Shadowborn

Chapter 102: A Wing and a Prayer

Consciousness came for Noelle slowly. Her dreams had started dark and twisted. She drowned in pain and torment that seemed to have no end. But then they faded. Softened until she felt like she was wrapped in warmth and love. Like a blanket of all the best feelings she’d ever experienced had been wrapped around her shoulders.

Her limbs are what she felt first. Too heavy to move and full of a tingling that just bordered on being unpleasant. Not that she wanted to even try. That irrational, half-asleep part of her was convinced if she shifted even an inch it would shatter the bubble that surrounded her. She was face down with warm softness below her and soft warmness above.

The next thing she felt was the massive arm draped over her lower back. She knew immediately it must be Safina. Noelle was curled up with her face turned into the Half-dragon’s chest, only barely able to breathe. Safina’s heavy arm pushed her into the soft bed below her with just the perfect amount of weight to make her want to slip back into the warm, fuzzy sleep she’d only just started to rise from.

But after a few minutes of trying she came to the conclusion that there was such a thing as too warm. Whatever blanket that was draped over her and Safina was too heavy. Too hot. Her comfort started to shift into something that made her want to squirm.

So, regretfully, she did. She tried to move as little as possible in the hopes that this wonderful bliss wouldn’t go anywhere. But the second she tried to nudge the blanket off her shoulders a gasp slipped out of her. A sensation like lightning raced through her from… somewhere. And she found that she liked it immensely. Whatever had just happened made that tingling that filled her shift firmly away from unpleasant.
So she tried again. This time slower. Slow enough that she realized it wasn’t a normal blanket that had been draped over her. It was soft to the touch, but… stiffer? And, most importantly?

She felt it.

Not in her elbow, but somewhere else. A sensation her mind couldn’t figure out quite how to make sense of. Like the fingers of one hand brushing against the back of the other, only a thousand times more intense. All at once that bubble of safety popped as the implications crashed into her all at once. Her breath stopped and the sound of her racing heart filled her ears.

The massive body at her side shifted. “Noelle?” Safina whispered, rubbing small circles into her back. Noelle felt every one of her movements through her—no, she couldn’t even think the words. Not yet.

The massive, comforting hand went higher. It brushed her hair out of her face. Then it threaded through her hair, brushing against her scalp. Noelle shivered from the pleasure. She would never get tired of the feeling of someone else playing with her hair. It was easily one of her favorite things, right behind when someone she trusted touched her—

No. No, it wasn’t possible.

Safina trailed her fingers through that hair, going lower. And lower.

And lower.

Far past where Noelle’s hair should have ended. A soft sigh slipped past Noelle’s lips, but she still couldn’t bring herself to open her eyes. She wasn’t sure what she’d do if that deadly thought bouncing around in the back of her mind turned out to be false hope. She didn’t know what she’d do if it didn’t.

Safina’s fingers restarted their journey from the crown of her head and down her spine, passing dangerously close to the bases of the two appendages she couldn’t even bear to name. Another tiny sound slipped past her parted lips as Safina’s fingers dug into her skin with just the right amount of force.

“I know you can hear me,” Safina said, worry evident in her voice. “Please, I just need to know that you’re okay.”

Noelle frowned. Okay? Why wouldn’t she be—

The ambush. The trap. The otherworldly woman. The blade. It all came crashing back to her at once. Noelle carefully tried to move both her arms, then her legs, though she still didn’t open her eyes. “I think I am fine. There’s no pain,” she said, her voice hoarse.

Safina sat up, which dragged a whimper out of Noelle when her bulky form dragged against the undersides of the thick, feathery covering that weighed on her. Then Safina was lifting her up enough to hold the rim of a cup to her lips. Noelle gulped down the cool water gratefully.

“No pain at all?” Safina asked once she’d finished.

Noelle shook her head. One of Safina’s massive hands cupped the side of her face and Noelle sighed at the touch. “Open your eyes then. Please?”

