Wystwood

89. The alcove and clock

Ada and Raeph soared high above Wysthaven, leaping from rooftop to chimney pot, slates sliding crooked in their wake. As they climbed higher and higher, they remained touching. Even if it was just their fingertips brushing as softly as the sunshine, neither strayed too far apart.

Ada reached the alcove first and collapsed against the clock, trying to breathe between her streams of laughter. Raeph's hands came crashing down on either side of her head, his hips pressing her deeper into the alcove as his lips recaptured her neck, nipping and kissing the skin he found there like it was a map he could memorise with his mouth.

"Raeph," Ada gasped, his name becoming a moan as he charted a path up her neck to the delicate spot beneath her ear.

His arms circled around her waist and her hands became lost within his hair. The world smelled of smoke and sweat and leather and it was intoxicating. Ada wanted to bury her face against Raeph's shoulder and be lost in that world forever.

"I can't— " Ada panted "—catch my breath."

She heard Raeph's ragged gasps before his lips slanted over hers, his tongue hot and frantic as it met her own. He was devouring her, as if there were words he sought to prise from her mouth before the letters could come together. She kissed him back just as fiercely, tugging his head back by the hair as she bit his lower lip and felt him shudder against her body.

Ada rolled her hips against his, and his groan turned to a snarl as he jerked back as if stuck with a firebrand. His lips were red and swollen, his eyes as dark as Ada had ever seen them, like night already fallen. One hand hovered at the back of her neck whilst the other gripped her waist. She felt the flush rising to her cheeks before she looked down and saw where he was staring.

A new stream of laughter bubbled up as Ada took the iron dagger from her pocket and set it on the ledge beneath the clock. She looked up at Raeph and shrugged, "A knife in my pocket."

He raised an eyebrow. "To think I ever doubted you were happy to see me."

The eyes that had been black fire had turned molten, and when his lips descended again, the kiss was deep and long. They sank down onto the stone in a tangle of limbs, and Ada's head came to rest against his chest as his fingers smoothed the knots from her hair.

"I apologize again to have left you with the iron dagger's burden," Raeph said, and Ada could hear the words rumble beneath her ear.

"That's alright. I think I know how I'll make sure it won't be used again," Ada replied, and when Reaph didn't ask her further, she looked out over Wysthaven. She could just about see the evening's darkness seeping over the valley and between the wystwood trees. "Did you ever find the ebony dagger?"

"No," Raeph said. "I searched around the tower for many hours, but it must have fallen into the canal and been washed away with the current. As the water continues to run beneath the tower, I am confident that no fae will ever find it again. It will die a myth, or else be forgotten."

Ada was still watching the city transform under the setting sun, shards of glass losing their sharp glitters in the streets as the evening brought with it a tender cloak of shadows. More fae had come out from their hiding spots and voices rose from Wysthaven like the first lines of a song coming together in broken chords.

"I once thought that this world was a myth," she whispered, finding that the figures below were beginning to blur.

Ada didn't know how the sadness had welled up so quickly, but she felt the sob rising in the back of her throat. She could hear Raeph's breathing had similarly become tight and strained, but she couldn't bring herself to look up at his face.