this time I’m torn, please wake me if I lose that face
search in these eyes: there’s still fire in the darkness
She hummed in her throat at the kiss on her neck, as it swept up to her jaw for another. It felt like bliss here. It felt like a dream, a reality where she meant something. This was a place where she could be herself and know she wasn't disappointing anyone.
But of course, it wouldn't last.
His voice dismissed the drowsiness and she stirred, raising herself to an elbow and blinking. Wow, she hadn't even meant to fall asleep. It'd just been so warm though, and that ridiculous quest had exhausted her completely. And it was safe here with him, she thought as her ice-rimmed eyes lifted to him.
"Okay. We can't stay here forever." She nodded, brushing her cheek on her shoulder to smother a yawn. "But trust me when I say I plan on coming back to get you." Her gaze slid back up to him, caught that handsome grin like a sickness as it curved her lips too. That's right. He owed her a date. So far, it sounded as if he planned to hold to it.
She brought herself to her feet then, shaking out the tousled look of her hair so it would lay flatter. Or as flat as a mass of brown, wavy hair could. It seemed it was just as untameable as her temper used to be, and she sighed to herself. Even her dumb hair was hopeless.
Woolf touched her shoulder then and led them through his portal. She held her chin up to cover her uneasiness, made certain her steps didn't falter as she stepped to the other side into her temporary home with her family. It seemed everyone was there, all in one place, and she frowned. She didn't typically sleep that near to Kirby, and Reilly was always at her side, and yet here they both were sleeping in one place.
She startled subtly with a deep blush, Woolf's lips pressing to her neck again, and she turned her head to him with a soft breath. "I should go. But I'll be back." Her head dipped with a small nod, gaze lifting to the wild green of his, memorizing the light in them in case he didn't come back despite his promise. So strange to venture onto a horrible quest with one man, find herself in the arms of another, and now here with the fathers of her children. So strange to feel this way, even an echo of attraction, when for years she'd only ever wanted one.
The last twenty-four hours had been far too eventful, and it was only the beginning. Now there was her absence to attend to, and Reilly, her children, their father. Tiphon. This was going to be a goddamn mess. A hell of a time ahead of her.
"Mommy!"
Her precious girl barreled into her almost instantly, pressing her face into her shoulder and crying. Her heart broke for her and she bent her neck to hug her close with soft murmurs of comfort. "Oh, baby, it's alright. You're okay. Something happen? Was someone mean to you?" She'd damn well kick them in the face if anyone hurt her baby's heart.
"I missed you so much. Don’t leave me."
"What? I'm not going anywhere, silly girl." It hadn't felt like she'd been gone all that long, a couple days or so maybe. A week at most. Surely, they hadn't missed her that much. She hardly spent much time with anyone but Reilly and Baddie, it felt like. His love and stubbornness had kept him at her side even through her wild moods. "I'm back now. And I won't be leaving," she brushed in a promising kiss in Kali's soft hair. She shouldn't keep Woolf longer, though. She'd taken so much of his time and taken complete advantage of his generous magic.
"Thank you, Woolf," she told him, her eyes warm in gratitude for being returned to her family again even if she never truly belonged with them. They were more Kirby's than hers, especially Kharon. And Badden was likely more Reilly's, though she loved them all and ached for their affection. "You know where to find me," she murmured in a small lift of her mouth, not quite smiling and certainly not daring to feel hope.
He'd done so much for her. She didn't feel even a hint of the bone-chilling cold that she'd suffered before. Her hair was dry and warm, not covered in frost. Only her eyes still held a hint of change, the brown ringed in snowy white, making them look sharper and enhancing the pale scars that laced over her hips.