It was among the scariest things she’d ever done, but she opened them. It was late in the day, but not quite night. The light that filtered through the windows was enough to illuminate Safina’s furrowed brow and slightly downturned lips. “You’ve been out for a few days,” she said carefully. “There were some side effects to what you did. Good ones, we think, but we weren’t sure. Couldn’t be, ‘til you woke up.”

Noelle forced herself to sit up, trying her best to ignore just how much heavier she felt than normal. The feeling of the sheets as parts of her dragged along them were harder to ignore. Wetness welled in her eyes. “I… Are my…?”

Safina’s expression relaxed somewhat, but there was still worry in her eyes. “See for yourself, little raven.”
Hardly daring to breathe, Noelle turned and looked behind her. A sob escaped her as she took in the huge, feathery wings that hung behind her. Silken black, red tipped feathers that made patterns that looked to her like flames. Biting her lip, she carefully tried to flex them.

Her gasp at the sensation of her wings flexing turned quickly into a startled yelp as they extended faster than she was ready for and she nearly fell over. She her arms flailed and her wings shot inward so fast one of them started to cramp as Safina dove to catch her.

“Easy there,” Safina said, trying poorly to hide her amusement. Amusement that turned quickly into her fussing when she saw the look of panic on Noelle’s face. “Shit, Miril said that might happen. Which wing?”

Noelle gestured to her left wing and Safina shifted behind her. “Lay forward. Good, just like that.” Her fingers started at the base of Noelle’s wing and another blissful strike of lightning tore through Noelle’s body. She started working down a bit at a time. “Let me know when I hit—ah, there it is.”

It wasn’t long before Noelle went from fisting the sheets under her in pain to doing so to try and keep her moans from slipping out as the twisting agony faded to something significantly more enjoyable under Safina’s hands. Every time she pressed and massaged the muscles in Noelle’s newly formed wing sent heat racing through her body.

“According to Miril,” Safina said, gently extending the wing as she massaged, apparently oblivious to Noelle’s true plight, “it’s not uncommon for wings to cramp from misuse. It happens in the winged races if they ever end up grounded for significant periods or—in extreme cases—if their wings have been bound for any real amounts of time. Since these wings have never been used before, it might take some time for you to get the hang of them.”

Safina froze when a groan finally slipped past Noelle’s lips. “I’m sorry,” Noelle gasped, “I don’t know—”

Safina’s hand trailed down her back. “It’s alright, Miril warned they might be a bit sensitive, too. Especially since they were gifted to you by a goddess.” She gently trailed her fingers across the feathers and Noelle had to suppress another embarrassing sound. The more Safina touched her wings, the more her body started to feel like a raw nerve. Not that she could bring herself to ask the Half-dragon to stop.

“I… I have wings,” Noelle whispered. The words felt like a lie on her tongue, yet…

She’d been prepared to wait for years before she ever took to the sky again. But that’d been fine because there was at least a chance, no matter how distant. But now? Looking at the full, lush wings that sprouted from her back? Each one was larger than she was. Even now she struggled to fight the urge to hurl herself out the nearest window just to feel the wind flowing through her feathers. The ache in her chest to fly through the sky like she’d always dreamed of was only rivaled by the building ache between her legs that grew stronger with every brush of Safina’s fingers.

“These babies aren’t the only things the sword left you with,” Safina said carefully.

Noelle’s mind went to the voice in the blade as she ran her hands through her hair. It had barely cleared her shoulders before, but now it hung all the way down to her ass. It was gorgeous. Long and as soft and silky as her feathers. A shade of crimson that had once reminded her of blood, but now made her think of something… warmer.

Had the goddess in the blade really given her all this? Her hair alone would have brought her to tears, but her wings? There was no chance Noelle would ever be able to repay her, but she’d never stop trying. Especially since it seemed Zaren was as important to Ash as he was to her.

“Yes, it’s beautiful,” Safina said, gathering her hair up and using a band on her wrist to tie it back, “but that isn’t all. Look down, little raven.”

Noelle frowned up at her, but it seemed all her reservations were gone. She was beyond relieved, and the silvery shimmer at the edge of her piercing eyes threatened to cause Noelle’s own tears to spill over. At her urging, Noelle looked down at her own body. She supposed with the wings they hadn’t bothered to try and wrangle a shirt on her, so all she wore was a modest set of panties.

