Page 28 of Nix and Tell

“Not me.”

A shadow passes across Trisantona’s face. “Maybe not you, but others like you. It’s not acceptable.” She remembers me, and looks towards me, and I can’t help but shrink back a bit. “Go, Violet. Spend time with your love. I will accept whatever joy the two of you wish to share with me. It is more than I’ll get from that pitiful creature.”

21

Chlo

“Iwant to do it,” Violet says as she bursts through the door.

“Do what?”

She doesn’t answer as she leans up to kiss me, pulling me towards her until I meld my body against hers. We fit together so perfectly that I forget my question. It’s kissed entirely out of my head.

“Yes,” she says again, as she pulls back. “I think we should.”

“Should what?”

“Do sex magic for Trisantona.”

Whatever I thought she might have been referring to, it wasn’t that. “Why?”

“Because she needs more joy in her life, and I think energy from our sex would give her exactly that. Don’t worry, I think I’ve worked out how to have boundaried sex.”

She catches sight of my face, and pauses. “You can safeword out of this is you want; we don’t have to. But we can talk about it.”

I take her hand and tug her over to the couch. “What’s the plan?”

It’s a good plan, and one that I’m actually not adverse to. There are aspects of it that could go wrong, of course, but there always is when magic is involved. So that is how I find myself upstream from Wyrten Bridge, in the rowing boat I’d organised for our picnic.

Violet is wearing a two-part bathing suit, and the swell of her breasts and her stomach are almost too distracting. There are some near misses with bulrushes, and we get inexplicably tangled in starwort more than once.

When the oars are finally resting in the bottom of the boat, she looks at me, and I look at her.

“Spell first,” I say. I don’t want any nixes coming across us as we do this.

She nods, and takes out a bottle from her bag. “Basil oil for protection, orange juice for the sacral chakra, and forget-me-not petals for misdirection.” Violet grins at the face I pull. “It’ll cast a really nice ‘don’t look here’ kind of spell. We shouldn’t get any interruptions at all.”

“What do I have to do? Drink it?”

“Gods no!” She laughs at that. “It’s an ointment of sorts. Pop it on your neck, your wrists, ankles and naval.”

Her eyes are hot as I strip down, pausing only a moment when I get to my bra. I can feel the plants in the liquid that she dabs gently on my skin, their magic calling to me. She strokes the oil across her own skin, and it glistens, mesmerising in the sun. Then tipping the bottle, she empties it into the river next to us.

“It’s okay,” Violet reassures me. “It’s all plant based. Nothing in there would harm the Arun or Trisantona.” And then she stands carefully in the boat, meeting my eyes as she discards her suit. Her breasts hang, heavy, and I see damp curls between herlegs. And in one swift movement, she dives into the river, her body arcing in a glorious curve.

The river water splashes me, and I find myself laughing, actually enjoying the touch of the river once more.

She emerges from the water like a goddess herself, hair plastered to her head, water streaming from her face, and when Violet holds her arms out towards me, I realise that I love this woman more than I knew was possible.

“Are you going to join me?” she asks, and I can hear the smile in her voice. How is that even possible?

“Yes,” I whisper, and jump into the water.

I haven’t been fully submerged in a body of water for a long time—showers don’t count—and the coldness of the river takes my breath away. But it also strips back all my defences and I can see and heareverything. Eyes wide open, I take in the river below the surface. The fish darting in between plants, the rocks submerged, and the plants—oh the plants—everywhere I look.

And I can feelher, Trisantona, in the river. There’s curiosity there, a questioning that tries to push at me a little too much, and I bat her back out of my head.

There’s a hand pulling at my arm, and when I stand up, Violet is looking at me, her eyes as wide as mine hand been underwater. “You didn’t come up for air!”

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