Liquid fire was sparked back in her lower stomach as he started trailing kisses over her. There was something about the way he spoke to her, about her, that had her like putty in his hands. Like she was the most powerful woman on the planet. That she alone could conquer every kingdom and that the people should worship her. The only one she wanted worshipping her in this fashion, however, was him. Ravin had a way about him that drew her in like a moth to a flame.

"Problem for them," She whispered, her hands wrapping around his back as she drew him closer to her again. Her breathing already irregular as she looked up at him. "There is only one man I want to know the pleasure of the ride." She felt the heat rise on her cheeks and a small laugh left her. "That sounded... ridiculous." She laughed before she was kissing him again, dragging him to her as she relaxed against the soft sheets under her and kept him closer than before.

Ravin chuckled, a low dark sound that vibrated against Norah’s skin. He heard the hitch in her breath, the heat building his body as Norah pulled him closer. “Well, then,” Ravin nipped at her once again, “As a loyal servant of Nevermere, I am happy to be of service, Madame Ambassador…” Ravin’s kisses tracked lower, parting Norah’s legs and holding them down firmly as a grin spread across his face.

[FADE OUT/FADE IN]

Pleasing Norah was at the top of Ravin’s list of priorities, and as master of the house, he would accomplish that in whatever way he thought fitting. He flopped down next to Norah, pulling her in once again, kissing the top of her head and heaving a sigh. He lay there for a moment, a thought tugging at the corner of his mind in this moment of bliss. He let the joy linger before the pull became too strong to ignore.

“Norah, I have to tell you something.”

Her face was still flushed as he pulled her against him again. Her body trembling as she curled against him and nuzzled her way closer. There would be no sleeping this trip, or at least very little if she spent her nights with him. Which was not a complaint from her. Though her eyes started to flutter more, exhaustion starting to weigh on her eyelids as he held her.

When he spoke again, she shifted so her chin rested on his chest and she looked up at him. A soft hum leaving her to encourage him on. "What is it?" She asked as her fingers gently stroked his chest.

Ravin didn’t know how to say what he needed to. What he and Norah seemed to exist out of time and place; a passion free from all the trappings and restrictions of the outside world. It had been able to stay that way, especially when she was in Lorendale as an untouchable dream. Ravin couldn’t be happier to have her in his arms again, but it did make things more complicated. Much more complicated. Ravin stroked her cheek, smiling just looking at her even though his heart raced.

“I want you more than I’ve wanted anything. And not just some of you: all of you, even the pieces I have yet to discover.” Ravin stroked her cheek, eyes full of stars. “But you and I, Enchantress, we come from very different worlds. Some pieces of ourselves might not fit as neatly as we’d like. But I want to try, Norah. And I think the only way to try is, to be honest with one another.” Ravin took another deep breath, heart hammering, the fear that his next words might ruin everything far more powerful than it was before.

“I’m a complicated creature, Norah. I’m sure you’ve loved other men, just as they’ve loved you. And though none have come close to you, I’ve loved other women. As well as…well, as well as other men.” Ravin’s eyes were plaintive. Please, he begged, please don’t go. Please don’t turn away.

She watched him, his smile had made her relax further into him as it reassured her. This was surely a small ask from him. Or a small tell. Maybe she had broken plans for him that night and he had to leave her to take care of things. But what he started with… it was like a being shoved into a cold bath. Something she knew about from her childhood but didn’t dare bother anyone with. His words of reminding her that this, them, didn’t live in the same world.

It wasn’t that she was naive. She knew they did. She was a noblewoman, from a proud family who was well known in Nevermere. Her mother, a renowned curse maker, her father a retired captain with the military. And Ravin? A commoner who had taken over a business from the woman who took him in. A good doer for those less fortunate. A safe space. But a man that she couldn’t walk through the doors of the Prowze estate as her betrothed. It wasn’t Lorendale. Nobles did not raise the rank of commoners if it was a woman noble. No. Had they been in one another’s shoes, he’d raise her to a noble. Instead, she’d be stripped of her title.

