The tender skin of a flower stem between my fingers had always left me speechless. Intricate, fragile petals always held the glory and the love of beauty, sweet and enticing aromas, and the endless meanings behind their legends. But the stem, the backbone of the precious piece of bloomed earth, it was little but scenery despite its vital role. Despite its gentle touch and enduring strength in even the harshest of storms.

This day was fair, a gentle breeze chilling the rays of the sun as they struck my bare shoulders. The skirts of my dress barely dragged at the soil beneath my feet, staining its hem with muddy brown as I made my way to visit each of my recently planted younglings.

I'd always hoped I would one day be more like the stem than the petals, but after everything… I wasn't sure I was capable. If I would only always be a petal.

Of all my sisters, of all the faeries I now called friends - family even - I was the most unchallenged by the war that had come and passed so swiftly and with such power that we were all still rebuilding our trust in peace. Yet I seemed the most damaged, the most flawed and frayed.

The garden beyond smelled of sweet peonies and crisp honeysuckle, melding together into the aroma of home - my home. I would always find my home around these tender creatures, desperate for maintenance and tender care. A part of me hoped that the flowers bloomed to reward those who'd sheltered them for so long. A part of me hoped I would bloom one day to repay those who'd maintained me for so long.

I sighed.

Azriel let his feet bear a soft crunch on loose foliage as he stepped up behind me, finally ready to reveal himself despite the idea that I'm a seer. I would always know when he hid himself from me, but as these weeks press on the more he revealed himself, the more I felt myself blooming once more into who I once was in front of his patient gaze and beneath his easy touch.

But no, I would never be that girl again. I would never be fragile or innocent anymore... More than that I would never be helpless again. I would never stand aside and let others take the brunt of things I could stand against.

"Your garden grows each time I set foot in it," Azriel spoke quietly, refusing to offset the peace of the pristine quiet that surrounded us in the bright morning air of Velaris.

I smiled, watching him from the corner of my eye as I rubbed the soft begonia stem between the pads of my grip. "That's quite an accomplishment considering how often I see you visit me." His gaze wandered to the fountain and I knew he would note each lily and daffodil that surrounded its waters. His fingers traced the fall of my shoulder in a smooth, slow mission that pulled me away from my hurt, my shame. My breath poured out of me in a raging flood and emotion balled in my throat, threatening to choke me completely.

"Hey," his voice was a ripple through me and my eyes shot to his. The grip on my arm drew me into him until the lingering shadows kissed my skin, sending chills up my spine. "I know what it feels like to spend all your time hiding," he said, reaching his other hand to my face. The ravaged scars caressed my cheek and I held back the thought of where he got those scars. "But you are not less," he continued, "just because you aren't perfect."

I felt a single tear slide free and in the same second, his calloused thumb wiped it away. I grabbed his wrist and pressed closer, begging to fall into his shadows with him. In an instant his wings flew free from his back, surrounding me as his darkness grew. He moved a hand to my waist and kissed me, barely at first, but harder, heavier as need filled the coarse air around us. His shadows slid down my body until I felt all my blood rush to place deep beneath my belly.

I moaned into his mouth when a tendril of his shadows pressed directly into my clit, his hands climbing to the open chest of dress as he tore it over and over down the middle until it was mere scraps of fabric at my feet.

"Elain, I… " he hesitated, my body bare before his gaze, but I kissed him again. My fingers struggled with his battle leathers, but he was there and removed them instantly. And as he stood before me, gloriously naked, all I could do was heave a breath before reaching for him, my own hunger seeping into my skin. I had to… I had to feel him in my hands. I had to feel every inch of tender skin, so sensitive between my hand and the cascading power beneath. A rolling growl rose in his chest and he lunged for my lips again, shadows wrapping around my ass and through my legs, resting and rubbing and nudging and touching.

He lifted me and before I had time to laugh at the midnight garden that appeared to have travelled through time into the night, his tongue was on my breast, taunting and teasing my nipple. His shadows were fueled by my bucking hips as they explored my clit, baiting and testing what wet me the most. He carried me to the fountain, hip lips devouring my mouth, and lay me down on the wide edge.

I pulled on him, my nipples hard and desperate, my clit swollen and already ravaged.