And what she saw made those tears spill over in full.

Her body had changed a little, sure. Her chest was no longer completely flat. She was still far from busty, but there was a distinct swell to the two mounds that would at least fill her own small hands. Her ribs, which had been slowly disappearing after the last few months, were completely invisible now. Her hips had a bit of a flare to them, and her rear had just enough curve to match her chest. All of the muscle she’d been building while training was thicker, but no longer did it look like her skin was stretched tight over any of it. Now she looked… soft. Not weak, but appealing. At least to herself. She didn’t feel like a twiggy little girl any longer.
But it was her skin that made her vision blur.

It wasn’t long before she couldn’t see anything, so she ran her hands all along her smooth, flawless skin. She couldn’t find a single mark or blemish from her time as Subject Seventeen. There wasn’t a single scar on her body any longer. As if she’d never even worn that awful collar.

The first sob surprised her. The second was inevitable. Soon she was sobbing in full with her hand pressed to her mouth and tears cascading down her face. She started to double over, but Safina scooped Noelle up and pulled her into her lap.

“Shh, it’s alright, we—oh!” Safina jumped a bit, and in Noelle’s state it took her a second to realize why. As her hands curled into the front of Safina’s bare chest, her wings had wrapped around the Half-dragon’s frame like a second set of arms. It felt… right. Noelle’s arms might not have been long enough to wrap around her friend, but her wings certainly were.

Safina managed to find a position where she could stroke Noelle’s back around her wings. She held Noelle until the sobs favored to sniffles and she’d managed to at least stem the flow of tears. “Only a few of us know so far. Me, Serena, Miril, and Alice are the only ones.”

“A-Alice?”

“She’s spent about as much time by your side as I have,” Safina admitted. “With Tsuki keeping an eye on the city for retaliation, she’s pretty much the only one my dragon trusted to keep an eye on you if I needed to step away.”

Noelle looked up at her as Safina cradled Noelle’s significantly smaller form. “You’ve been here the whole time?”

“Unless I was in the privy,” Safina said proudly. “You almost died. I wasn’t leaving your side for anything else until you were awake again.”

“Nobody knows?”

“Nope.” Safina’s warm, callused hands explored her body like she was just as amazed by Noelle’s perfect skin as Noelle was. Noelle instinctively knew Safina would have waited until she was awake to do so. “We figured you might want to tell people yourself.”

Noelle felt the burn in her cheeks before she even realized she was smiling. “I’m… whole.”

“You are,” Safina agreed.

Noelle held up an arm in front of her. She spent so long looking at the marks manacles had once left on her wrists. At the cuts on her forearms from the times she’d tried to protect her face. The slightly jagged part of her arm where it had been snapped and never set correctly. The crooked fingers where her hand had once been mangled as a punishment. All of it was gone. It was like she was looking at a completely different person, yet that person’s fingers moved exactly as she commanded them to.

“I’m beautiful,” she said, tears starting to well in her eyes.

A growl sounded low in Safina’s throat as she gripped Noelle’s chin—firmly, but not painfully—and turned her face upward. “You were beautiful before. I knew it, Zaren knew it, and so did everyone else. You’re beautiful now, too, just in a slightly different way.” She easily shifted Noelle in her arms until she could press their foreheads together. “But if you feel beautiful now, then I’m very happy for you.”

The tears started again and Noelle buried her face in Safina’s shoulder. Her wings wrapped around the Half-dragon’s form all on their own and Safina just chuckled while she went back to rubbing Noelle’s back.
But Noelle could only go so long before the urge to stretch her wings again became too much. She’d barely started wiggling before Safina set her on her feet. Noelle only managed to stay standing for a moment before she began to totter. Safina’s strong hands steadied her once again.

“Easy now, you’ll have to learn the whole balance-counterbalance thing all over again now that there’s suddenly considerably more. I figure we can—”

Noelle jumped when a piercing squeal echoed through the room. Fortunately this time, as her wings shot out and extended, she wasn’t sent tumbling to the ground in pain. Unfortunately, for Safina at least, her wings popping out clipped her right in the jaw.

