Chapter 4 Spring #2
With a light, deft touch, Nessa pulled a strand of shadow as if from thin air and quickly modeled it into a braided crown. Shyly, she asked Elana through a simple look if it was okay to place the crown of darkness on Elana’s golden hair.
Slowly, Elana nodded, and Nessa, trembling, rested the circlet on Elana’s head.
Elana caught her by the wrist. The two locked eyes, each trying to speak something urgent into existence without words.
Elana looked down at Nessa’s hands, and her fingers were stained dark with a remaining dusting of shadows after all the braiding.
She brought Nessa’s index finger to the fine cupid’s bow of her lip, inhaling the wild and untamed scent of shadows.
Nessa’s fingers quivered ever so slightly, and Elana couldn’t help herself. She tucked Nessa’s finger between her lips, gently exploring the first knuckle with the tip of her tongue.
And the earth opened up beneath her.
Somehow she was soaring over the ground, the metallic taste of mountain water in her throat and the spicy, urgent flavor of cinnamon making her mouth water.
She rolled her tongue around Nessa’s finger, wanting more, needing to understand the texture of shadows in her mouth.
It was velvety smooth like fresh milk and cool as a winter’s night.
It was crisp and earthen and like nothing Elana had ever tasted before, and it was everything she’d ever wanted.
It was every ounce of desire that had driven her to the well night after night.
It filled her belly in a way that had little to do with hunger.
“Elana.” Nessa’s voice came out a serrated whisper, thick with want.
Elana’s eyes flew open, and Nessa’s lips were on hers before she could speak. The kiss was everything, their lips and tongues dancing. Elana was breathless, delirious, her entire being entwined with Nessa’s and the desire in the pit of her stomach growing wild.
Her body wanted this and only this.
Elana knew little of what lovers did. She was only aware of what felt good to her, by herself in her bed at night. But how different could it be, to make another woman feel good? It was no mystery to her.
She slid her hands around the back of Nessa’s neck, letting her fingers explore the slippery shadows of hair, entwining them in her grasp and giving a gentle tug that made Nessa’s head fall back and delicious sounds sigh out of her.
Elana saw then, as Nessa’s mouth gently opened, the shadow woman’s teeth.
The desire that burned through her was tempered with an edge of fear and the result was exhilaration.
She pulled Nessa’s arms around her. She wanted more shadows on her skin, more darkness pressed against her. She wanted more.
Reaching back, she boldly tugged at the laces of Nessa’s gown.
The silk was amenable and eagerly slid down Nessa’s body as though it had only been waiting for Elana’s command.
The dress crumpled in a pile on the mossy rocks as Nessa gasped.
A wicked gleam entered her coal dark eyes, then, and she retaliated with a lace-tug of her own, resulting in Elana's own gown falling to the bank of the water as well.
Suddenly, the balmy evening didn’t seem quite so warm, and Elana was aware that she was boldly, brazenly naked in front of this woman for whom she had been breaking every rule her family had set for her for almost an entire year.
She wasn’t sure what to do with her hands; whether she should cover herself or open her arms to say this is me, this is who I am.
Nessa made it easier by closing the gap between them, running her slender dark fingers through a lock of Elana’s golden hair.
She cupped Elana’s cheek with one hand, and the other found the dip of Elana’s waist, and with those two points of contact Nessa pulled them together until their bodies touched.
Each place they connected slid smoothly, electric and wanting. Elana’s breast touched Nessa’s. She was aware of Nessa’s thigh pressing into her own, their bellies grazing one another. Elana exhaled, hard, as Nessa pulled her in and pressed their mouths together.
Each kiss was an explosion of the taste of shadows on Elana’s tongue. She briefly thought of the last time she’d kissed someone and how her only descriptor had been ‘wet’. This was so much more. This was a slippery shudder in her mouth, a sweet aching descent into delicious darkness.
Each touch was new, and when Nessa’s fingers slid into the slick wanting between Elana’s legs, it was all Elana could do to remain seated upright.
And then she couldn’t, and Nessa lay her back on their pile of silk gowns.
The sound of the waterfall roared around them, and as Nessa dipped her hungry mouth to the shadows in Elana’s darkest places, the stars above burned so brightly Elana had to close her eyes.
They lay together, a tangle of limbs and fingers, mouths and skin, indulging in one another and letting the whole valley fade away.