But he did not obey.

He crawled down my body, his shadows filling the void his body left behind. They hovered above my skin, drawing out my chills, tickling my most tender flesh, and just as my body shook with need Azriel's tongue found its mark.

"Please!" I begged, but his shadows only clamped on my nipples as his tongue entered my slick wetness. And the idea of my… On his lips… "Ah, please," I moaned for him again, the breeze brushing my bare ass. His shadows mocked me, holding my hands down on the stone fountain above my head. His tongue worked his way inside me, lapping me up like his favorite treat and an unearthly sound left my lips.

Shadows strung down my sides in soft waves in between the sharp tugs on my nipples. I cried out, bucking my hip and the shadows held me down.

"Tell me," Azriel said in husky voice filled with the weight of my sex on his tongue. "Tell me how much you want this."

"I- I want… ah!" I moaned at the kneading shadows squeezing my heavy breasts, teasing my tight nipples.

Two fingers slid inside me.

I completely lost track of where we were, of who could be watching. I wouldn't be able to tell him what my name was if he didn't fuck me soon.

"Elain," he warned. "Tell me."

My voice shook out a weak, "I want this…" And then his fingers pulled from within me. My eyes shot open to see his carnal stare, eating my nakedness with every glance.

"Elain."

"I want you!" I screamed, unaware, or uncaring, for anyone who might hear. "I want you, Azriel. Oh, please, I want you."

His eyes closed in a slow, sweet roll before his fingers entered me and his shadows took hold of my nipples and my clit and in two swift pumps my world crashed through my bones. I rocked and rocked against his hand.

"Please, please, please," I mumbled.

And then his body was over mine… And before I could even think to brace myself, he entered me completely. My head threw back, my face contorting with the pressure of taking all of him. His shadows worked their way down my body as he kissed my neck, licking his way up to my ear before he pumped through me again. My entire body rolled with the aftermath of his cock, stealing my body, eating me whole from the inside out.

This was worship, this was the something greater I'd hoped for even in my human life. This was the salvation I'd thought to be out of reach in my new Fae life. This was my beginning and my end.

He trailed kisses down my chest, pumping his cock through me while his shadows held me in place, to my personal heaven and hell - to be so tortured and so pleasured. His mouth found my breast and he sucked his way to my nipple, taking me into his mouth. Pressure built around the place where his shaft stretched me in a way I'd never been stretched before. I moaned, writhing beneath his lips as he kissed and sucked each nipple.

And with one quick nip of pain, his teeth sent my body into shattering. I reached for him and for once, the shadows let me. He was riding my waves, my cascading orgasm sending him into bliss. I threw my arms around him, desperate to cling against his bare, tattooed chest, and my fingers grazed his wings.

A roar flew from his lips and his final pumps swallowed me whole.

He fell atop my torso, one of his wings landing in the fountain at my side splashing water across our chests. I waited, steadying my breaths, remembering where we were. The night around us remained - we were completely cloaked in shadow, invisible to the others inside the townhouse.

There had been a time when I was so desperate to be loved, to be cared for, that I would have accepted anyone. Even a man who hated me and a family that would have killed me. There had been a time when I'd had a mate. When I'd felt obligated to belong to someone else… And then there was this time, these moments when Azriel came to my garden whether to visit, or just watch, he was always there. He knew why I loved the flowers when no one else did. He knew my heart would always belong to the fragile, to the easily broken.

He stirred, his head peeling off my shoulder. A thin sheen of sweat and fountain water covered his brow.

Our eyes connected for immeasurable breaths before a small, victorious smile stretched across his lips.

"You see me," he whispered.

I watched his eyes even as he rose, his hands pulling my body up with him.

I nodded. "I will always see you, Azriel."

The grin spread slowly. Weak, at first, but it grew until the pride was blinding. He swept me up into his arms and leapt into the open air, his wings blasting away the lingering shadows and we soared together.

Until…

"Azriel," I said, my voice shaking.

He looked to my face in his arms, his grand smile hesitating.

"We're still naked!"

We plummeted to the ground in a swift sail as he kept my body covered from view. Our laughter was the loudest that either of us had heard in a long, long time.