Lysa introduced herself with a wink and a voice dipped in honey.
"Name's Lysa. But my friends call me Liz."
The bulky guy beside her raised a hand in a cheerful half-wave." I'm Shawn. Not short for anything. Just… Shawn."
He had the shoulders of a brawler and the energy of an overexcited puppy.
"Need anything carried? That hill looks steep...want me to carry you both? Ha!"
Rea smiled like a maniacal murderer. "You touch her, you die."
Lysa laughed, tossing her braid over her shoulder. "Relax... Rea, right? He's harmless. Just overly friendly."
The tension was instant. Lysa insisted the eastward path through a village was faster. Rea snapped back that west was quicker, safer, and "free from curious eyes. Shawn tried to mediate, only to be assigned firewood duty.
Things got worse at the muddy riverbank. A mossy fallen log was the only crossing. Annabella hesitated, mud was beneath her, literally. Rea stepped forward. "I'll help you across," she said, hand extended.
But Lysa was already there, voice velvet sweet. "Oh, darling, not in those boots. Come here...I've done this before."
Annabella just raised an eyebrow. Then, with perfect poise, she crossed the log herself, never slipping once. Lysa looked impressed. Rea looked disappointed.
Somehow, a wood-chopping contest began. The dissimulation spell limited Rea's strength, keeping her from drawing on her magic. But she refused to back down. Lysa was tireless. Their swings echoed like war drums through the clearing.
Shawn and Annabella stood on the sidelines. After a while, Shawn turned to her, baffled. "Don't we already have enough wood? At this rate, they'll clear the whole forest."
Annabella smiled and took his hand. "Come on. Let's go pick berries before they start building boats."
Shawn blushed, his face lighting up under Annabella's calm, radiant energy. He was soft-hearted, gentle and Annabella liked that. For all his clumsy chatter, he was kind.
When they returned, arms full of berries and wildflowers, Rea and Lysa were still chopping.
Annabella clapped once, sharply. "Contest over. Or I'll start awarding points for emotional stability and i bet none of you will make the cut."
Lysa noticed the flowers, and the grin on Shawn's face. Her eyes danced. "Do you always make everything you touch prettier?" She gestured at Shawn, who was practically glowing with blushes and bashful delight.
Annabella tilted her head, flipping her hair. "You tell me."
Rea frowned, jaw tightening. That was way too friendly. Way too close. Way too much.
She turned on her heel and stalked off, muttering under her breath.
Annabella noticed Rea slip away from the group, her shoulders tense, her expression unreadable in the dimming light. The others were still talking. Shawn enthusiastically recounting some half-true story about wrestling a boar, Lysa laughing too loudly at nothing in particular.
Annabella's eyes followed her instinctively. A beat passed. Then she excused herself, ignoring Lysa's lingering glance, and followed quietly into the woods.
Back at the fire, Shawn caught the way Lysa watched Annabella go, something strange flashing in her eyes. He nudged her gently.
"She's beautiful, huh?"
Lysa didn't deny it. Her smirk softened into something quieter. "Yeah," she admitted.
Shawn turned to look at her, more serious now."But she's a no-go zone."
Lysa's gaze flicked back to the fire
"I know."
Shawn smiled faintly. "Besides that... the way she looks at Rea? She is clearly taken"He let the rest hang in the air.
Lysa didn't answer, but she didn't need to.
She looked like someone watching a game she'd already lost.
Annabella caught Rea sitting alone in the corner with a small fire lit. Her figure was hunched, hands resting on her knees, face dimly lit in the low orange glow. She looked up only when Annabella's soft footsteps crunched nearby.
Arms folded, Annabella tilted her head with that amused little smirk. "Why are you so gloomy? We're less suspicious with them than when we're skulking around like ghosts. You know I am right"
Rea didn't even blink. "Is this really what's happening? If you want me to buy it, at least…" her voice hardened, "stop encouraging her."
Annabella blinked, her brows arching, but she barely flinched. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me," Rea growled. "You laugh at her jokes. Let her touch you. You are entertaining her"
Rea's eyes glinted, torn between hurt and frustration. "You don't get it. You deny me. Every night. Every damn night. I touch you and you pull away. Then you let her circle you like a hawk and act like I'm imagining things. I can't—"
Annabella straddled her without warning in one smooth motion, pushing Rea back against the mossy wall with deliberate grace. "You're horny," she said flatly, nose almost brushing Rea's.
Rea's breath hitched. Her body reacted faster than her brain, her hard groin surged as Annabella's thighs locked around her waist. "That's not the point."
Annabella leaned closer, her breath hot against Rea's mouth. "It's exactly the point. You're tense, you're possessive, and you're seconds away from doing something stupid."
Rea clenched her fists, biting down a low groan as Annabella pressed down Rea's arousal. "So do something about it. Say you want me. Or say you don't. But don't play this game. I'm—"
Annabella silenced her with a kiss. Hot, demanding. Tongue slick, teasing. Rea moaned into it, her hands snapping up to grab Annabella's waist.
