Kiromir 30

I woke in a tangle of blankets in Thanus’s camper. He had wrapped around me, buried his face in my hair. His own long hair, shorn into a stripe down his scalp, flopped messily over a face that modeled in beautiful reverie. His swollen lips tilted up with a secret smile.

I couldn’t find my shirt. My ikris ached like I had drawn my wings in my sleep, and my pants were twisted in places. But, thankfully, still on my body. I couldn’t remember half the night, and that would not be something I wanted to forget. So our fires coursed through one another until the wee hours of dawn—until we were exhausted against one another and slept in peace.

“Mir?” He whispered to me, over my ear with his hot breath. His teeth caught one of my earrings and tugged at it. I groaned with sensation and moved into him, a little alarmed to feel a sharp stinging burn on my leg. I reached my hand to the thigh of my pants and found a singed hole in them.

I started to ask and halted dead as I stared down over at what lay beneath that hole.

We looked at it, Thanus quite pleased with himself, as I saw a strange sigil branded into my flesh.

I lifted the blanket and looked down at his thighs, his matching hip to mine bearing the same sigil, different letters.

His stood out on his right hip. Mine burned into my left.

A hollow and disconnected feeling welled within me. We had a saying, ‘To the left they leave.’ That’s why our women leave, as it’s the woman that bears the responsibility to carry on elsewhere, to join their other’s people. I bore the left mark.

“Hah! Guess that means that you’re joining my clan, then,” He teased, and I shoved at him. I am flock leader! I had never been submissive to him in my entire… I thought of all the moments I submitted to his aura over the years just to feel his peace and calm.

Chata ryel nah…

When two souls bound to one another, let their magics coalesce enough, chose themselves, their soul’s fire marks them, burns their lover’s name on them. A sigil that stood for Thanus marked my leg. On his leg, my own sigil, a strangely connected narrow U and I with a bar. We had an alphabet that lacked vowels and had bars to indicate the vowel inflection placed at parts of a letter. Our names in full were complicated scrawls, but our sigils were but a syllable of our names, and mine said Mir. My leg bore a marking that said “Tan.” I ran a shaking finger over the sigil, feeling its burned edges.

It hurt in a delightful sting, and when Thanus placed his hand over it, the warmth of his skin made it burn more. I sighed a pleasant breath that made me forget all about the placement of my mark.

“What time is it?” I groaned as I buried my face against his chest. His arms squeezed tighter. Every moment of this felt like I should be upset, but it felt so natural and right.

“Early still. I set an alarm for you. There’s time to get dressed,” Thanus said with a low husk in his voice that I’d never heard before. I adored it. I felt guilty about everything, and it settled in for me that our magics had coalesced. Our fires were one now, and we were it for one another. I didn’t think I could have wanted anyone else more than I wanted him right now.

“The first and only person I ever melded with, and I bonded to you the second night,” I sighed with blushing blissful contentment.

“We’ve had sixty-eight years of nights; this is just ‘us’ with extra steps,” he laughed.

“I didn’t think I’d be the left one,” I said softly. I wanted to be bothered by it, but honestly, the sting of it felt glorious, and my exposed bitten flesh ached.

Feathers, I wanted this man for so long and didn’t even realize it.

“Hey, remember the tale of the two seraphim?” He whispered into my ear, letting his lips play softly over the sensitive flesh there. I ached for more, to share more fire, to have more of him. I couldn’t describe what I wanted, but my body seemed to be doing the talking for me as I pressed into him.

“Cadence and Melody, yes.” A hot breath of a whisper formed the words from my lips.

“What did the melody do when she came to earth with her song still in her heart?” Warm danced over my skin from his tender lips. His hand wandered my chest.

“She bound herself to a warlord and joined his people to lead them from within.” I didn’t want to talk anymore, just kiss, just quiet. I needed him right then.

“Maybe the left isn’t so bad after all. You can be my melody, and I’ll be your warlord.” His eyes lit with mischief, and in a way, it did sate my confusion. It didn’t matter what leg bore my marking. I laid there next to him; I had Thanus. I had Niala, and we were a family.

We hadn’t shared our bodies that night, our fires, and our passion enough. I could wait a lifetime before I had to figure out how that would work. We just needed one another. With maddening fury, I shivered and squirmed. If this was what being bound felt like, I didn’t know how long I might keep my sanity.

I suddenly knew then and there why bondmates needed a few weeks to one another before rejoining their flock.

Thanus bore over and on me again, not entirely atop me, but we were on our sides, and he had me locked in.

“You’re worrying, Mir,” He said, letting his lips kiss a small trail over my temple and down my neck. I enjoyed the affection so much; It felt freeing and pure. But, desperately, my toes curled into tight gripping things.