It seemed Noelle’s considerable Strength carried over to her wings. Safina grunted as her head was knocked up hard enough to send her tumbling backwards onto her ass. Noelle had just enough time to retract her wing in alarm—much too fast once again, causing her muscles to seize—when a white-furred blur crashed into her.
She was only kept from tumbling to the ground by Safina’s quick reaction as her arms wrapped them both up. “Careful! She’s still figuring the wings out!”

Ryoko gasped and pulled away, almost sending Noelle to the ground again as the weight on her front suddenly vanished. “It’s—” she grunted. She’d been trying to say ‘it’s fine,’ but her attempt to correct her balance had sent her wings cramping again.

“Oh shit, here we go again. Alice, help her stand,” Safina said.

Noelle hadn’t even realized Alice was in the room until she was standing in front of Noelle with a wide grin. “You look like you’re feeling better,” she said quietly. She slipped her arms under Noelle’s and tucked the Malachai into her front. Noelle buried her face in Alice’s chest happily as Safina’s fingers got back to work.

Now that she was fully awake and standing it was much harder to hide the effect Safina touching her wings had on Noelle’s body. She pressed herself into Alice’s front while Ryoko and Safina both worked together on her wing. This time, Safina held the wing gingerly while Ryoko’s small, nimble fingers went to work.

The fabric of Alice’s shirt felt perfectly rough against Noelle’s sensitive nipples. The Vampires scent filled her nostrils and relaxed her. Alice’s hand in her hair was gentle, but it was clear she was completely aware of Noelle’s building arousal when her other hand brushed against Noelle’s stomach.

“Miril was right,” she breathed, “those wings really are gonna get you going for a few weeks.”

Noelle could only whimper. The pain was gone and her wings were relaxed, but whether Ryoko and Safina thought she was still clinging to Alice in pain or they’d simply got caught up giving her wings a hands-on examination, they kept massaging.

Noelle’s hands fisted the front of Alice’s shirt, pulling her closer. Alice’s hands slipped below Noelle’s waistband and that lightning ripped through her again. “Noelle…” Alice whispered. The hunger in her voice was clear.

The only answer Noelle could manage was to sink her teeth into the skin between Alice’s neck and shoulder. Alice responded immediately by sinking her own fangs into Noelle’s neck at the same time her fingers brushed against the nub between Noelle’s legs.

Between Safina and Ryoko working her wings and Alice’s fangs and fingers release ripped through Noelle immediately. She hadn’t even realized she’d ripped her wings free of Safina and Ryoko’s hands to wrap them around Alice until after the stars had vanished from her vision.

Alice let her neck go after a few pulls, her pupils blown wide and a dopey grin on her face. “Damn, your blood hits hard.”

Noelle tried to stand only to totter to the side once more. She made a frustrated sound as Safina had to keep her from falling on her ass again. Safina just grinned down at her. “Tell us what you need, little raven.”
All three of them looked at her expectantly. Noelle took one look at her wings and made her decision. “Help me figure out walking, then I need Zaren.”

# # #

We must have dozed off at some point. I woke up a little confused that there was no blanket to throw off. Jack put off heat like a camp fire, and I was breaking a sweat with my limbs tangled up in hers. Sweat plastered her hair to her forehead and covered her in a thin sheen, which meant I couldn’t have been asleep for too long.

Sex with Jack wasn’t quite like sex with anyone I’d had before. Half the time I wasn’t sure if we were fucking or fighting. It was a constant battle for dominance with her, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy every second of it. It felt like what me and Ria might have had given the chance, and I couldn’t wait for many more battles. We’d lost count of the score at some point, but by then it hadn’t mattered.

I couldn’t help but watch her sleep, cuddled against my chest. She stirred slightly when I trailed my nails down her spine and I watched with fascination as the muscles in her back shifted under her skin. She nuzzled into me and sighed softly with a serene look on her face I’d never seen before.

She very suddenly sucked in a deep breath through her nose and her eyes fluttered open. She touched her fingers to the skin in front of her face and smiled softly. Then she looked up and saw me watching and blushed. “Not a word,” she warned.