"I haven't denied you without cause," Annabella whispered, breathlessly between kisses. "I just haven't told you why."
Rea dragged her lips along Annabella's neck, desperate and shaking. "Then please… for the love of the gods… tell me. I'm in pain."
Annabella rocked her hips down, slow and hard directly over Rea's already swollen heat. Rea's back arched, a low whimper slipping out as she throbbed against the friction.
Rea gasped, arching. "F—!"
Annabella's eyes burned with passion and curiosity. Her hand slipped between them, into Rea's pants, stroking softly at first, then firmer. Rea bit her lip hard but a desperate sound still escaped her throat. "The problem, Rea, is I love the way you want me… but I hate that you can't think past your basic instinct."
"Stop if this is one of your games," Rea warned, her voice hoarse. "Run now. Before I lose my shit and ravage you."
"Sounds about right...But before you do," Annabella murmured, nipping Rea's ear and trailing kisses down her neck, "let me ask you something. Do you remember how many times we've used the fertility spell these past few days?"
Rea was panting, hips bucking up to meet her touch. "A couple?"
Annabella shook her head slowly, lips grazing Rea's jaw, the warmth of her breath igniting every nerve. "Way too often to count. And every time you climax… your eyes shift. One like Lucreus. The other like Tenebros."
Rea gasped, throbbing now under Annabella's teasing fingers. "So that's what this is about… we can find other ways, I swear, we can..."
Annabella grabbed Rea's hands and slid them under her own shirt, up to the soft curves of her breasts. Rea groaned, her calloused hands trembling as they brushedAnnabella's perky nipples drawing a breathy moan from Annabella's lips.
Annabella's hips wined down again, faster this time, dragging a ragged groan from Rea's lips as the friction intensified. Rea was already dangerously close, pulsing beneath the fabric, trying not to lose control.
Annabella's voice lowered, sharp with emotion. breathless. "We don't even know if it works on me when I lay with you. The spell...it's unreliable for Death Mages. You're a passionate lover, Rea. You chase the high. But we're not living normal lives. We're on the run. It would be cruel to bring a child into this."
Then she ground harder, deliberately, cruelly slow dragging Rea across the edge. Rea cried out, her hands clutching Annabella's thighs as her body arched...
then she shattered.
A sob ripped from her throat as she came hard inside her pants, head thrown back, shaking uncontrollably under the woman she loved. A moan cracked through her lips as wave after wave rolled over her, every nerve alight with the fire Annabella had lit in her.
Annabella didn't speak. She leaned forward and kissed Rea's forehead, tender and lingering.
"Please go easy on me from now on," she whispered. "I can't be the only one carrying this responsibility. You have to take responsibility for us."
Then she rose and disappeared into the dark, leaving Rea trembling by the fire, heart pounding, lips parted, still aching for more.
She hadn't even touched Annabella properly. Hadn't stripped a single layer.
But that...gods...that was volcanic.
And yet… it wasn't enough.
And for the first time since this mess began, she saw it all clearly, why Annabella kept her distance, why the teasing never went too far, why the spells were cast in silence with no real certainty of their effect.
They were walking a wire strung tight between desire and destruction.
And Annabella was trying...failing, maybe...but trying to keep them from falling off the edge.
Back at camp, Lysa smirked the moment Annabella reappeared. She didn't need to ask, she could tell her aura was different.
Annabella's flushed cheeks, slightly stylishly tousled hair, and the calm precision with which she walked gave everything away. Something had happened and although she could pretend almost perfectly like it didn't. She was Glowing.
"Everything alright?" Lysa asked, flicking a twig into the fire, her tone, more bothered than she would like.
Annabella didn't miss a beat. She dropped down beside the fire with that same effortless elegance, one knee bent, her coat falling just so around her.
"Oh, perfectly," she replied, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.
Rea followed a few moments later, silent. Her shirt clung just a little too snugly from heat and motion, and her breath still hadn't fully evened out. She didn't look at anyone, just sat down beside Annabella like she always had the right.
Shawn raised a brow and offered her a pouch. "Dried mango?"
Rea grabbed a piece without looking. Her jaw ticked as she chewed, eyes locked on the fire.
"Thanks" She replied nicer than she has ever been
The silence that followed was thick. Lysa's eyes flicked between the two women. "Tense walk?" she asked lightly, eyes gleaming.
"Depends on who you ask," Rea muttered.
Annabella crossed her legs and leaned back, her tone light as ever. As if she hadn't just given Rea the ride of her life. "Oh, I found it rather… grounding."
Lysa laughed, but it was brittle. Her smile faltered as her eyes darted to Rea, who visibly stiffened.
Rea's head turned just slightly, eyes narrowing on Annabella with something messier, without restraint, almost a lustful warning. Her ears flushed a shade too red. She didn't say a word, but her jaw clenched around the next bite of mango.
Lysa caught it. And she hated it.
The way Annabella's voice could twist Rea's expression into something vulnerable.
The way Rea was suddenly quiet, just barely blushing.
Lysa looked away.
She'd thought Annabella was just playing hard to get.
Guess she was wrong.