He charged his fires, his electricity sparking over skin as fingertips brushed my side, my belly, lower and lower still till they teased at my waistband.

“When we’re back home, we won’t leave the barracks for a week, I promise,” Thanus breathed over me. I felt blood rushing to places, cheeks flushing, heart racing. I couldn’t wait for this whole migration to be over as fast as possible. Fuck everyone else.

We peeled ourselves from one another, and my thoughts drifted to Niala. His gentle nuzzles continued as I rolled over and sat up.

“Ni probably missed me,” I said. She didn’t need to be alone at night on migration.

“I’m not worried. Gaff was with her,” Thanus said with a great yawn as he began to kick his way from his pants and rummage around for fresh ones.

I stared at his marking, my name. He now belonged to me, and in a way, had always been mine. His angular features were accented with beautiful wings, complemented by thick legs. I wanted to taste sky with him at the Sentinels, and maybe steal away into the forests to chase our fires.

“Gaff, yeah,” I muttered as I looked at the blatant hole in my pants leg after finishing staring at him. He threw on a shirt and stretched himself out.

“Wait, where did he sleep last night?” I asked. A fold-out couch had been set up for him, but he didn’t sleep there for good reasons.

“Uh…” Thanus muttered.

Spot be dammed! I bolted from the trailer and took off towards our own. A few of the men were hungover and gathered in Thanus’s pavilion. Someone spat water in a spray when I emerged shirtless, pants singed. They could do simple math. Two plus two equals: “Kiromir and Thanus spent the night together.”

“Feathers, finally.” Someone breathed. My thoughts exactly.

They could make any assumptions from there. I had to run to my trailer fast.

I pulled the door open, and a pile of black feathers swept free and spilled onto the ground outside. Niala’s feathers coated so much of the floor; my heart seized in my chest.

“Niala!” I announced. She stirred, sleeping in her bed, dressed in last night’s clothing. She took me in with a bleary stare.

“Where’s Gaffriel?” I asked sharply. She pointed to my bunk and rubbed at her eyes.

Why were there so… many… feathers??

“Ada, what’s going on?” she asked as she sat up. She paused and tore her eyes from me, looking at her lap with stunned silence.

Gaffriel sat up on his elbows and blinked down at me from the bunk. Thankfully, he appeared equally sleepy-eyed and undisturbed.

“Nothing! I just… I lost track of time and….” I said as I watched her, purposefully avoiding me.

“Ni?” I reached down to pick up a handful of the feathers. They were brittle and dry.

“She’s molting,” Gaffriel said as he sat up, yawning.

I had to do the ‘dad check’ and glanced over her neck. I glanced over his, just on the off chance. With her teeth, there’d be some obvious marks. I sniffed the air in the trailer-- No drugs, no excess alcohol, no hickeys, and no heavy sweat or something worse. I didn’t smell his ault. Gaffriel’s ault always had this scorched smell. I didn’t need him stinking up my space or my little girl. I knew he had groomed her wings, but I could hardly fault him. I mean, I would, but honestly, I couldn’t blame her for letting him during a molt.

“Wait, what?” I thought about it, and I had been an idiot. I forgot when she molted. I should have remembered she had been due for it.

“Oh no. I’m so sorry, kiddo,” I told Niala as I sank down beside her bunk. She had to have been feeling horrible. We always did when we molted. The winter shed for us was awful. Niala always handled it like a champ, though. At worst, she got a little cranky, but she always pulled through without puking or going through the shaking chills some of us did. Her molts were always heat, sweat, and sleep. Combine that with her new fires and the fevers that derived from the pitched mana…

Feather’s fucking sakes.

“I’m fine, ada,” She promised me and chanced a glance my way.

“Hey, um, Kiromir?” Gaff said as he hopped down from my bed. It felt better to see him there than curled up with Ni. When they were six and seven, it had been cute. Now, those moments were my worst nightmares.

“Niala and I are going to go find food.” Gaff beckoned her away, and Niala took the chance to slip past me. Her face had mottled bright red.

Gaff leaned back in as I stood there confused.

“Kiromir, uh…” he made a gesture about his neck and chest, then pointed to me with an awkward pause before slipping away.

I stumbled to the mirror in our impossibly tiny bathroom. Love bites covered my neck, chest, stomach, ones I’d prayed I didn’t see on them. My lips were red and swollen. I looked a few years younger, and I laughed at myself before washing up with a quick rag to the essential bits. Then, hastily, I changed into a fresh shirt and pants.

I wanted to go after her, but my head was in different clouds at the moment. She probably didn’t want to see anything to do with me for a while. So I did not look forward to the drive.