The Darkness Within

46 - New Developments

A/n: Once again, explicit content. Feel free to skip the last two thirds of this chapter if you don't want to read it.

Ciara hummed against Lucienne's chest after another round of sex, enjoying the somewhat exhausted purr of her happy mate. It was likely around afternoon on perhaps the fifth or sixth day of mating, but neither of them were all that hungry, their magic mostly sustaining them through their heat. Now though, they were both satisfied for the moment, and a question was growing in Ciara's mind.

"What were you, before your magic found you and transformed you into your goddess form?" Ciara asked, cuddling closer into Lucienne's warm and bare chest.

Lucienne shifted, and Ciara could feel that her mate had moved so that she could look at Ciara's head cuddled into her. "My magic found me when I was five, but before that, I was an angel."

A flicker of memory from Lucienne made its way into Ciara's mind. An angel mother, or some maternal figure, gently rearranging the beautiful white feathers of small and not yet useful child-sized wings, showing young Lucienne how to care for them and keep them clean. The pride and joy, now tinted with sadness, from the memory made Ciara gasp, not quite used to the sudden emotions from memories that were not her own.

"You miss your wings," Ciara said once she had processed the memory, understanding it. She sat up suddenly, pulling Lucienne out of bed with her.

"What are you doing?" Lucienne asked, flustered.

"I'm giving you back your wings," Ciara explained, pushing at Lucienne's shoulder. "Turn around."

Lucienne's mind expressed that she was more than a little shocked but obeyed anyway, turning so that her bare back was facing Ciara. She placed her cool hands over Lucienne's shoulder blades, feeling Lucienne press into her mind at the same time she pulled forth her inner darkness. She ignored the surprise and curiosity from her mate, instead focusing on the memories that her darkness provided of beautiful white wings, their structure, the designing of them by the original goddesses when they were still celestial beings.

When she understood how the wings existed and worked, Ciara called upon her magic and Lucienne's through their bond, allowing shapeshifting to mix with the Power of Creation from both herself and her mate. She hadn't been sure she'd be able to call upon Lucienne's magic, to wield it as her own, but it responded to her nonetheless, letting her shape it. With the help of her inner darkness and Lucienne's mental merging, she wielded both her own and Lucienne's Power of Creation, her shapeshifting powers forming the wings in shape and structure, and then making them permanent with their combined powers.

When she was done, the magic faded, and she gasped, body trembling from exhaustion. She hadn't known how exhilarating calling forth both her own magic and her mate's magic would be, nor how much energy it took to command forces that were not hers to begin with. In the future, Ciara knew, for the combined Power of Creation to be useful at all, Lucienne would have to learn to wield her own.

Ciara shuddered, cold, and her legs gave out. Before she could hit the ground, Lucienne was there, fussing over her as she laid her back in bed, forgetting about her new wings altogether.

When Ciara felt better and had enough strength to sit back up, Lucienne stopped fussing but remained close and concerned.

"Are you alright?" Lucienne asked, hands hovering over Ciara's shoulders.

Ciara groaned, her body sore. "I'm fine, how are you? The wings?"

She peered into Lucienne's mind, watching through Lucienne's eyes as she remembered the wings that now weighed on her back, and turned around to look at them. They were beautiful, the wings. The white feathers were pristine, but what truly made them gorgeous was the gold swirling goddess symbols that patterned over the feathers, an extension of the gold tattoo-symbols that covered Lucienne's body. The wings, to suit Lucienne's larger frame, were huge, and as the Goddess began to stretch them out to admire them, they expanded to an absurdly large size.