JENNIE
One Thousand Years Ago
I should have known not to come here. Known, that after what the Jacumes did to me, they wouldn't stop. Known that our love was cursed.
But love is a magnet, and I was doomed the moment I met her.
I snuck out of the manor long after the butlers had retired from their duties and gone to bed. It's close to midnight by the time I arrive at Jisoo's cottage.
She opens the wooden door and falls to her knees, her hand clasped to her mouth.
"Who did this to you?" she breathes through her hand. "I was so worried. A week, Jennie. An entire week and I don't hear from you. I'd no idea what had happened."
I try to smile, but the movement cracks my healing wounds open and a bead of blood billows up onto my lip. My face is a mosaic of purples and greens.
She reaches up, clasps my hands to hers and kisses my knuckles. "Who?" she demands. "I'll brew a curse."
But I shake my head. "It doesn't matter. I'm alive and I'm here. May I come in?"
She hurries me into her cottage, warmth envelopes me like a healing hug. She flutters around me, putting me in an armchair by the fire, the kiss of heat from the open flames a comfort.
"I don't have all my supplies, but I have enough," she says from the kitchen. There's a clattering of jars and glass. Her footsteps clacking against her cobbled stone floor. I close my eyes, relief that I'm finally here washing over me. I listen to the rhythm of her body sweeping around the cottage.
I must fall asleep because I wake to her placing an array of items at my feet. She kneels next to the armchair and begins applying the most potent-smelling herb mix I've ever smelt.
"What in the name of the gods is that?" I whine.
"Hush, it's powerful and it will remove most of the bruising by tomorrow. Now. Tell me who did this to you?"
"Why?" I say, leaning my head back against the chair.
"Jennie," she snaps. "What the hell do you mean why? I should think that patently obvious."
"Is it?"
"I swear on the witch-gods, I will slaughter them all. Was it at the behest of your mother? Did your father beat you? I will kill them. I'll spell them or torture them, but they won't get away with this."
I turn away from her, watch the flames dance, remembering the summer nights we lit fires by the river and danced till the embers flitted into the sky and turned into the dawn sun.
"You're a healer, you'll do no such thing. I came here because... because..." But I can't get the words out. They're clogged in my throat refusing to be spoken, because in my heart, I know I don't want to say them. I don't want to have to do this.
I turn to face her, tears streak her cheeks. I reach up, wipe the tears away with my thumb.
"I'll do it," she says.
But I shake my head. "You have to leave it... we... we need to end things. It's too dangerous. Our families won't allow this to continue, and I think that deep down, you know that too."
She chokes out a sob. Her whole body trembles now. She wipes her arm over her eyes and attends my face again.
"Is this because I'm a woman?" she asks.
That, at least, makes me smile. "If only it were so simple. Mother is livid about that too. But no. It's because you're a Jacume. Because our families know only hate for each other. We were never going to be able to live this life."
She drops the parcel of herbs she was holding, her eyes going wide.
"Oh my gods, it was my family, wasn't it? My family did this to you?" she barks and stands, pacing the living room.
"I'm sorry," I whisper, tears welling in my eyes.
She kneels beside me again, clasping my hands. "I don't want you to leave. I can't bear the thought of not being with you," she says and clutches her chest like her heart may give out. She takes a shuddered breath and then she looks me in the eye.
"Stay with me tonight, Jennie. One more night together and then run with me."
"Run?" I say, frowning.
She nods, already packing up her herbs. "We can take what we need, I'll give you some of my clothes and we can leave this city. Find a new one that will accept us. One that knows nothing of our familial history."
I grab her hand, stop her from flustering.
There's a thick pause.
We stare at each other, unspoken words flitting between us. The air potent with emotion.
And then I pull my eyes away, staring at the fire.
"No," she shrieks at me suddenly, wrenching her hand out of mine. "Don't you dare give up. We. Are. Not. Giving up. What do I need to do to convince you to stay with me? To run at dawn?"
She shuffles around to sit beneath me on the floor. Her fingers find the hem of my skirts and the skin of my ankles.
I close my eyes as her palms brush against my calves, the sensation sending a shiver of tingles up my legs and straight to my core. She wraps her hands around my legs and tugs gently until I plop onto the floor. She reaches up and gathers the pillow and slides it under my head.