“No idea what you’re talking about.”

“Mmn.” She leaned up long enough to press her lips to mine before settling back on my chest with her face turned towards mine. She ran her hand up my chest until it was resting over my heart and closed her eyes. “Fuck, I missed this.”

“Cuddling?” I asked, my brow raised.

She hummed her amusement without opening her eyes. “I’m going to tell you a secret and you are never going to mention it outside of this room.”

I brushed the hair off her face. “Got it. I’ll bring Rhallani in here later and the whole harem will know by breakfast.”

She flicked my nipple. “Dickhead.”

“Ow! Fine, my lips are sealed.”

“Growing up,” she said, trailing her finger absently around the nipple she’d just flicked, “we weren’t the wealthiest. My dad really wanted a son, but my mom just kept popping out daughter after daughter.”

I slid my hand down her thigh and hiked her leg higher up on me so I could more easily run my hands down her leg. She made an appreciative sound and kept going. “We shared rooms pretty much my whole life. A couple of my sisters got spooked easily and had nightmares often after a small, slightly traumatic incident, so we spent a lot of nights with most of us in one bed.”

Her hand stilled with her fingers on a particularly stark scar from a stab that had missed my heart by a hair. “We were always a touchy-feely family. I think that was the hardest part after my accident. I never particularly liked sleeping alone, but not having any other choice? I was fucking miserable. It was years before I could even come close to sleeping through the night.”

“I’m so sorry you had to go through that,” I told her.

She just grunted, but I didn’t miss how she wrapped her leg around mine and nestled deeper into me. “I survived it. I made it here. That’s what matters. I’ll get this all figured out. Until then, this room and whatever time you can spare me is more than enough for me to stay sane.”

I couldn’t help but smile. “So then I don’t need to mention the other prototype I helped Rhallani kit a quarter of the pit with?”

Jack went rigid for a full ten count. Then she sprang up so she was straddling my abdomen with her hands on either side of my head. “Zaren, don’t you dare fuck with me about this.”

I trailed my hands up her thighs as my blood rushed southward. “Rhallani figured if this worked out you might want to give the bed a try as soon as possible, so she went ahead and set up her second prototype. Worst case scenario was she had to pull it back down to fix it, but I think she enjoyed getting it all put up almost as much as the thought of what might happen if it worked.”

Her lips were crashing down on mine before I’d even finished the last word. She kissed me frantically. Aggressively. Trying to dominate me and clearly enjoying when I pushed back just as hard. I felt her hands around my shaft just before she managed to shift her hips over my cock without ever breaking the kiss.

We both groaned against one another’s lips as she slammed down on me and impaled herself with one forceful thrust. She ground herself on me with short, frantic movements. I grabbed a handful of her ass to guide her, letting her have her way with me while I held her lips to mine.

I felt her inching closer and closer to her climax. She pushed back and cried out with her face to the ceiling, mauling her breast with one hand while she pressed the other to my chest for leverage. That was the exact moment I flipped us both so she was underneath me.

She laughed as I tossed her face down on the bed and put my hand between her shoulders, pressing her into the mattress. She lifted her hips, pushing her ass at me, but I didn’t start fucking her yet. Instead, I pressed on the plug still in her ass and her nostrils flared.

“Don’t you even think about it,” she said, her voice breathy. But the heat in her eyes told a different story.

“Don’t what? This?” I slowly slid the plug out of her and she groaned, trying to chase my hand. “Or this?”
I slid my cock between her cheeks, sliding my length along the rim of her ass. Her protests died, replaced by a long moan as she bucked against me with her face half buried in the bed. I kept holding her down with one hand and pulled some lube out of my storage with the other.

She cursed and writhed as I prepared her with two slicked up fingers but she never once tried to get out from under me. I’d barely started pressing the head to her rosebud when she slammed her hips back. My eyes rolled back in my head as intense heat and unbelievable tightness surrounded my cock.

“FUCK!” she howled as she impaled herself on me. She tried to bury her face in the mattress, but I didn’t let her. I wrapped her hair around my fist and yanked her head back. She groaned as her ass clamped down on me, her eyes rolled back in her head.

