Norsuk

My head pounded, a relentless ache that threatened to split my skull. I could barely open one eye, the other glued shut by dried blood. My mouth was parched, tongue thick and heavy.

What had happened? Memories flickered hazily—falling rocks, Agatha"s scream, a sharp pain, then darkness. I must have been hit by debris in the collapse. But where was I now?

Beneath me, I felt something incredibly soft. Not stone. Flesh. With great effort, I cracked my good eye open, blinking against the faint glow illuminating the cavern.

Agatha.

She slumped against the rough wall, red hair spilling over her shoulders, face peaceful in sleep. My head rested in her lap, cradled gently. Even like this, her beauty took my breath away.

Carefully, I reached up to touch the source of pain at my temple. My fingers came away sticky with blood. I must look terrible. Nausea washed over me at the small movement, so I stilled, not wanting to wake Agatha. Not until I could stand on my own.

As I lay there, trying to settle my stomach, my gaze drifted over our surroundings—and I wondered if that rock had knocked me senseless after all.

Across a still underground lake, a city rose in the distance unlike anything I"d ever seen. Spires and towers, domes and arches, all glowing with the distinct shimmer of raw korun crystal. The same crystal lining the chasm walls. Was this city actually built on that precious resource?

The entire metropolis was mirrored in the unnaturally calm water, rippling with a rainbow of colors. Shades I couldn"t name painted the cavern, brighter than any sunset.

It seemed the kind of fantastical sight one might dream up... or hallucinate with a concussion. With effort, I turned to look back the way we"d come. Yawning blackness greeted me, the mine shaft an impenetrable wall of shadow that swallowed the meager light.

How did we survive that fall? I remembered the nauseating plummet, the jolting impact, and then...

Wings. My wings.

I squeezed my eye shut as the memories hit me like another collision with stone. Falling rocks biting into my back, the bizarre feeling of flesh splitting, and bones elongating. The frantic, instinctive flapping of newborn wings, just enough to slow our descent.

Wings could only mean one thing—I had reached my final molt. The irreversible last stage of maturation, triggered solely by...

A low rumble vibrated through the bedrock, more felt than heard. From deep in the crevasse, clattering stone rang out, followed by the hiss of a small rockslide. Agatha jolted awake with a gasp, her fingers clenching in my hair.

As suddenly as it started, the tremor ended. The grinding of shifting rock faded into tense quiet, dust motes swirling lazily in the luminous air. Agatha"s wide eyes found mine, relief and apprehension battling across her face.

"You"re awake," she breathed, awe in her tone. Gentle fingers skimmed my brow, ghosting over the edges of my injury. "Alive."

I parted cracked lips, struggling to form words around my thick tongue. A rasping croak was the best I could manage, my dry throat protesting.

Agatha"s brow furrowed with concern. "There"s water nearby. Do you think you can walk?"

Walk? I doubted I could sit up without embarrassing myself. But the mention of water made my mouth ache with thirst. Gritting my teeth against a wave of dizziness, I levered myself halfway up, willing the world to stop spinning.

"How...long was I out?" The words scraped like gravel, but at least I could speak.

Agatha bit her lip, glancing toward the otherworldly city. "I"m not sure. Not too long, I think? It"s hard to tell time down here."

She had a point. Cut off from the sun and moon, we could end up wandering for days. I suppressed a shudder at the thought.

Carefully, I flexed the strange new muscles of my wings, feeling cool air against untested membranes. The sensation was bizarre, my nerves struggling to interpret the alien input. Like a phantom limb in reverse.

"Could you... fly us out?" Agatha asked tentatively, a slight tremor in her words. "Back up to where we fell?"

I focused on the unfamiliar weight at my shoulder blades, willing the wings to obey. They barely twitched, the movement uncoordinated and weak. Newborn wings on an ancient body. I shook my head, frustrated.

"Not yet," I admitted, hating the uncertainty in my voice. "Too new. Too weak. And even if I could fly, we"d be defenseless against those white beasts."

Agatha shuddered, no doubt remembering our narrow escape. Hugging herself, she stood unsteadily and held out a hand. An offer of help, though we both knew she couldn"t bear my weight.

Still, I took the gesture for what it was, letting her haul me up with a grunt of effort. The world tilted alarmingly and I locked my knees, willing myself not to pitch forward.

My jacket hung in tatters, more hole than leather. I shrugged out of the ruined garment, letting it drop to the stone.

Agatha circled behind me, one hesitant hand outstretched. I held still as she brushed fingertips over the leading edge of one wing, the touch light as a moth. Alien sensations shot up my spine and I barely suppressed a full-body shiver.

