing, burning kiss that was full of promise and pleasure. When she pulled away, Yeeran was panting, her eyes ablaze.
‘Take me to the sea,’ Furi said. For even though her arms had full mobility, her legs were still too weak to go the distance.
‘Are you sure?’
‘Anywhere, anyhow, you said.’
‘I did.’
‘Then take me to the sea.’
Conch Shore was a sacred place to her. An estuary on the outside of Mosima fed their small ocean. At night you could stand at the waves’ edge and imagine an endless horizon.
First it had been a playground for her and Nerad. Then a training ground under Najma’s loving tutelage–a vocation Furi had retained for Yeeran when the elf was brought to Mosima. She had never thought that the beach would be the site where Yeeran stole her heart, but it had been that too.
Yeeran set her down at the edge of the water.
‘Lie down.’
The waves lapped at her feet as Yeeran lowered herself to the sand next to Furi who immediately began to undress her. With every piece of clothing she removed, she replaced the cloth with kisses, until Yeeran was trembling and naked beneath her.
Sea foam curved around Yeeran, softening the sharp lines of her body.
‘Breathtaking,’ Furi said.
Yeeran didn’t smile, she only beckoned Furi towards the softest part of her by arching ever so slightly.
Furi obliged, licking the sea salt off her skin as she trailed her way towards Yeeran’s navel. Her fingers slid inside her, and Yeeran gasped. Furi didn’t move her fingers, despite Yeeran dipping her hips to create friction against her hand.
‘Be still,’ Furi said, her lips against Yeeran’s stomach.
Yeeran made an animalistic sound deep in her throat but she obeyed.
Furi slid her tongue to the crest of her desire and held it there. The waves moved around them, higher than they had been a moment ago.
The tide was coming in, the seawater leaving her flushed skin tingling.
The tension between them crackled and pulled tighter than a bow string.
‘Furi, please.’
‘I like it when you beg,’ she said against the warmth of Yeeran’s skin.
‘Please.’
She moved her fingers once. ‘And again.’
‘Please.’
Up and down.
‘Please.’
‘Again.’
‘Please. Please. Please.’
With every word she uttered Furi obliged with a rhythm of her own. When her voice stuttered to a stop and Furi felt her begin to tighten beneath her, she gave her one last kiss deep in the centre of her.
‘Furi,’ Yeeran gasped her name once, then shuddered around her.
—
They swam in the shallows all afternoon and for the briefest of moments, Furi could pretend that nothing else existed beyond her and Yeeran.
With the sea buoying her legs and the smell of charred rats and knellsheen spores far in the distance, it was as though the horror of the last few months hadn’t happened at all.
‘Why don’t we stay out here?’ she asked Yeeran.
‘Our skin would get pretty wrinkly.’
Furi dipped under the water, then popped up next to Yeeran. ‘I’d still love you though.’
Yeeran laughed, ‘And I’d still love you.’ She wrapped her arms around Furi’s shoulders and pressed her forehead against hers.
‘But we should probably get out.’
‘No…’ she let the sea drown out Yeeran’s voice as she swam underwater once more.
Yeeran’s fingers found hers and dragged her back to the surface. ‘Please don’t do that, I keep thinking you’re drowning.’
Furi splashed her, trying to coax another smile onto her face. ‘I was just having fun. Is that so rare a sight that you think I must be dying?’
But Yeeran didn’t smile. ‘Yes. And when this is all over I want to watch you have fun every second for the rest of our lives.’
‘Well, we better go figure out how to end this war then.’
As forlorn as she was to leave their slice of solace, she knew that there would be no true peace until the elven army was dispatched.
Rayan had been tracking Lettle’s progress back to Mosima, and she’d soon be at the city’s edge. The knowledge she brought with her gave them an opportunity to bring the elves back to the negotiating table.
If the boundary was removed, the elves could soon enter and harvest whatever fraedia they wanted. But equally the fae could leave, and now Lorhan was currently unoccupied, Furi had it in her sights.
She’d never thought she’d return to her ancestral land during her life, but now with the opportunity to leave Mosima presenting itself, she let herself hope.
Yeeran offered Furi a hand as they waded out of the shallows onto the shore where Amnan and Pila were waiting for them. Pila licked the seawater off Yeeran’s wrists, making her laugh.
Amnan, on the other hand, was looking at the sea, his ears alert.
What is it?
The sea, it smells strange.
She followed his line of sight. A liquid as dark as ink was blooming beneath the waves, spreading from the boundary edge towards the shore.
‘Do you see that?’ Yeeran asked.
‘Yes.’ Furi began to despair before she realised what was happening.
Something silver floated on the surface of the water. Then another, and another.
‘Fish,’ Yeeran gasped. ‘The fish are dying.’
Although the fae strictly only ate vegetables and fruit, the ecosystem in Mosima was delicate and this would have ramifications beyond the animals that lived in the bay’s waters.
They had thought they’d been so clever closing the entrance to Mosima. What more harm could the chieftains do?
Furi fell to her knees and it wasn’t from any weakness.
‘The elves have poisoned the estuary.’