Sara was called downstairs by one of the guard's shortly after the bells began to toll, leaving Rina with a weary smile.

Soon after, Fin arrived and took her back to his rooms. He went ashore with Olav and a handful of the crew and magisterium guards. They remained until late in the night.

She woke to a brush of warm air on her ear and Fin's voice.

"Wake up."

She threw the back of her arm across her eyes to block the light of the oil lamp Fin had set on the table and groaned.

"Come on. I want to show you something."

"What time is it?" she mumbled, eyes squinted.

"The magic hour."

Snorting, Rina opened her eyes. Fin squatted beside the bed, his purple eyes dark, a tuft of caramel hair loose across his forehead. Her hand made to reach for it and pulled back as she realised what she was doing.

Fin grasped, fingers folding about hers, the calloused skin sparking against her own.

"Fin, I—"

He placed a forefinger over her lips. "Shh, you think too much. Come. Wear this—and no shoes. Trust me."

Empty cold replaced the warmth of his hand as he stood and draped a cloak over the mattress, then left the room.

Rina followed Fin, ducking behind a barrel when he indicated for her to do so.

"Late to be out, Captain, innit?"

"The best time for an adventure."

A male chuckle, and, "One of your walks, I take it. You're a strange one, Cap."

When the sailor continued his night-time patrol, they tiptoed down the gangplank and across the jetty, jagged wood and barnacles digging into their feet. Instead of continuing to the stone promenade, Fin jumped down to the beach. He reached out for Rina, and she leaned over, put her hands on his shoulders and let him put his own around her waist and lift her down.

The sand was cold and wet, the grains finer than those in Amadore, filled with shell fragments and small stones rolled smooth by the sea.

She looked up at the sky. Máni hung huge above them, ripe as a peach. Far away, the little moon, Hecata, watched on, a small, white queen amongst her kingdom of stars.

Fin retook her hand and tugged. "Come—before someone sees us." The celestial light painted his face in a pale luminescence. One corner of his mouth quirked up.

Turning back to the ship, Rina thought she made out a tall, broad-shouldered form. Though impossible to see through the darkness, but she could feel black eyes staring. She bit her lip. A current rippled across her skin, the hairs on her arms standing on end. Fin's hand was still now, but something pulled her to him.

With a cracked voice, she said, "I trust you."

The broad smile on his face, revealing slightly crooked teeth, made her stomach flutter.

They hurried across the seashore, slowing as they approached a bend in the coast. They scrambled over a stone wall and pile of boulders, the beach now bordered by cliffs, and continued until they came to a place where cliff met the sea and branches of thirsty pine trees reached down to the water.

They sat in the moonlight shadow cast by the canopy above.

Fin said nothing, contemplating the water, so clear, the rocks were visible. The waves lapped the shore as the ocean exhaled, and drew back with each new breath.

She sketched a line in the sand. "It's beautiful."

The line curved toward Fin then doubled back. He caught her hand again and cupped it to his cheek.

The air left her. He held the hand and used his other to cradle her face.

"You feel it too, don't you Rina."

She did. Something crackled between them as they sat there, their backs to the rock face, their toes delving into the cool sand. Despite the cold, she was warm.

Her head was resting on Fin's shoulder when he spoke again, and she could sense the vibration of his words. "I come here each time. Every town and city I visit, I find myself a place, so that as much as I move through this world, I always have a home."

"Isn't the Crystal Queen your home?"

He turned to her again, a playful smile across his face. "Oh no, Rina. She is my queen, and the ocean, my goddess. But monarchs and deities are fickle things, so it is important to have one's feet planted in the ground. To keep your focus." As he said this, his eyes darkened.

He drew closer. Slowly. His face blurred, and there were only his eyes, the pupils dilated.

Stop this. Stop it now, said a small voice in the back of Rina's mind. The thump, thump of her heart drowned the words out.

"If you don't keep your focus, you just might miss something special when it comes your way."

His lips pressed against hers. They were drier than the last time they kissed, and she tasted salt. He wrapped an arm around her, pulling her to him as his tongue parted her lips. A memory of rum lingered on it. She returned the kiss, their rhythm matching the laps of the water.

He lay her down on the sand, his body looming over her, black against the brightness of Máni. "Your eyes, they're incredible," he said, reverence in his voice, and lowered himself over her. Her body trembled. So did his. There was something else, too. Something that snapped and sparked over his form with a golden glow. Something that made her mouth water and heat pool just down low.

After a time, he broke from their kiss a moment to say, "Take what you want, Rina. I don't mind."

The words puzzled Rina. Her brow creased, and her eyes looked to the sky as he moved above her. Perhaps he meant he would let her decide how far they went. That must be it because he hadn't tried anything further. A fact that both reassured and disappointed her. If she let him do more, would Olav guess? She flinched at the thought of him following her with that sad, black gaze.

"Are you okay," Fin asked, voice breathy.

She nodded. The skin around her mouth burned from where the beginnings of stubble had rubbed. She didn't mind. Didn't care if people saw.

"This. I just want this."

"Then let me do the honour," he said, kissing her until she forgot the world.

☆☽○☾☆

Rina fell into a dream body again. High up in that tower, in a land she didn't recognise.

She wanted to cry out. She'd never felt anything close to this ecstasy, but something in the back of the mind that was not her own told her she needed to hold everything in.

Amber light flowed about her, and she drunk it as her un-named lover moved within her. The pressure built, and built, and built. Gods, how she wanted to scream, to use her nails to flay his back open and drain him. Her lips came to his throat. He let out a whimper as her teeth sunk in. Beyond the copper tang that danced upon her tongue was the flicker of something infinite.

"Please, I can't much longer," he begged.

His body was shuddering, the strokes now erratic. Were she kind, she wouldn't make him do all the work. She wasn't kind. Not anymore. The memories that were not her own told her this. His suggestion, this act. No, let him work now. She was the one who would need to do the rest. To betray her family for the sake of her land.

She closed her eyes and focused, wrapping her legs around his sweating body and drawing him in.

Suddenly, she knew the time had come, and her mouth came to his ear.

"Now," she hissed.

A moment later, he cried his release. She sucked hers in. An implosion, that was what she created. At its centre, a new spark of life.

The sensation of fingertips brushing hair from her face brought her attention. She opened her eyes to a pair of startling yellow ones.

"Was it enough, Elia?"

Smiling, she took his hand and rested it on her abdomen."Yes, Arkis. I believe it was."

Arkis' mouth stretched wide, his teeth white against his olive skin, then his eyes rolled, and he collapsed across her in a dead faint.

★☾●☽★

A/N:  

Thank you again for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please consider leaving a comment and pressing that star! 

Jas oxox