“Ria always liked a bit of pain mixed in with her pleasure,” I told her. I pulled my cock almost all the way out and slammed it back in. Her back arched and two of her fingers sunk into her cunt. “Guess some things carry over even past death.”

“Fucking yes!” she screamed as I started fucking her in earnest. I reached around to finger her clit and nearly blew my load then and there when her release caused her ass to clamp down on me like a vice. “Harder! Fuck me like you mean it!”

I did as she asked, yanking her hair hard enough that I could trail my teeth along her shoulder and up her neck. When I bit down on her earlobe she exploded again. She mauled her breast so hard I feared she might leave a bruise while she screamed out her release.

I shoved her back down and gripped both her hips. Her screams were muffled by a mouthful of bedding as she bit down, not even trying to hold her front half up and instead using both hands to bring herself more and more pleasure as I ravished her ass. Her inner muscles gripped and squeezed me like she was trying to suck me in deeper.

It wasn’t long before I exploded inside her with a roar. I fell on top of her, pressing her even deeper into the mattress. I made no move to get off her and she made no move to get out from under me. Instead she reached up over her shoulder to twine her fingers with mine.

“Shit, you keep fucking me like that and we won’t get anything done,” she said once she’d caught her breath.
I chuckled, then pressed a kiss to the nape of her neck. “If I had a silver for every time I’d heard that…”

“Mmmh, someone’s cocky.”

“After the sounds you were making?” I shifted just enough to slip a little deeper inside her and she ducked her head, fisting the sheets. “Pretty sure I’ve got some good reason for it.”

“Shitting hells,” she groaned. “How the fuck are you still hard?”

“Have you seen my harem? At this point the line between stamina and self defense is a fine one.”
She chuckled, rocking back against me. “One of these days we need to just tie you down and all take turns ‘til you run out. See where that divine stamina really ends.”

I laughed in return. “Can’t wait.”

The look in her eye had me ready to go another round when the sounds of a commotion reached me. We exchanged frowns. [Predator’s Pursuit] wasn’t going off and the wards hadn’t picked up any intruders.

She smacked my chest. “Get out of me so I can go yell at people, will you?”

I did, but not before driving into her one last time and giving her a scorching kiss. Only then did I pull out of her—earning a disappointed grunt through clenched teeth—and roll away. She started to sit up, but I snagged the plug that completed her array and pressed it against her pucker. Whatever words she was about to throw at me were lost when I pushed the flared plug past her rim and she bit down on the bed again.

“You are going to pay for that later,” she warned, rolling off the bed. Then she blushed. “Fuck, how much did you cum in my ass?”

I shrugged. “You let me get a nap in to recharge. At that point it’s your fault.”

She punched my arm hard enough to knock a point off my health pool before she touched the gem at her throat and summoned my shadow armor. I looked wistfully at the remains of my clothes and summoned another set, making a mental note to restock my reserves when I had the chance. These girls were killing me.

We paused at the door. “Ready?”

She took a long breath, then nodded. “Now that I know there’s a reprieve? Yeah, I got this. Now lets go kick someone's ass.”

I smirked and led the way out the door. I caught her brief grimace when she passed the threshold, but that was the only sign I saw of her leaving the array’s range. It wasn’t hard to find the source of the commotion with everyone collected in the main hall. And when I saw what everyone was laughing and cheering about I couldn’t help but smile myself.

Safina ran full tilt through the hall with Noelle on her shoulders, those big, beautiful black wings spread wide to catch the wind. Her long crimson hair tied back just enough to stay out of her face flowing behind her. Her face lit up with joy. She wore a long, backless top that kept her wings free. She laughed brilliantly while Safina sprinted and everyone watched with the same smile on their faces that I wore.

“Well, damn,” Jack said next to me, grinning, “how am I supposed to kick any asses now?”

Safina ran out of room and slowed to a stop. Noelle looked around the room, her eyes immediately landing on me. Her already brilliant expression brightened even more and she hopped up on Safina’s shoulders.

