I sighed and smiled at Dy. She wiped her mouth with her thumb, putting her hand under her chin, resting it on top of my thigh.

"You're so easy," she said with a very satisfied smile and kissed my thigh.

"I'm not easy," I murmured, my head hazy and filled with happiness.

"You are. I barely have to touch you and poof." She kissed my thigh again, moving up to my hip. She looked down, running her finger over the long scar on my thigh. "And it's so easy to get lost in you," she murmured and looked up, her eyes slightly hooded.

My chest was bouncing up and down with my heavy breath and I could hardly stand her looking at me like that. I felt so exposed but also... I didn't want her to look at me in any other way. I felt beautiful when she looked at me like that.

She kissed her way up to my mouth, her hands running over my body. I wiggled a little under her touch, burying my hand in her hair.

I loved this part. The part where she'd just kiss me, lie down next to me, both of us satisfied, warm, comfortable and relaxed. Our bodies would melt into each other. I'd trace the tattoos on her arms. Her beautiful tattoos that covered her skin from shoulder to wrist.

"Dy?"

"Mhm?" She didn't look up as she traced my collarbone with her tongue.

"Could you... Tattoo me again?"

She stopped and flicked her eyes up at me, before pulling up, looking down at me. "What're you thinking about getting?"

"Something related to Aatskina. My mum was Aatskina and... I'd just like to get something related to her. Something to remind me of her."

Dy's expression softened. "You earn them, Al. You don't just get them. There has to be rituals. It has to be properly done."

I nodded, running my hand over one of her arms. Patterns stretched over it, star-shaped figures mixed with nets and black bands going around her bicep.

"You've earned one though. You've reached a level of spirituality that we consider the most holy. For that, you get these." She pointed to her shoulder where the stars were going in a band around her arm.

"I love those. How did you get them?"

"I've been to the temple. I reached the spirits and they touched me." She touched her birthmark. "Or so they say." She bopped her head from side to side. "I mean, I think it's just a birthmark, but hey, if the seers tell me it's because I was touched by a spirit, who am I to tell them otherwise? They're the experts after all."

"I can believe it," I breathed and brought her down so I could kiss her. She purred against my lips and moved away from my mouth again, kissing my throat and then my shoulder.

"I'd make so many tattoos on you," she murmured. "Just so I had an excuse to kiss every inch of you."

"You don't need an excuse."

She looked up and smiled a little wickedly at me. "Naughty."

I couldn't help but laugh. I pulled her down again and she relaxed on top of me, giving me a nice chance to play with her hair.

"Al?"

"Yeah?"

"When we get you your crown back... Can I live with you?"

I smiled and bit down on my lip. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

She kissed my collarbone and looked up at me, smiling.

Candles flickered in the subtle breeze going through the temple. Dy was cleaning the tools, Huck having built her a new machine as the old was back in Aatskina. Her face was painted with blue paint. One line from each eye down her cheeks, one on her bottom lip going down her chin and throat. And then the star in her forehead.

Drums were playing and one of the seers was singing. I wasn't sure I understood what the words to the song, but the meaning was clear. We were praising the spirits. All of us.

Dy had white fur draped around her shoulders and she looked up from her tools, smiling at me.

"You ready?" she asked with a low voice.

"I'm ready."

She dipped her fingers in a bowl of water, picking up a washcloth. She cleaned my bare shoulder, but I stopped her.

"The other arm."

She looked at my right arm, or rather what was left of it. She smiled and kissed my right shoulder before she started cleaning it. It was soothing, the warm water. It smelt sweet too.

Dy assembled the machine and her black painted eyes caught mine one last time before she put the needle to my arm. I sharply inhaled through my clenched teeth but managed to not move. I didn't wanna screw it up.

Barr, who had been observing it all from the side came closer, looking very fascinated with the process.

"Why do you do this?"

"It's for you, actually," Dy murmured.

"For me?" Barr widened his eyes.

"Yeah, for all the spirits. In Aatskina we mark our skin for you. To honour you."

Barr smiled. "That is very sweet of you all. You do not have to."

"We want to," she explained patiently.

I closed my eyes and just took in the pain. The beat of the drums and the voice of the singer. I felt someone take my hand in theirs, but I didn't open my eyes. I could feel Barr right next to me anyways, so I knew it was him.

My mind travelled home. Home to Quinn. I tried to imagine what he could be doing right now. Probably drinking coffee in his apartment. Share gossip with his friends.

A clear image formed in my head of him. It was as if he was right in front of me. His slightly crooked smile that made one eye squint a bit more than the other. His hair curling around his ears and neck. Those dark brown eyes that always widened a little when he saw me, before he gave me a hug. Quinn had protected me. He always had.

Whenever the tutors would get annoyed with me, he'd make a distraction so they would get angrier at him than at me. It was as if he knew the pressure on me was so much harder than it was on him. He could afford to slip up. I couldn't. I had to be the perfect queen from the moment I was born. And Quinn helped me with that.

I'd protect him now.

"Al," Barr whispered.

I opened my eyes and met his. Tears were running down his cheeks and he smiled as he wiped them away. "Thank you for sharing that."