Here at the edge of Elana’s world, Nessa made her feel more whole and real and present than she’d ever felt before.
Everything else that came before this was simply practice for this moment. Nothing else mattered.
When at last they stilled, Nessa curled up in the crook of Elana’s arms, her strange darkness pressed tightly into Elana’s milk-pale skin.
She marveled at their differences, the contrast between them.
She brushed her moonlit fingers against the shadowy curve of Nessa’s lip, and Nessa caught Elana’s finger gently between her teeth and then caught her wrist in her hand.
“Careful, pretty girl. Haven’t you heard I’m a monster? I’ll eat your shadow.”
“You seem less monstrous with each moment I spend with you.”
Nessa hummed a single note, and Elana wasn’t sure if it was a pleased sound or one of consideration.
She ran her shadowy palms over Elana’s body again, all sensitive and reactive from their love making, and Elana squirmed and sighed in delight at the new sensations brought on by the touch of her monstrous lover.
“Now will you take me to see your village?” Nessa asked at last.
Elana sighed, this time not one of delight, and frustration edged her voice. “I don’t know how.”
“You simply put one foot in front of the other until your destination arrives before you. Poof! As simply as we arrived here, we can arrive there.”
Elana gave Nessa’s hair a playful tug. “You know that’s not what I mean. Can I… Can we think about it?”
“I’ve done a hundred years of thinking, Bright One. I’m ready to see the world.”
The nickname Nessa had bestowed upon her the first day they’d met brought sparks into Elana’s chest. But she still didn’t know how to bring Nessa to the village. It wasn’t as simple as she made it sound.
Nearby, a bird cooed softly, shattering the illusion that they were alone. Elana sat up, cupping her hands over her breasts. From where they lay, a mountain peak was just visible over the treetops, and the faintest glow had started there.
The sun was rising.
Shock shuddered through her chest, followed by sparks of fear. “We have to get back,” urged Elana. “Before morning, or I will be missed.”
Together they dressed, tugging on their gowns and lacing them up, and ran through the woods until the trees disappeared and the meadow unfurled before them, the well and tent marring the landscape.
Their hearts pounded, their sweaty hands pressed together as though they could pull each other through the edges of the night and on into morning.
When they arrived at the tent, gasping for breath, the sun had not yet breached the mountaintops beyond the valley. Elana knew she had to hurry home, but she longed to linger here, to extend her goodbye, to acknowledge everything that had come to pass between her and Nessa.
But those thoughts were shattered when a figured stepped out from behind Nessa’s tent.
“I thought I’d find you here,” said Marcus, his axe hefted over his shoulder. “I woke and checked your room and found your bed empty. Cold. How many nights have you been here, Elana? How many nights with this thing?” He spat the last word like it was a curse, like it was foul upon his tongue.
Nessa reared back as if she’d been struck.
Elana’s throat tightened, and she forced her words out. “Marcus, you don’t understand—”
He cut her off with a glare. “You’re right. I don’t. Get over here, I’m taking you home.”
Her chin wobbling, she looked from her brother to Nessa.
And with the slightest shake of her head, she chose.
“I have spent my whole life drawn here. My whole life, denying this part of me. The only thing that feels right is being here! The only time I’m not crawling out of my skin is when I’m here with Nessa. ”
“Nessa?” Marcus’s eyes flew wide, incredulity slackening his jaw. “It has a name?”
“Your sister gave me that name,” growled Nessa, her fists clenching and unclenching at her sides.
“My sister,” he said, clenching his teeth so tightly together his words came out a hiss, “is not well. There is something wrong with her mind. And you are a monster. I’m taking her home to be with our family. To keep her safe.” His eyes blazed as the sun breached the horizon. “Safe from you.”
He closed the distance between them, reaching for Elana’s arm.
Elana jerked away from him and reached for Nessa, and in that moment, Marcus swung.
The axe glinted in the sunrise as it scythed down on Nessa’s arm.
Elana screamed; those arms had not long ago been wrapped around her, had made her feel something, feel alive.
But Elana had spent so much time with Nessa, humanizing her, that she’d forgotten, truly, that Nessa was a monster. That she was not human. Her shadows split around the swing of the axe, reforming in the space between breaths.
“Stop!” Elana’s voice was a shriek. The three of them froze, no movement save Marcus’s heaving chest, his wild eyes darting from woman to woman. “Leave her be. I’ll go with you.”