"Is this... normal? For your kind?" Her voice was hushed with wonder.

I huffed a laugh, the sound rough in my raw throat. "A final stage of maturation, yes. But not one I expected to reach so soon."

"Maybe the people in that city can help us find a way out," Agatha mused, squinting at the distant towers. She turned to me, worry creasing her brow. "Do you need me to?—"

"I"m fine," I bit out, harsher than I intended. The thought of this slip of a human supporting my bulk was laughable. I was dizzy, head pounding, but I"d be damned if I let her see me weak.

I rolled my shoulders, feeling the strange pull of new muscles. With an effort of will, I folded the wings tight against my spine. The position felt slightly less absurd, the weight more manageable. It would do.

Agatha still hovered near, concern etched around her eyes. "For what it"s worth, I think your wings are beautiful."

Heat crept up my neck, unrelated to my injuries. "Thank you." The words felt awkward on my tongue, rusty with disuse. I stood there for a moment, caught off guard by her kindness. Finally, I cleared my throat and looked around properly.

The cavern stretched up into shadow above us, the distant roof lost in darkness. Rounded steps led down from our high perch, concentric ridges reminiscent of amphitheater seating. Had this area once been underwater, the tidelines of that calm lake far below?

To my longer stride, each terrace was an easy step down. For Agatha, the drop required a small jump, made precarious by the crumbling stone. I found myself reaching to steady her, a large hand splayed against the small of her back. An anchor point.

She flashed me a quick, grateful smile over her shoulder. Something in my chest constricted painfully at the affection in her eyes.

What was happening to me?

The descent was slow, hampered by my unsteady legs and Agatha"s short reach, but we made it to the lakeshore without incident. A delighted noise bubbled from Agatha"s lips at the sight of the water, and, for the first time, I registered the desperate thirst clawing at my throat.

She already kneeled at the water"s edge, scooping the crystal liquid to her mouth. I followed more slowly, pausing first to rinse the worst of the blood from my face and hair. To my relief, both eyes opened easily, the wound at my temple no longer bleeding.

The water was bracingly cold and sweet, soothing my parched mouth. I gulped it greedily, feeling strength and clarity seeping back into my body with each swallow. Perhaps I wasn"t at death"s door, after all.

Agatha stood, hands on her hips as she squinted up at the vaulted ceiling. "There—that stone formation. See how it tapers? I think it must have been a support column, for a bridge or walkway."

She was right. What I"d taken for a natural spire showed clear signs of masonry on closer inspection, the cascading ridges too geometrically perfect to be shaped by random water drips over eons. Chunks of plaster-like material littered the base, piled like dirty snow drifts.

"Someone carved this," I murmured, trailing a hand over the weathered stone. "And there, where it reaches toward the city... A causeway, perhaps, long since crumbled."

"They must have been capable of remarkable engineering," Agatha mused. "To build something like that, at this height. Let alone that." She waved a hand toward the glimmering metropolis.

"Clever and industrious, yes," I agreed, "but at what cost? Enslaved natives mining korun until they dropped?" I spoke from experience—everywhere the coveted crystal was found, oppression and exploitation followed.

"You don"t really think..." Agatha blanched, then pressed her lips into a thin, angry line. "No, you"re probably right. Humans never hesitated to wipe out indigenous people back on Earth, either. Why would the rest of the universe be different?"

The bitterness in her tone took me aback. I opened my mouth to say... what? That I was sorry? That her species" cruelty didn"t reflect on her kind heart? That I would personally resurrect any long-dead natives brutalized here, just to see her smile again?

Mercifully, Agatha spared me from my own inane tongue. "Come on," she beckoned, already picking her way along the rocky shore. "Let"s keep moving."

I fell into step beside her, shortening my stride to match hers. The glowing korun veins cast the angles of her face in sharp relief, gilding her hair with silver and gold. I was struck again by her fierce, delicate beauty, a bird of prey in human form.

What would she think of me, if she knew the depths of my sins?

Guilt, that nagging unfamiliar emotion, coiled like lead in my gut.

Lost in my swirling thoughts, I nearly ran into Agatha when she stopped short. A weathered dome rose ahead, easily three stories tall. The hexagonal windows dotting its surface were cracked and dull with neglect. Sickly vines shrouded the entire structure, pale tendrils creeping through every gap in the crumbling stone.

Where the main entrance must have been, only a gaping arch remained, choked with dry leaves and rotting plant matter. Agatha wrinkled her nose at the foul stench wafting out to greet us.

"Should we check inside?" Her voice was a thin whisper, as if reluctant to disturb the heavy silence.

