16. Like the Light
Like the Light
Driz’s heart hadn’t stopped thrumming for two whole nights, and it danced at the sight of Pearl waiting for her in the ravine.
“Hey,” Pearl said, hardly startling at all when Driz dropped in front of her.
“I want to show you something,” Driz blurted, too excited to wait.
Pearl tilted her head. “Alright.”
“Are you willing to fly again?”
Pearl responded by wrapping herself around Driz’s front. Driz held her close, reveling in the shift of her shoulder blade beneath her palm. As Pearl shimmied higher, Driz’s mind stuttered, fixed on the sensation, before she remembered what she was doing and launched into the air.
The flight wasn’t far, and Driz was both disappointed that she couldn’t hold Pearl longer and eager for her to see.
She landed near the edge of the canyon wall, laying Pearl gently on the bed of drying grass she had dug last night from the lower lands. Pearl sat up, taking in the sight.
The canyon dropped away sharply, and in the basin below, the glowing had started.
“This time of year, they are always here,” Driz explained, pointing down.
Fireflies hummed lazily, flickering in and out of sight, like warmer, busier versions of the stars that spread above. Then the firefoxes appeared. Dim shapes rustled and a few lights blinked out as teeth snapped them up. And their fur began to glow.
Five firefoxes wrestled and scampered along the bank, oblivious to the eyes above them. The shy creatures knew they were safe here. The more bugs they ate, the brighter they glowed themselves, until the shine of their coats reflected off the walls of the canyon.
Pearl watched them, and Driz watched Pearl. Driz didn’t know what to give her, except the most beautiful parts of her world.
“I know you like light,” Driz whispered. “So I thought you might like to see.”
The warm glow illuminated the side of Pearl’s face as she looked at her. A faint smile touched her lips and she nodded. “I do.”
Driz’s heart beat faster and her wings twitched happily.
“I actually brought you something too,” Pearl said, pulling out a pouch and handing it over.
“You did?” Driz eagerly tugged at the string around the fabric neck, opening it and peering inside.
A handful of spiked metal bits cradled a sphere. Puzzled but delighted, Driz tipped them out onto the browning grass, and a spotted bone cube tumbled after them.
“Thank you,” she said, meaning it, picking up one of the metal pieces made of two rods welded together.
“You ever played it?”
“Played?”
“It’s a game.” Pearl scooted over to the edge of the grass nest and patted the flat slab of sandstone. “Bring the pieces over here.”
Driz did, carefully transporting all seven metal pieces, the cube, and the ball, laying them in front of Pearl.
“We’re missing a few jacks, but that’s fine. And we don’t have two dice anyway. It plays the same.”
Pearl tossed the ball in the air a few times before she threw it at the ground. It bounced back up and she caught it with ease.
“We roll to figure out how many jacks to pick up. The point is to bounce the ball and pick up before it can bounce again. Yeah?”
Driz nodded, having no idea what to do, too entranced by how Pearl’s talented hands played with the ball.
“Wanna go first?” Pearl asked.
Driz shook her head. “Show me.”
Pearl tossed the cube, and two dots came up. She leaned closer, probably to see better, and then bounced the ball and grabbed two spikes. “Your turn.”
Driz took the ball. When she dropped it, it barely bounced at all.
“It takes a bit of force,” Pearl instructed.
Driz threw it lightly at the ground and it came back up to her chin. She caught it and grinned. She would have fun with this.
“Roll the dice,” Pearl told her.
Driz reluctantly paused her bouncing and took the cube, rolling it from her hand as Pearl had.
Driz bounced, swiped up all of the remaining spikes with ease, and caught the ball.
“No, you’re only supposed to pick up four,” Pearl said as Driz started bouncing again. “And it’s gotta be with the same hand you catch with.”
Driz hurriedly returned her spikes to the ground, fumbling as the ball tried to escape. “Sorry. Do I try again?”
“This time. But I would’ve won that round.”
Driz threw, grabbed only four spikes, and caught the fall.
“There, that was it.” Pearl smiled at her and Driz’s heart stuttered.
Driz really liked this game.
She resisted the urge to keep playing with the ball and rested it in front of Pearl. “Your turn.”
Pearl rolled one dot and succeeded. Then Driz rolled five dots.
After two more rounds, Pearl missed a three dot, not quite guessing where the ball was going to be, batting it with her knuckles.
“Shit,” she laughed as it went rolling toward the cliff.
Driz dove for it, snatching it right before it plummeted down toward the firefoxes. Pearl had also lunged. She collided with Driz, one knee slamming into the stone with an audible thud and grunt. Driz curled her arms around Pearl, sitting them up and shifting away from the edge.
“Are you hurt?” Driz asked, worry clawing at her chest.
“I’m fine. That was my bad. It’s hard to see, even with the glow.”