Norah felt herself tense as it was laid before her, that something she would’ve wanted, couldn’t be. But as he spoke on wanting to try, on them being together, she couldn’t stop her heart from fluttering at the idea. She wanted him. And when he spoke on love, her reaction was to shake her head. She hadn’t loved anyone before him. Not romantically. Logan, she loved. But it wasn’t this. It was hard to explain, especially since she had warmed the Delaney’s bed quite often in Lorendale. But it just wasn’t what she had with Ravin. And before Logan and Ravin? It had been no one. She definitely felt he was mistaken on the love part. Feared. Infatuated. Sure. But none had loved her. And she had not loved any of them like… like she did him.

But suddenly his words again took a turn. One that had her leaning up and tilting her head. Ravin had loved women before… and men? She blinked hard, her head tilting slightly as she tried to catch the words he had spoken so she could make more sense of them. “Men?” She repeated as a question. “I-I don’t understand what that has to do with us?” She leaned further above him, her hands pressing into the bed as she searched his face. So… so he had loved men before… while it was frowned heavily upon, it wasn’t illegal. She didn’t know how to process it, her noble upbringing telling her it was wrong but this was Ravin. Her Crow. It didn’t matter unless…

Dark eyes flew to him. A sudden guarded expression in her face as she searched for an answer that she wouldn’t find until he spoke it. “Why are you telling me this now?” She whispered. Her heart racing in her chest, having a feeling she already knew the answer.

The look on Norah’s face struck fear in Ravin’s heart. His core survival instincts were screaming at him to retreat. To put Pandora back in the box, to pretend as he’d never said anything at all. But it was too late. Norah was sharp as a tack, one of the many reasons he loved her admired her, and would know there was more to the story even if he didn’t want to tell it. Besides, he owed Norah honesty. That’s why he’d said something in the first place. Because he wanted to make this work.

“Men, yes,” Ravin responded, trying to stay calm, but tensing as if Norah would fly away from him at any moment and he’d be left reaching for her. “I’m telling you because there’s someone in my life that I care about and who cares about me. I do love him, Norah. It's different than - than what I have with you, but I love him all the same.” Ravin swallowed, trying to plow through as much as he could before Norah decided she’d had enough, “I didn’t tell him about you because our story wasn’t mine alone to tell. I didn't know what you'd want when you got back, if you wanted anything at all.” Ravin’s eyes were desperate.

“But you’re here now. It changes things. For him. For me. For us. And I want to figure that out, together.” Ravin would hold onto her, provided she did not pull away. “Norah, please.” He wouldn’t lose her again. He couldn’t.

If Ravin felt like backpedaling, then she definitely felt like bolting. It would be easier to just get up and run in that moment. To leave and let it be just this. A memory. A nice one, but a memory. Nothing that could effect her in the future and would allow her to carry on in her life. Be the Prowze she was expected to be. The one she was finally starting to fill the shoes that had been given to her a long time ago. Yet the way he looked at her, the way his hands held onto her, kept her in place.

While he was doing what he thought was best, all she kept hearing was that she was second. Yet again, Norah Prowze was second. Good, but not the best. Powerful, yet missing the mark. Not enough. 'It's not enough Norah.' She swore she heard her mother's voice ringing in her head. The dark room in her family estate that Norah couldn't walk past unless she was summoned to it. Her brows pulled together. "Why wouldn't you tell him about me? Even.... if I was never to come back?" She started to close up. Instantly to protect herself. Her eyes moving from him to staring at a distant point on the wall. "Are you ashamed of me?"

She realized then, it wasn't the fact that it was a man. She would have reacted the same had it been a women, even though she didn't understand it. She didn't expect him to wait for her. She hadn't waited for him. The difference for her, was she was trying to fill the void he left. And while she had found a temporary bandage, she also had let that bandage go the moment he asked. Because it hadn't been this. Her feelings for Logan couldn't hold a flame to the ones she had for Ravin. She sat up then, her hand with the small scar ached as she curled her fingers into her palm. She suddenly felt too vulnerable in the bed with him, her nudity suddenly made her feel extremely cold. Too exposed. As if he'd see the weak parts of her that she kept covered so well all her life. "I don't want to keep you from being with him... if that's what you want." Her voice was almost flat, trying to rein in her feelings. She couldn't, her words wavering slightly. "I can be a memory, it's..." she wanted to say 'fine' or 'okay'. But she didn't mean it. "I can be a memory."

