But Marguerite just rolled her eyes. Very much in Endelle’s mold she said, “Whatever.”

The photographer called out, “If Ms. Dresner will stand on the center box, Ms. Albion and Ms. Gaines can stand to either side. First, however, you’ll want to mount your wings.” Grace understood the need for the box for the picture. Marguerite was much shorter than either Grace or Fiona; having her elevated would give the photo a more balanced look.

Grace stepped a good ten feet away from everyone in the room, as did both Marguerite and Fiona. With advanced powers came enormous wings. She also turned away from everyone from a certain amount of natural embarrassment. Mounting wings was similar to sexual release; even thinking about it had her heart rate climbing, her wing-locks weeping fluids, and her skin breaking into a sheen of sweat.

Her thoughts turned to Leto, of course, which so did not help. Desire began to spread through her. She was about to release her wings when Leto’s voice was suddenly in her head. Are you okay? Oh, my God, Grace, what are you doing over there? I can feel your wing-locks, and I had to excuse myself from this latest meeting. Should I come to you? Do you need me?

Uh … no. we’re getting ready for the photo shoot. Marcus wanted a back view of all our wings, since they’re uniquely flame-based. We’re in black leather flight suits. Leto?

He didn’t respond right away, but she could sense that he was breathing hard. As she lowered the blocks, she kept in place so that she wasn’t always experiencing his external sensations, she was hit with what she could feel was a painful erection. Which aroused her even more. When she felt his forehead suddenly hurt, she asked, What was that?

Oh, sorry, this is all just so weird. I’m in the bathroom at the palace. I was just drying my hands when I felt all you were feeling. I slammed my forehead into the wall a bit too hard. Shit, I cracked a couple of tiles. Grace, are you sure I can’t come to you?

She smiled. She couldn’t help herself. No. We have to finish this shoot. But when I see you again, I think we need to manage some alone time. Maybe with wings.

She heard a growl, or at least she thought she did. Could he communicate a growl telepathically?

Is that a promise?

Oh, yeah.

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I’ll leave you to it then. I’ll have to block your sensations.

Same here. Bye.

She felt the connection break. It was so strange being so close to Leto at any given moment.

She took a few deep breaths and let her wings fly. She put her fingers to her lips because she’d almost orgasmed. She hadn’t realized how close she was, but then she’d felt everything Leto was feeling.

Yes, she definitely had things to discuss with him later, or maybe just things to mount. Many things to mount.

She closed her eyes and resorted to some serious deep breathing.

The room had grown very quiet.

When she was finally in command of herself, she turned to find, first of all, that Marguerite had a wet towel slung around her neck.

Fiona was blinking rapidly.

“Well, that was interesting,” Grace said.

Fiona laughed. “I haven’t been mounting my wings very long, but that was really strange. I realized I had only mounted my wings when Jean-Pierre was around.” Of course, her cheeks started to grow very pink. Then she laughed. “Oh, this is just too embarrassing.”

When Fiona turned in Marguerite’s direction, Grace had a full view of her wings. “Oh, Fiona, your wings are magnificent. All that black and gold and the flame pattern is so evident.”

For the next few minutes, they spent time examining one another’s wings. Marguerite’s were a deep cherry red, with black flames at the base. Grace had seen hers while on Fourth with Casimir. There had been plenty of mirrors to look into, unlike in the Creator’s Convent.

As she took her place to the right of Marguerite, an order that seemed fitting because Fiona had been the first to discover the nature of her power, Grace began to gain some confidence. She really was obsidian flame. Her wings matched Fiona’s and Marguerite’s. She really did belong here.

Of course, the proximity of the triad kept a certain level of power flowing among them, but as long as they didn’t form a circle together the power remained a pleasant vibration over her skin.

As the photographer worked them, most of the comments came from Marguerite and generally stayed close to the topic of how well acquainted the photographer was with Photoshop and did she truly think she could shave at least four inches off her bottom.

The photographer assured her repeatedly that she could have final approval of the photo.

When the photographer and her crew took off, Marguerite contacted Thorne and asked him to join the triad because they were ready to begin practicing.

When Thorne arrived, Grace addressed obsidian flame’s biggest concern. “So, we need to figure out how to do the mass folds.” She turned to Fiona. “You were able to channel Endelle’s ability to fold. Does that mean you have the same ability now?”

Fiona shook her head. “There is always a residual effect, something learned, but it’s not the same thing. So, no, I don’t have her level of power.”

“So I need to acquire Endelle’s ability.”

Fiona smiled. “That would follow.”

Grace knew why she was smiling. There was one woman on the planet with the ability she needed to acquire, but it was never an easy thing to work with the scorpion queen.

She glanced at Thorne. “Would you contact Endelle for us?”

He smiled. “Of course.” He whipped his phone from his pants pocket. Grace had forgotten that he’d broken the mind-link with Endelle all those months ago. Now he had to contact her the usual way. He probably could have used telepathy, but Grace had a feeling Thorne wanted it this way. Maybe having a breh made a difference as well.

Grace waited and tried to calm her heart. Endelle was never easy to take, but this was new territory and she was already nervous. Thinking about being within Endelle’s soul was like thinking about swimming with sharks.

Suddenly the alarms started shrieking like mad, after which Endelle appeared. She looked around, clearly not understanding why the alarms were ringing.

Thorne lifted a hand and shouted over the shrill signals, “I’ll take care of this.” Once more, he was on his phone. He spoke quickly and a moment later the alarms stopped, thank you, Creator.

Endelle scowled at Thorne. “Didn’t you tell them I was coming?”

He laughed. “You didn’t exactly give me a lot of time.”




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