Safina—and several others—made sounds of alarm, but none were quick enough to stop Noelle from launching off Safina with all her considerable strength. Her wings flared wide and caught the air, but I knew in a moment she was still barely comfortable enough with them to glide.

The joy on her face made my heart skip a beat as, for one glorious moment, she soared through the air. For a brief moment I worried about her landing, but she managed to get her feet under her at the last possible second. She hit the ground running, tipping to the side, but she managed to stay upright with a jerk of her wings.

She let out a loud, infectious laugh as she threw herself into my arms. I laughed myself as I spun her around. Her wings wrapped around me like a second set of arms. “Look at you!” I said, setting her down. “When did you wake up?”

“A little over an hour ago.” From the way she clung to my arm I got the feeling she still wasn’t too steady.

“Had to relearn walking.”

“Well it looks like you picked it up quick,” Jack said, crossing her arms. For the first time, I saw the motion for what it was. She was pinning her hands down so she didn’t instinctively reach out and ruffle Noelle’s hair or wrap an arm around her shoulders.

Noelle made a noncommittal noise deep in her throat. Then she turned to me and thrust her arms out. “Look!”

At first I wasn’t sure what I was looking for, then it hit me. There wasn’t a mark on her skin. Not a bump, bruise, or spot of scar tissue. My smile widened even further. “Ash is just a gift that keeps on giving, huh? That’s wonderful, Noelle.”

“And this!” My brows shot up as she lifted her backless top to bare her breasts. Her torso was just as flawless as her arms, and her chest had grown visibly.

“Holy shit, pipsqueak!” Jack said, “you’ve got tits now!”

I couldn’t help but crush Noelle to my chest. Her arms and wings both wrapped around me tightly as she laughed again. I’d never heard her laugh before, and now it seemed she couldn’t stop. “Ash righted a wrong that should never have happened,” I told her. “I only hope now you’ll feel as beautiful as the rest of us know you are. That you’ve always been.”

I didn’t need to see her face to know she was crying. I could feel the wetness of her tears against my chest and the way her hands fisted my shirt. But I could also feel her smile and happiness so strong it radiated through our Link. I brushed a hand against her feathers, marveling in their softness.

Her breath hitched and I felt something else ripple through the bond. She pulled back enough to look up at me and I saw an ocean of emotions roiling in her gaze. She bit her lip, but her stomach chose that moment to rumble loudly.

Safina, who had approached alongside the rest of their little pack while I was distracted with Noelle, stiffened. “She needs food,” she insisted, her fingers curling and uncurling like she might snatch Noelle right out of my arms.

“I am… hungry…” Noelle admitted.

I pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Food first, then we can figure everything else out after.”

“You’ll come?” she asked.

“Of course.” I tucked some hair behind her ear. “Just try to get rid of me after you saved my ass.”

Jack clapped my arm. “You go get the little biter some food. I’m gonna go track down Kili and Anri.” Noelle brightened again at the mention of her Erinyes friend and her older sister. “Miril can teach her how to fly, but the Seraphim isn’t a fighter like Anri. If Noelle wants to be able to use those wings and that axe at the same time, Anri is the one to ask. Plus, I told Kili I’d let her know when you woke up.”

Noelle’s eyes widened like she hadn’t even considered that. I just nodded my thanks. “I’ll make sure she’s properly compensated seeing as she’s technically your servant.” Anri, the older Erinyes, had felt safer taking Jack, an S rank adventurer, as her Patron instead of a lord like me. I could hardly blame her, though. She had a powerful class, and she’d implied her sister did as well.

Jack gave me a two fingered salute and started walking backwards towards the door. “Until tonight, then,” she said, her eyes twinkling.

I got a few confused looks and shrugged. “Test successful.”

“Very successful,” Jack said with a wink. “Can’t wait to test her other array in the pit later.”

I felt a bit like prey the way several sets of eyes snapped to me. Between the promise/threat in Jack’s eyes, the way Noelle pressed her new body into my side, the sudden narrowing of Safina’s pupils, the sudden puffing of Ryoko’s tail, and the way Alice was licking her lips, I had a feeling I wasn’t going to be getting much sleep tonight.