Chapter 10 Ruined by Touch #2
She leans her head against my chest, her fingers tracing the scars on my ribs. “Do you ever get used to it?”
“No. You just get better at hiding the cracks.”
The water laps at our skin, the minerals stinging where the cuts are still fresh. I shift her on my lap, her body slick and perfect against mine.
“Why did you bring me here?” she asks, her voice muffled against my skin.
“Because it’s warm,” I say. “And because I thought maybe you needed to see that you’re not the only monster in this forest.”
She laughs, this time for real. “You’re not a monster, Rune.”
I shrug. “Maybe not to you.”
She runs her fingers up my spine, slow. “Who taught you to use your magic?”
I almost say her father’s name, but I bite it back.
“Someone who wanted to see what would happen if they let the monster out,” I say instead.
“I thought they did it out of love, because they cared. I was wrong. I was just a tool, something to use. And, eventually, they discarded me when something more powerful came along.”
She nods, maybe understanding, maybe just pretending to.
The moon slides behind a cloud, and the world grows softer, the edges blurring until it’s just her and me and the heat of the water.
Eventually, she lifts her face, her eyes shining. “Show me?” she asks.
I raise her wrist, water sheeting off her skin.
I trace my thumb over the inside of her arm, where the veins show blue under the pale surface.
With my other hand, I draw a simple rune, one I’ve inked on myself a hundred times, one I’ve used to open doors, hide truths, and make the impossible, possible.
The mark glows, faint at first, then brighter, lines of electric blue spidering across her flesh. It doesn’t burn, but it tingles, the sensation rippling up her arm to her shoulder, her neck, her jaw. She gasps, her eyes wide, as the magic wakes in her in response.
I do the same to her other arm, then her collarbone, then her chest. Each touch leaves a trail of light behind, a constellation written in the language of desire.
She watches, rapt, as the runes pulse in time with her heart.
“These are the same marks,” she whispers, “as the ones you traced on me before. When we…when you and your brothers…”
“Fucked you senseless?” I offer, grinning. “Yes. They’re not just for show.”
She squirms in my lap, the motion slow and deliberate. “What do they do?”
“They make sure you feel everything I feel,” I say. “They give you pleasure, and make sure you never forget you’re alive.”
Her eyes are darker now, the pupils wide. “Can you draw them everywhere?”
I let my hands wander, tracing the runes down her belly, over her hips, along the insides of her thighs. The glow follows, sinking into her skin and lighting her from within. The water around us starts to swirl, stirred by the force of the magic, or maybe just by the want in our bodies.
I slide two fingers inside her, slow and deep. She’s already wet, but the magic makes her even slicker, hotter, the sensation wild and overwhelming.
She clings to my shoulders, nails digging in, her mouth open in a wordless plea as I draw a rune right there too, in the heat and heart of her.
She gasps, quivering around me.
I add another finger, curling them to find the spot that makes her shudder. The runes glow brighter, each pulse of pleasure sending sparks up her spine.
She grabs my wrist, her eyes wild. “Rune. Fuck me.”
I laugh, low and satisfied. “As you wish, Princess.”
I pull her onto my cock, the head already throbbing, leaking. She sinks down, the fit tight and perfect, her body taking me inch by inch. The runes on her thighs flash white as I fill her, the pleasure rolling off her in waves.
I fuck her slow at first, letting her adjust, letting her feel every ridge and vein. She rocks against me, greedy, her breath coming in gasps.
“I love watching you when you’re ruined with pleasure.” I kiss her, biting her lower lip hard enough to draw a bead of blood. She doesn’t flinch, just sucks my tongue into her mouth, hungry and demanding.
I thrust harder, faster, the water churning around us, slapping against the rocks. Each time I bottom out, she moans, the sound echoing through the trees.
I wrap one hand around her throat, squeezing just enough to make her head go light. With the other, I trace a rune over her breast, the glow sinking in, making her skin buzz.
“Please,” she says, her voice wrecked. “Don’t stop.”
“I won’t,” I promise, and I don’t.
I fuck her until she’s sobbing, until the pleasure is so much she can’t hold it in. The magic pours out of her, crackling through the air, making the water boil in places. The runes on her skin blur, the lines running together until she’s just a burning, shaking thing in my arms.
She comes, hard, her cunt clenching around me, milking every drop. The wave of it hits me too, the force of it pulling the magic out of me and into her. I come with a gasp, spilling into her until I’m shaking.
We float afterward, limp and spent, her body draped over mine.
She rests her head on my shoulder, her hair plastered to my chest. “I could die like this,” she whispers.
“You’re not allowed,” I say. “You have to finish what you started.”
She lifts her head, confusion in her eyes.
I brush a strand of hair from her face. “You have the power to make it right. For all of us.”
She blinks, uncertain. “I don’t understand. Make what right?” Her bottom lip quivers.
“The past.”
“You mean my father.” She must see something on my face that confirms her suspicion. “What did he do to all of you, Rune? How did he hurt you?”
I shake my head, unable to answer, perhaps unwilling.
She’s already stretched thin. I won’t be the thing that breaks her entirely.
Breakage is necessary if you want to build something new, it always is, but that doesn’t mean we relish doing it.
We’d protect her from the wreckage if we could, and feel it for her.
None of us were given that option, though, her least of all.
“If anyone can change fate, it’s you,” I say instead.
“That’s a lot of faith for a monster.”
“We’re all monsters here,” I say. “Some of us are just better at pretending.”
She sighs, and I kiss her again, softer this time.
We lie in the water, tangled together, until the magic fades and the cold creeps back in. She doesn’t ask for more, and I don’t offer. She’s faced enough hard truths today.
When we finally climb out, the runes are gone, but the memory of them lingers on her skin.
I dress her in my shirt, careful and slow, and she lets me.
We walk back to camp, her hand in mine, and for the first time since I was a child, I feel almost human. Not partially, but fully, as if she’s slowly changing me back already.
She falls asleep beside me, her breath sweet in my ear, her body curled tight around my own.
I dream of her, pulsing with magic, as bright as the sun.