"Jisoo," I plead, knowing what she's going to do, knowing how she's about to make me feel. Knowing that none of that will change the fact we have to end this before it takes one of our lives. I'd rather she live without me, than die because she loves me.
Her hands brush my ankles again, sliding the skirts higher, higher until they rest on my tummy. Her fingers skim my belly, my hips, everywhere she touches an explosion of delight as if she's pouring waves of pleasure through her hands.
She's careful to avoid the bruises on my legs, the boot prints, the fist marks. "Look at what they did to you."
"They tried to break me, to make me stop loving you."
"Hush now, let me make you feel better," she says and places a tender kiss on my knee. She scatters them down my legs, her lips soft and warm against the bruised flesh of my thighs.
Jisoo's lips find my core, kissing my apex until I breathe a deep moan of pleasure. Her mouth parts, her tongue tenderly gliding down my core. Long, slow swipes drawing out waves of bliss and soft whimpers from me. One of her hands finds mine, her fingers lacing through, knotting us together.
The way we were always meant to be.
She draws her tongue between my folds and lavishes me with the sweetest pleasure. I moan and arch my back off the floor. She moans into me, praising me, worshipping me like I'm her witch-god and not the very real being she loves.
"Jisoo," I pant as she swipes her tongue down my core, sucking and licking every inch of my skin. She releases my hand and instead pushes her way into me, one thick finger. She slides in and out and in and out until I'm panting and crying out her name and any thought of my aching face and bruised body vanishes in the swelling tide of orgasm.
She slips another finger inside me; I gasp at the pressure. The way her strong fingers fill me fuller than I've ever experienced.
"Jisoo," I gasp.
"Tell me, Jennie," she says. "Tell me everything. I will give you the world."
"Harder, I need you harder. I need more of you."
She switches into a different position leaning on her knees and I cry out as it shifts her fingers inside me. Making them curl into the most exquisite position. I moan and my nipples harden. Her mouth worships my apex, sending rivers of tingles and electric bolts from my core around my body until my eyes are squeezed shut so tightly that I swear I'll never see again.
"More," I pant. "More."
I want to cuss, to swear and cry and tear us from this world so that we're never parted. But I can't. And as she focuses her tongue on my swollen nub, I tip over into the explosive bliss that only she can deliver.
When the pulses spread through my entire body, I find myself weeping.
Tears pour down my cheeks and then I'm in her arms and Jisoo is cradling me, kissing my bruised cheeks and promising me things she has no right to.
"I swear we'll be together, I swear it, Jennie. Nothing can come between us."
"You d—don't kn—know that," I sob into her shoulder. "You can't make that promise."
"I can and I will. Nothing will tear us apart, let me spell it so."
I lean back. "You can do that?"
She nods. "There are darker magics, blood magic used differently not just for healing. There are many things we can do, many that we shouldn't. But our love is fated, I feel it in my bones."
"What would we need to do?"
"I can consult my grimoires. I suspect share blood, swear oaths and a small spell. But I'll need to read up to be certain. It's not something I can do hurriedly. A mistake when working with that magic would cost us dearly."
I nod, the sobs dissipating.
"In that case," I say, grinning and nudging her down toward the ground, "I owe you something rather delicious."
"But your face..." she says, touching my lips.
"My face will feel considerably better between your legs. Besides, your rotten herbs have all but fallen off my cheeks now and I am feeling decidedly better. Now, quit protesting."
I push her the rest of the way to the carpet and tug at her trousers until she's bared before me.
I smile, looking at her thighs and belly and all the inches of skin I want to lick and kiss. "You are my favourite thing, Jisoo Jacume."
"And you are mine, Jennie St Laure."
And so I spent the night between her legs making her moan my name just as loud as I moaned hers, and when the fire had burnt itself to embers and ash, she took me by the hand and led me to bed where she slept the rest of the night away.
I, though, couldn't rest.
Something in the air made sleep fitful, and eventually, I gave up, choosing instead to nestle against her hair and drift to the rhythmic lull of her heavy breathing. Knowing that everything would be fine as long as we stayed together.