I moved subtly in front of her, one arm out to block her path. "I don"t like the look of it." An understatement.

Something about that derelict ruin set my teeth on edge, some primal instinct warning of hidden danger. I"d learned long ago not to ignore that ancestral wisdom.

Agatha hesitated a moment longer, curiosity and caution warring in her eyes. Then, with a small shake of her head, she turned firmly away. "You"re right. Better not risk it. Not like this."

Not half-starved and hurt, she didn"t say. Not when we were each other"s only lifeline in this strange abyss.

I relaxed a bit as she moved on, only to tense again when our new path brought us to the mouth of a second branch cavern. Here, a ribbon of water spilled from a crack in the unseen ceiling, churning the still surface into a froth of bubbles. Ages of erosion had carved a deep hollow into the stone floor, a glittering pool reflecting the cavern"s dancing light like a kaleidoscope.

"This was a bathing chamber," Agatha announced suddenly, dragging me out of my thoughts. She traced a slim hand over the rim of the pool. "See these channels cut into the sides? I bet they circulated the water, kept it from stagnating."

I followed the line of her arm, noting the geometric patterns etched into the pool walls. She was right—this was no natural spring. Even before the waterfall, this had been an artificial bath, carefully carved and maintained.

The thought of the long-vanished bathers, their forgotten lives and hardships, sent an unexpected pang through my chest. How much history had this strange sanctuary seen? How many generations had it sheltered, comforted... perhaps even loved?

"We should keep moving," I said gruffly, tearing my gaze from the play of light over Agatha"s upturned face. "No telling what nasty germs are breeding in there after all this time."

But even as I spoke, I was struck by a sudden ache. A bone-deep need to feel the water"s blessing on my battered skin. To be clean again, if only for a moment.

As if compelled, my hands rose to the fastenings of my shirt.

Agatha"s eyes went wide, rose staining her cheeks. "What... what are you doing?"

"I thought that was obvious," I drawled, fighting to keep my tone casual. Unaffected. As if I stripped half-naked in front of her every day. "I"m going to wash this blood and grime off before it permanently sticks to my hide."

She swallowed audibly, eyes glued to my chest as I shrugged out of the torn garment. "Oh. Um. Good idea."

I met her stare evenly, a small smirk tugging at my lips. "What"s the matter, Agatha? Afraid of what you might see?"

Her blush deepened to a fetching scarlet, delicate throat working as she fumbled for words. Finally, she huffed and spun on her heel, crossing her arms with a defiant lift of her chin.

"Hardly. I just thought you might want a little privacy."

"From you?" I made quick work of my boots and trousers, leaving only my undershorts to preserve some modesty. The stone was cool and gritty under my bare feet, the packed earth giving slightly with each step. "I think we"re a bit past that, don"t you?"

Agatha kept her back to me, but I caught the slight hitch in her breathing as I strode past. The air felt different on my skin, charged with a crackling energy.

I didn"t let myself hesitate at the water"s edge, wading in until the liquid lapped at my waist. The shock of submersion drove the breath from my lungs in a hiss, every sense electrified. I felt the immense weight of the mountain pressing down from above, the hidden currents swirling around my legs, the caress of a thousand tiny bubbles bursting against my skin.

It was exhilarating. Terrifying. I felt acutely, exquisitely aware of my body in a way I"d never experienced before. Every nerve ending sparked and sizzled, attuned to each ripple and eddy. I wondered fleetingly if this was some side effect of my transformation—a heightening of physical sensation to accompany my new form.

A tentative splash behind me shattered my reverie. I turned to find Agatha ankle-deep in the shallows, worrying her lower lip between small white teeth. In the ethereal glow of the cavern, her skin was alabaster, the lines of her body breathtakingly delicate. Fragile.

But there was steel in her eyes as she met my frankly appreciative gaze, a defiant tilt to her pointed chin. With trembling fingers, she pulled the red shift over her head, tossing onto the stone where it pooled next to her discarded boots.

Gods above and below, she was exquisite.

"Turn around," she ordered, sounding breathless. A becoming flush painted her chest, shadowed cleavage making my hands itch to touch.

I blinked at her, uncomprehending. She couldn"t seriously expect me to look away now, could she?

"Norsuk." A warning note crept into her voice, eyes flashing. "Turn. Around."

Belatedly, I registered the genuine anxiety beneath her bravado. The fear of vulnerability, of exposure. After everything she"d endured, could I blame her for needing a moment to compose herself?