I sent him a bit of a confused smile back. "What?"

"You thought of Quinn and let me in. He is very beautiful, is he not?"

"Yeah," I said and teared up a bit. "He is."

"I will use this memory of yours to get to him. Pull him back from the darkness that clouds his mind."

I nodded. "I think that could help."

"I know I can help him. He needs me to connect with him and teach him. Guide him. He is so lost."

I swallowed hard and nodded again. A lump in my throat kept me from talking.

Dy finished up and the drums and singing stopped. The seer who had been singing rose to her feet and came closer to inspect Dy's work.

"Child," she said and put her hand on my head, gently pressing her thumb against my forehead. "Welcome to the Aatskina tribe."

"Dy," I said and lied down next to her. She always disappeared after dinner and then I'd find her, sleeping in our little section.

She turned around and pulled me to her.

"You're napping like an old lady," I snorted and ran my hand under her shirt, settling it on the side of her hip.

"I am an old lady." She smiled, her eyes still closed.

"My old lady," I breathed and kissed her chin. She pulled me even closer and buried her face in my hair. I kept running my fingers over her soft skin, just really genuinely enjoying this moment.

"Hey Al?" Dy said after a while.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry."

"About what?" I frowned and she pulled back looking down at me.

She took a deep breath and took my hand in hers. "I always treated you like you weren't part of the Aatskina tribe, when in reality, you're just as Aatskina as I am. I just happened to grow up in it. I should've been better at... Teaching you things. And I should've mentioned the tattoos. I should've welcomed you home."

I looked wide-eyed up at her. She had taught me so much about the Aatskina tribe. I had never considered it truly mine because I hadn't grown up with the culture or anything. But I mean... That wasn't what the tribe was about. It was all about heritage. Unlike Bursaaq where heritage meant nothing, and you had to live there to be able to consider yourself a member.

Dy was unapologetically Aatskina. And I loved that part of her. It hadn't crossed my mind that we were basically the same when it came to this part of us and our history. And our parents.

"I'm really sorry for not opening up immediately. I was selfishly protective."
"Why didn't you open up about it?" I asked softly.

"I guess... I don't know. I didn't feel like you were real Aatskina because you knew nothing about us. But that's not how it works. I guess Bursaaq had a bigger influence on me. I'm just also really tired of Aatskina being something you could just claim to be and then you were. I guess I wanted to gate-keep the culture."

"And you don't want to anymore?"

She snorted and shook her head. "No, it's not mine to gate-keep. It's ridiculous to even want to try. The more who contribute and partake, the longer it'll live."

"I think I understand." I stilled my hand. "It's so important to you and let's be honest, if it wasn't for you, I'd know nothing. I must seem like an ignorant moron most of the time, wanting to take your culture and turn it into something it isn't."

Dy snorted. "I wouldn't put it that way exactly." She kissed my forehead and then the back of my hand. "I was just being overly protective."

"Will you teach me now?"

"I'll spend the rest of my life teaching you," she murmured and kissed me.

I hadn't expected that. I mean, we knew she was going to live in the stronghold once we got my crown back but... She was in this for good. I had hoped she would be, because... I was.

"Marry me first."

She bit down on my lip and then kissed it, soothing the slight ache she had left behind.

"I'll marry you first then. And I want you in a dress. A pretty one. With pearls and bells in your hair."

"I'm gonna spend three days on just getting pretty, that'll be for damn sure." We both laughed and she smoothed her thumb over my cheek.

"You don't need three days to be pretty," she said softly and kissed my nose. "Only thing you need is a little sleep and then you need to smile. That's all you need to do."

"You're exaggerating a lot there, Dy."

"No, you don't understand, Al. You're so incredibly beautiful. It's unreal how beautiful you are. Inside and out."

I moved in and kissed her this time. She made a very satisfied sound from the back of her throat and ran her thumb over my cheek again.

She ran her hands under my shirt and lifted it over my head. I did the same to her. She pulled my trousers off and again, I did the same to her. She then gently pushed me on my back and slid in between my legs, kissing me.

Gods, I loved Dy. She made my head spin all the time and she made me laugh. We had great discussions. She taught me so many things about the world. She wasn't just my girlfriend she was my guide. My saviour. She had saved me. If it weren't for her then I'd be dead.

Her fingers ran over me and my hips bucked up all on their own. She kissed me and pressed down on me with her hips. I circled my legs around her waist as my fingers slid into her hair. Her entire body moved with her fingers and I couldn't keep quiet. I moaned into her mouth and she chuckled, hushing me.

"We have no walls, Al," she murmured.

"Don't give a fuck," I retorted.

"Language, young lady." Dy slid her fingers inside of me and I was about to moan, but she kissed me hard, probably to shut me up. "A queen doesn't speak like that," she whispered and went a little harder at me. Her lips landed on my throat and it was so hard to not make a sound. I had to bite down hard on my lip as I reached the peak. Dy's hand ran up to my chest and stayed there as she dropped down beside me. She more or less wrapped her body around me, pulling me as close as she possibly could.

"I love you," she murmured.

"I love you too. So much, Dy." I kissed her chin and she smiled.