She blinked. “Your… your brother?” Morana paused, reality slowly dawning on her. Still, it would seem she needed to hear me say it aloud, for she asked, “Who are you?”
Still grinning, I told her the truth, “Your kind know me as Summer, but you may call me Ishan.” It was too late to lie to her, although I supposed I could glamour her and make her forget this whole thing. I did not want to do that, however. Making her forget me… it seemed a terrible, cruel thing.
Again, more blinking, as if she could not believe her eyes. And then, of course, Morana remembered she was naked. Instead of covering herself up, she simply set her hands on her hips and demanded in a tone I bet she considered harsh, “Tell me then, Ishan, do you always make a habit of appearing to women while they’re naked, or am I the only lucky one?” Her tone was anything but grating to me.
In fact, her words only made me grin harder, which I think only furthered her annoyance.
“You know,” I started, taking a step back as she rolled her eyes and reached for the small bits of fabric that would hide her most private parts from me, “you are meeting a god right now. You could show a little more respect.” I meant it in good fun.
“Perhaps it is you who should be showing me more respect,” Morana said, huffing. Now that her private bits were covered, she folded her arms over her chest and cocked a hip. A feisty stance if I ever saw one. “You appeared to me out of nowhere, while I was bathing—”
“Technically, you were done bathing,” I informed her.
She frowned. “So, you were there the entire time, then? You watched me the whole time?”
At that point, I wasn’t sure what to say, what she wanted to hear. If I told the truth, I ran the risk of sounding like a creep, and I knew she wouldn’t like that. However, if I told a lie, I wouldn’t feel right about it. This girl was one I never wanted to lie to.
I decided on changing the subject: “I hear you’re set to marry my brother. And by heard, I mean I watched the whole thing. You volunteered for your sister—admirable, I suppose—but why? Why would you do such a thing?” I stopped myself from asking what I really wanted to: why would you volunteer to marry Winter when you belong to me?
“Why would it matter to you?” she asked. “Why I did it? Why would it matter to a god what I chose?” Morana paused, shaking her wet head. “Is this why you’ve shown yourself to me, to ask me why?”
The grin I wore was no longer wide; instead it was simply a small smile as I told her, “This might be the first time you’ve laid eyes on me, but this is not the first time I’ve watched you.” Her cheeks flushed, and I was quick to add, “Not like that—”
“I don’t think I believe you,” she muttered under her breath, as if she thought I was some peeper, some creeping god who got his jollies from watching everyone in their most private of moments.
Deciding to ignore her comment, I went on, “You’ve had my favor since you were a child, Morana. Don’t deny it. You’ve heard others say it, you’ve heard your parents comment on it. Surely you’ve felt me watching over you?” I purposefully chose to use her name, knowing both that she’d never give it to me—not after I’d appeared while staring at her naked form—and that she needed further proof.
Didn’t know what other proof I could offer her, short of shooting a fireball out of my fingertips. I supposed I could do that, but I didn’t like flexing my powers that much, not when I didn’t need to.
“I…” Morana trailed off, biting her lower lip, an adorably human gesture. Those lips… they were full and I bet they were just as soft as they looked. Thoughts of those lips running everywhere on my body popped into my head, and I did my best to push them away.
Cautiously, I took a step towards her. Seeing her back straighten, I said, “You can feel it, can’t you? You can feel who I am, because you and I… we’re connected.” The closer I got to her, the more the heart in my chest beat, as if it couldn’t beat fast enough.
She made my thoughts run wild and my body feel aflame; she had to be mine, not my brother’s.
Her eyebrows furrowed, and she shook her head. Her breathing sounded short, but even so, Morana managed to say, “I don’t understand. Why are you here? Are you angry with me about what I did?” It seemed the most reasonable explanation to her, I supposed; not that I would want to take her from my brother, but that I was irate that she’d freely give herself to him while holding my favor. “I had to. I couldn’t let my sister be taken. She would never have been happy.”
The sister. It was all to protect the sister. Still, I did not understand why Morana would put herself through this, why she would willingly walk into that castle and marry my brother. Surely the fact that he searched for a new bride every quarter-century was a bad sign?
“She already has a love,” Morana whispered, turning her face away from me, no longer annoyed or angry, but wistful over what her sister had that she did not. “If one of us had to go, it should be me, not her.” She was slow to return her gaze to me. “I’m sorry if you took it as an insult. I never meant it as one. I was only trying to do the right thing for Ember.”
“I see that now,” I spoke, my voice dropping to murmur, “but you should know, my brother is unlike me in every way. He is cold, sometimes cruel. He is not the one you should spend your days with.”
Morana swallowed as she looked at me in a new light, appraising me, my form, my figure, my face. Every part of me, and it was like she was hit with a wall, as if she hadn’t quite noticed how tall I was, how thick the muscles beneath my tunic were, how appealing I was in every way. I was a god, after all. Surely she expected no less?
“Are you saying… are you saying I should spend my days with you instead?” Morana questioned, the words coming out as light as a feather, nearly carried off by the gentle breeze between us. The sun had nearly set, and the temperature had begun to grow cooler. My brother’s season was on its way; soon enough cold would grip this land through and through.
“If you belong to someone, surely that someone is me.”
The wrong thing to say, for if there was one thing humans wanted, it was a choice. Always a choice, even if their choices impeded others from choosing themselves.
“I am not property.” Morana paused, muttering under her breath, “At least, not yet. I don’t know why you think I belong to you, but I don’t. I never asked for your favor. If that’s what this is about, take it away.” She offered me her hands, as if I could take them in mine and, as she’d said, pull my favor from her.
As if it was that easy. As if I’d want to drain the color from her skin and dull the golden tones in her hair. Doing so would hurt her, just as it would hurt me.
I said nothing, taking another step toward her. Morana must’ve thought I was going to take my favor from her, for she let me grab her wrists. Instead of pulling anything from her, I pushed my heat inside her, filled her up with honeyed warmth, my fingers intertwining with hers. She let out the breathiest sigh I’d ever heard in all my days, and I knew right then I would forever be in search of a similar sound.
More. I wanted to hear more of those sounds from her.