“Did you bring your lantern?”
“It’s back at the ravine.”
A few moments before, Driz would have been content to keep playing her new game all night. But Pearl was now partly sitting in her lap, and that chased all thoughts from Driz’s mind.
Warm breath brushed her throat. Pearl gripped the fabric over Driz’s shoulder with one hand, the other curled around the strap of her suspender.
In the canyon below, the firefoxes continued to play, but Driz forgot about them as Pearl’s slow smile reappeared.
Driz’s gaze fell to Pearl’s mouth and she went utterly still at the memory of last night.
“Do you wanna kiss me?” Pearl asked.
“How do you know?”
Pearl chuckled. “I wouldn’t mind if you did.”
Driz’s wings twitched, her heart uncomfortably loud in her chest. “Really?”
“Really.”
She slowly leaned forward, flicking her gaze between Pearl’s mouth and her eyes, looking for any sign of distress or a word to stop her. But Pearl didn’t pull back.
Driz pressed their lips together.
When Pearl cupped her cheek, Driz thought she might push her away, but instead, Pearl drew her closer, angling their faces.
Heat flooded her.
Pearl’s lips moved over her own. So soft. So warm. Pearl’s eyelashes fluttered closed, but Driz couldn’t look away.
Pearl made a sound in the back of her throat as she stole her lips back.
Driz tensed, but Pearl just pushed up enough to readjust over Driz’s thighs and fully straddle her lap.
Driz supported her, running a hand down her spine, marveling at the shape and heat, and the permission to hold Pearl as their mouths met once more.
Sudden fear that she would do something wrong and hurt or frighten Pearl made her freeze.
Pearl met Driz’s gaze from so close. The lights of the canyon outlined her, highlighting the whisps of hair straying away from her braid. Driz smoothed them with a shaking hand, her claws too sharp near Pearl’s delicate skin.
Who was Driz to dare touch her?
“Was that your first kiss?” Pearl whispered.
“No.”
Pearl raised an eyebrow, sitting back. “No?”
“My first kiss was two nights ago.”
Pearl smiled, her teeth glinting. “That didn’t count.”
“Oh.” Driz’s heart dropped. “It did not?” Had Driz misunderstood?
She stilled as Pearl ran her thumb over Driz’s lower lip, catching against her left fang. Did Pearl mind them? Driz could break them off. They would grow back with the stone sleep, but Driz could just break them again the next night if she needed.
Pearl leaned in and darted her tongue out, wetting the seam of Driz’s closed lips. “Want me to show you a real kiss?”
Pearl had lied to Molly when she said Driz wasn’t sweet.
Perhaps it was the thrill of kissing a creature so feared and forbidden. Perhaps it was the reverence in Driz’s gaze that silenced the appropriate response of alarm. Perhaps it was that Driz was all Pearl’s, or simply the unfiltered earnestness of it all.
She didn’t know exactly why kissing Driz was so imperative, but it was. And Pearl was going to do it, if Driz wanted her to. And every single signal Driz was giving let Pearl know she wanted her to.
Pearl settled closer, seating herself flush on Driz’s lap. Driz’s wings twitched, and Pearl had to stop herself from grinding against her.
Pearl tugged at the tense jaw until it slackened and Driz’s lips parted so Pearl could kiss her deeper.
Slipping her tongue inside, Pearl delighted in the gasp she received.
Pearl drew Driz’s lower lip into her mouth as her hands slid down her strong neck to her shoulders, letting one continue lower.
She cupped a generous breast through the fabric of Driz’s shirt.
Driz shuddered, and her nipple hardened as soon as Pearl rubbed her thumb over it. But the rest of her remained soft and giving. And very much a woman.
Pearl felt drunk. Driz was so responsive. Each pass of Pearl’s thumb earned a soft rumble and puff of breath against Pearl’s mouth. The sound didn’t frighten her. It emboldened her.
She unfastened Driz’s buttons to get to her skin. So Pearl could heft the full weight of each breast in her hands.
Driz drew back from the kiss and looked down, watching Pearl touch her.
Driz’s hands had left Pearl’s back and were braced on either side of her, clawed fingers tense, curling into the mix of dirt and crumbling stone.
That wouldn’t do.
Pearl reached for her own throat, tugging impatiently at her scarf and popping the buttons on her waistcoat and shirt. She wore too many damn clothes.
Driz’s intense gaze tracked each movement. It satiated a desire in Pearl she hadn’t known she craved.
“Touch me,” Pearl whispered, tugging open the layers she still wore. The cold night air nipped at her pleasurably.
Pearl’s own breasts were rather small in comparison, but Driz didn’t seem to mind as her right palm engulfed one. Her touch was so gentle, her movements careful. Pearl grabbed Driz’s other hand and placed it over her other breast, sighing and arching into it.