I shifted away from her feverish fingertips. I struggled to clear my throat, thinking on her declaration. She didn’t understand how my world worked. But… was that such a bad thing? “What if the people of St. Louis don’t want me to take the city?”

She scoffed. “Then they can move…” she said with a feral grin.

I nodded absently, considering the pros and cons of her advice. I don’t know how long I sat there, but I suddenly remembered that I shouldn’t just be hanging out in Fae. I hadn’t even meditated yet. “Barbie, I need to—”

“You need power, Manling. To fill that vacuum inside of you, that raging, burning, starving hole in your soul…” Her skin glistened as if misted with sweat as she stared up at me.

I nodded stiffly. “I was going to say meditate, but… yes. That.”

“I’ll take care of it. Sitting alone may do wonders for the mind, but I think my Wylde Fae could do with something a little more… primitive…” she purred. Then she unhooked my legs, flinging them wide apart.

The tips of her breasts were like hot coals pressed against my knees. I tried to rise but she grabbed my wrists and yanked me back down to a sitting position. Her wings abruptly flared out behind her – silver butterfly wings as thin as a coating of frost on the grass at dawn.

They folded over me and the tips touched my back like icy fingers, the opposite of her fiery torso against my legs. And then she was slowly writhing up my crotch, licking her lips as her fingertips brushed my inner thighs. I realized I was no longer trying to get up, but trying not to explode from raw lust. Stone shattered under my palms as I squeezed the rock I was sitting on.

Her fiery breasts dripped sweat now and she breathed in ragged pants as she slowly – oh, so slowly – glided up my body until her chest was in my face.

Her sweat tasted like strawberry juice.

My skin sizzled – not in pain – but as if my senses had ignited, chock-full of a drug that made me taste smells and see sounds. All while that delicious Fae flesh pressed into my face. Her fingers danced across my shoulders and she was whimpering as she slowly sat down on my thighs, straddling me as she locked her heels behind my back, trapping me.

She gripped a fistful of my hair and pressed my face into her sweet-tasting, sweaty chest, hard. Electric current zapped into me from every single point of contact with her flesh against my clothes, as if nothing was between us. And I finally felt that hollow space inside of me – one I hadn’t even known existed – roaring as floodgates of power gushed into me. Not any new, strange power, but more as if I was being replenished, fed, rested, and massaged at the same time. I felt close to bursting as she yanked my head back, my cheeks sliding across the sugary flesh of her breasts to look up into her silvery eyes.

She stared down at me… and I blinked. It was no longer lust in her eyes, but… affection. Concern. Empathy. And… love. Ever so slowly, she inched closer with her lips. I closed my eyes, and she kissed me on each eyelid – each touch like that moment in a particularly gripping movie when you knew the next words spoken by your favorite character were going to squeeze your heart until your eyes instantly watered up and your throat grew tight. Not a sad feeling, but a triumphant, glorious feeling of overcoming. Where your emotions were so vigorously raw from the tension, that all it took was that one statement to crack the floodgates of your soul to let the emotions pour out of you.

Then she kissed my forehead and I fell back, not knowing up from down.

She caught me in her wings, holding me protectively as I panted, struggling for breath. Tears poured from my eyes, falling down my temples as I let her hold me.

I felt as weak as a kitten.

More exhausted than I had ever felt after a fight.

More alive than I’d ever known.

And… complete for the first time in what felt like years.

No questions filled my mind. No doubts. Just… confidence and resolve.

“Are you… finished, Wylde?” I heard a vaguely familiar voice call out somewhere nearby. It took me a minute to recognize the creature as a Carl. No, not a Carl. My friend, Carl.

Unable to speak yet, I simply lifted one of my hands and gave him a thumbs-up.

“We’ll just wait. Outside. I guess.”

I slowly looked up at Barbie, who was still straddling me. Her back arched and chest out as her wings held me like a silken hammock. I hadn’t ever really thought about her wings before. No bones or anything. Just… ribbons of dreams. I shook my head and licked my lips.

“I feel… exhausted,” I rasped.

She chuckled, and then heaved back. I didn’t have time to shout as I was suddenly flying. I landed on top of Barbie, my body pressed against hers, staring down into her eyes from only an inch away.

She blinked – her silver eyelashes much longer than I had ever noticed. “I gave you the fuel, but now you need a spark,” she whispered. And she flashed forward to bite my lower lip.

I felt a drop of blood hit my tongue, as well as something else velvety and wet, and then I was surging to my feet, hands clenched into fists as I roared. I felt as if I was standing beneath a waterfall, struggling to stand, but knowing that if I could last one moment longer I would win.

The sensation stopped and silence washed over me. All I could hear was panting.

I glanced down to see that Barbie was gone, only a silver butterfly pressed into the cavern floor. I bent down, suddenly alarmed, but realized it was just a piece of metal, intricately carved and detailed. “Claim it…” Barbie’s voice whispered, no louder than the breeze. “Have no fear. I know where your heart lies, Manling, for I have tasted it. My gift was an act of pure love, as you once gave to me. But even repayments can be… enjoyable…” and with that, her voice faded, the silver butterfly in my fingers throbbed warmer for a moment, and then I knew she was really gone.

I stared down at it for a moment, and then out at the cave’s entrance.

I smiled, and then began to laugh as I tucked the butterfly into my satchel. I had a lot to think about. But right now, it was time to get to work.

Still, that was the best sex I’d never had.