Heaving a put-upon sigh, I complied, fixing my gaze on the spires of the distant city. I tracked the ripples of her movement by sound alone, the gentle splash as she waded deeper. Despite the chill, I felt sweat prickle my brow at the mental image of Agatha submerged behind me, water lapping at silken skin...

"Okay," she breathed, the word barely audible over the frantic drumming of my heart. "You can look now."

Slowly, I pivoted to face her. And, for a moment, I forgot how to breathe.

In the center of the pool, Agatha rose like a vision from myth, droplets spangling her hair like diamonds. The water barely concealed the lush curves of her breasts, the gentle flare of her hips. Dusky nipples peeked just above the surface, achingly tight from the cold.

I wanted to warm them with my mouth. To lap the moisture from her skin like a man dying of thirst.

"Is... is it helping?" she asked, snapping me out of my carnal haze. At my blank look, she gestured vaguely to my battered torso. "The water. Is it making you feel better?"

I had to swallow twice before my voice obeyed. "It"s not the water doing that, love."

Her eyes darkened, lips parting on a soft inhale. I felt the pull of her gaze like a physical thing, a hook behind my navel drawing me to her with inexorable force. My feet carried me forward of their own accord, until I stood close enough to count each golden freckle dusting her nose.

"What... what is it, then?" The words emerged thready, almost lost under the subterranean echo of the falls.

"You." I skimmed a knuckle along the delicate ridge of her collarbone, eliciting a visible shiver. "I look at you and I... I feel..."

"What?" Her eyes were molten, pupils blown wide and dark. "Tell me."

But there were no words for the riot of sensation clamoring in my skull. The possessive heat, the tender ache, the swell of emotions too vast and tangled to name. I felt laid bare before her, flayed to the bone. At that moment, I would have gladly ripped the heart from my chest if she"d asked it of me.

Helpless to resist the siren song of her parted lips, I bent my head and claimed her mouth as my own.

She made a startled noise against my lips, stiffening for a heartbeat. Then she melted into me with a sigh that set my blood to boiling, slim arms twining around my neck. The wet slide of her naked skin against my own was a torment, a benediction. I wanted to devour her. To worship her. To crawl inside her and never leave.

Dimly, I registered the dig of her nails into my shoulders, the sweet sting of it only urging me on. I walked us backward until her spine met stone, the small of her back fitting into my splayed palms like she was made for me. My entire world narrowed to the hot silk of her mouth, the wicked dart of her tongue, the fevered race of her pulse everywhere I touched.

Gods, the sounds she made... Breathy sighs and throaty encouragements, each one stoking the flames higher. I knew I should slow down, ease her into this with a gentleness neither of us felt, but I was powerless against the onslaught. My hips pressed into the notch of her thighs, letting her feel how desperately I craved her. How much restraint it took not to buck into her softness like an untried youth.

"Please," she panted, head falling back in wanton offering. I latched onto the pale column of her throat, bathing each freckle with lips and teeth and tongue. Her pulse fluttered madly beneath my mouth, a hummingbird"s wings against satin.

I wanted her so badly I shook with it, a fierce and terrible need that threatened to pull me under. My length throbbed in the confines of my sodden shorts, a heavy, insistent counterpoint to the hammer of my heart. It would be so easy to push the flimsy barrier aside, to press forward into her welcoming heat...

"Agatha," I groaned, forcing my hips still. Her eyes fluttered open, dazed and dark with passion. "We have to stop. I can"t... I won"t be able to..."

"Shh." Slim fingers pressed against my lips, silencing my stammered warnings. "I don"t want you to stop. I want..." She took a shuddering breath, gaze dropping to the water. Twin spots of color rose high on her cheeks. "I want you, Norsuk. All of you."

I closed my eyes, jaw clenching against the wave of desire her words unleashed. When I trusted myself to speak, my voice was raw. Ragged. "You"re playing with fire, little human. If we start this, if you let me... I won"t be able to let you go. Ever." I forced my eyes open, willing her to feel the truth of it. The inevitability. "You"ll be mine. Utterly. Completely. No matter what comes."

Her breath hitched, pupils flaring wide and dark. There was no fear in her gaze now, only fathomless need. A perfect reflection of my own.

"Yes," she whispered. "I"m yours. Only yours." Her hands cupped my face, soft and impossibly tender. The words emerged low and fierce, a vow. "As you"re mine."

Something inside me broke at her declaration, a wall around my heart I hadn"t known existed. With a snarl that was equal parts triumph and surrender, I crushed my mouth to hers, determined to leave no corner of her untouched, untasted. Unclaimed.

Mine, I thought savagely, tongue delving deep to stroke her own. She was mine, and I would kill anyone who tried to take her from me.