To her dismay, instead of saying, I know that, Madeleine shook her head. “Of course you can. And you will.”

“What? No, I…”

“That’s what people do,” Madeleine said gently. “If we’re close to someone, then we can hurt them, and sometimes we do. No matter how much we, um, care for them. That’s what it means to be human, and…” She trailed off as they looked at each other.

“Is it?” Hæra asked quietly. “To hurt each other, to care, and to dream? I’ve experienced all three now.”

Madeleine swallowed. “Yes.”

“But I’m not human.” At the words, Madeleine flinched, and Hæra sighed. “I can’t change that, although…”

“Although what?”

Although I don’t know what I am instead. A creature inhabiting one world after being driven from another, belonging to neither. “Never mind. Right now, I’m more kin to you than to a trow. I think you were about to prove it?” Encouragingly, she rubbed her nose against Madeleine’s forehead and inhaled the scent of her hair.

“I think I was,” Madeleine agreed. She kissed the side of Hæra’s mouth.

That was more like it. Hæra had something to prove too, and she sent her hands and mouth wandering. She discovered, again, the swell of Madeleine’s breasts. Then the curve of her thighs, and—soon enough—the soaked secret that hid between them.

By then, as Hæra stroked deeply inside her, Madeleine was moaning and holding her close. Her breasts were bare, the tips of her nipples salty with sweat as Hæra tasted them. She rolled her hips desperately. “Please,” Madeleine groaned. “More. Oh God, more.”

“I told you, I’m not your God,” Hæra said hoarsely.

Madeleine’s eyes flew open. She arched her hips and gasped.

Hæra bared her teeth and looked down into Madeleine’s flushed face. Tunnel vision. She could only see forward, could only see those green eyes looking back at her. “He’s got no business here.”

“Ah,” Madeleine whimpered, rocking her hips, “ah…ah…”

“It’s just me.” Hæra thrust faster.

“Oh, oh⁠—”

“Just me and you.” She watched Madeleine’s eyes close, watched her head tilt back. “And I…”

“Hæra—H-Hæra⁠—”

“Am going to fuck you straight into heaven.” She curled her fingers.

Madeleine’s thighs went rigid. She wailed. And around Hæra’s fingers, she clenched and throbbed, thrusting her hips until—a sudden, wet surge⁠—

Hæra looked down, astonished and delighted, as Madeleine squirted all over her hand while she came.

Her reading had mentioned that, and one of those dirty videos had shown it too. It hadn’t sounded all that appealing until now, when it was happening right in front of her, the clearest possible sign of Madeleine’s ecstasy.