Merikh winced. He didn’t understand the language, but it wasn’t hard to guess what she’d asked.
“You are with me, little starshine.”
“Merikh?” she groggily asked, rubbing one of her eyes, like she had sleep sand caught in it. “We’re in the cells? H-how did I get here?”
“I told you that you would return to me after too much time had passed.” She crawled her way to him, and his muscles tensed. “Wait! Stop. You are in the cell next to me.”
She paused right before her forehead could knock into the bars, and she put her hands up to feel them. The silence within the room highlighted how much learning that distressed her, her pulse spiking.
“Merikh.” Her eyes crinkled as her bottom lip trembled. “I don’t like this. How do I get out?”
“You’re a Phantom now.” Considering her ghostly appearance before she formed, it didn’t matter whether it was a human or an Elf he bonded with. He’d changed her. “You are able to turn yourself incorporeal and float through the bars.”
“I can? How?”
He grunted. “I’m not actually sure. This is as new to me as it is to you.”
Despite the fact that his mother was also a Phantom, he knew little about them. Perhaps he could have asked her about it, but he’d never expected to have a bride of his own.
She pulled her lips to one side and narrowed her brows in what he thought was a cute expression of determination or concentration. “Maybe I can just will it?”
Just like that, her fingertips turned ghostly, and she dipped forward through the bars. Like it was coming from a faraway place, her scream was quiet and distant.
“No! No!” Her arms cartwheeled as she floated upwards towards the ceiling within his cell. “I don’t like it! I can’t see or feel anything!”
She suddenly turned physical, and Merikh pushed off the walls with his elbows to catch her with his thighs. She fell on the thick cushion of them with anoomph.
A half-hearted sob broke from her quivering lips. “Never again. I don’t want to do that ever again. I felt like a floating consciousness.”
He’d never considered how a sightless Phantom would navigate, but he was now realising that it wasn’t going to be easy for her. She wouldn’t be able to see, feel, smell, or taste – only hear.
Still, his female was resilient, determined, and wonderful; he trusted she’d find a way.
When she pushed off him and knelt between his thighs, Merikh wiggled back. He seated himself upright against the wall once more and folded his legs.
He stared at her in silence, taking in the mesmerising sight of her, the smell of her.
The strap of clothing she wore could barely be considered a dress with how short it was, reminding him of a ruined red one he’d torn from her. It had dark green lace where she’d cut it, while the rest of it looked as though it was made of pale green silk. It hugged her slight curves before flaring around her hips. The cleavage line was cut low, but not enough to let her breasts spill from it.
It was obvious she wasn’t wearing anything beneath it.
Her chest flushed under his silence, likely feeling his gaze upon her. Her ears darted back, and she lowered her head as she nibbled at her lips. She looked awfully nervous and shy before him.
“I-I should go back to my home,” she murmured quietly. “It’s late. I could get in trouble for being here.”
Panic clawed at his chest, and a whine slipped from him. “Please stay.”
Like that was all she needed to be convinced, she nodded and shifted closer. When she reached up, he placed his skull in her welcoming palms, and once more, all his anxieties faded.
“Are you okay?” She stroked up the underside before a hand rubbed down the top of it. His sight blackened in bliss at her touch, and he freely leaned into it. “I’ve been worried about you.”
“I’m fine,” he lied. “I’m used to being in the dark.”
She came even closer so she could lift up and rub her cheek against his front fangs.
“I’m sorry I haven’t visited you. You probably feel abandoned, but I’ve been in a council meeting from the moment I woke up today. They were inquiring about my time on Earth, and they had so manyannoyingquestions.”
“It’s fine,” he lied once more. “It’s only been a few days. I’m patient.”