Because surely that's what he wanted wasn't it? Good, but not enough. The man... he'd fit something more than she couldn't. And she'd accept it. She was, after all, used to it. Dark eyes started scanning the room, as if she was trying to pin point her clothing and what the fastest route would be to collect them. Her arm wrapping her chest to suddenly hide herself.

“Because I live in this world, Norah,” Ravin said, starting to fill with fire, the kind of ferocity that only Norah was able to conjure in him, “I know what it would be for you to be seen with someone like me. He knows who you are, Norah. And while I trust him I wasn’t about to gamble with your life - both what you’re granted by your birth and that which you’ve worked for. What you deserve.”

When Norah sat up, Ravin started to grow desperate. He could feel the cracks starting to form in his heart, the pace of his breath quicken, the need to hold on to her filling him with urgency and fear. He reached for her, holding her by the arm, eyes blazing, “You don’t understand. It’s not just that I want you, I need you. I thought I knew what my life was when it was with him, but with you. Now. Here. Norah, I would burn the world to the ground if you asked me to. I’d throw myself into the sea if it's what you wanted. I’d walk until my feet were nothing but bone if it’d bring me closer to you. And I’m terrified - because I love him, but I can’t live without you. You have captured my soul and without you I'm nothing but a ghost.” Ravin looked almost mad, “Don’t make me beg. Because I will.”

A moment of fury built in her until it overflowed as he told her about what her life was and what she deserved. “You don’t know! I know what my life is!” She shouted. Something she couldn’t remember doing at anyone in a very long time. “You’re a lady Norah. Stand up straight. Memorize the dances. Don’t show weakness, be better Norah!” She didn’t calm her voice. A voice unlike her own as she mimicked her mother. “More Norah! It isn’t enough!” Tears burned her eyes but she wiped them furiously and refused to let them fall.

“My siblings all hate me because they think I am some suck up to our mother. When in reality I saved them from her ways, when I became the focus because I showed strength in her strong field I was kept away from them. I wasted away some days in that room, and if it wasn’t good enough, which it never was, I was locked inside. Even when I hid from her, she’d find me. ‘Good, but not good enough. Again. Again. Again!’” Her hand smacked against the bed with a thump.

Something cracked within her and as she realized her words she fled. Ripping her arm from his hold as she stumbled onto the floor and looked around. Snatching the skirting of hers from the floor. “I have to go,” she whispered suddenly. She needed to run. This wasn’t her. She didn’t let this out. Never had she before. There was so much more to her mothers workings but she couldn’t. She wouldn’t. “This was a mistake.” No it wasn’t. Her words were heavy on her tongue and her heart was crashing down to her stomach.

Her vision was blurred as she tried to find another article of clothing. “I-“ her words choked out. Her dark eyes flying back to him, wide and desperate. Shaking as she stood before him, desperately clinging onto the skirting she pulled to her chest. She didn’t want to go. “I don’t know what to do Ravin.” It was then that the tears fell from her eyes finally.

Even in her anger Norah was magnificent. He let her rage, her pain and tears reflected in his own eyes. Ravin released his hold when he pulled away, not for a second trying to control the woman he adored. Let her be angry, she’d earned the right. It wasn’t to him to stifle her or try to tame her. Only to soak in her pain as if that would somehow lessen it.

“No-” He said reflexively, a soft plea as she started to gather her things. “It wasn’t a mistake. Norah, please,” He slid off the bed, going to her and sinking to his knees, clinging to the skirt in her hands “Please. Stay.” Ravin had told her he’d beg, and he would.

She had only enough time to pull her shirt on and snag her skirting and cloak by the time he was before her, on his knees. Begging. Something about it made her feel powerful, and yet it was only there for a second as she saw the heart break in his eyes. No. This was what it had to be, surely. Save them both. She gave her skirt a heartbreaking strong pull, enough to break his hold of it, before she pulled it over her head and into place around her middle.

She didn’t bother with the over dress. Instead she threw the cloak around her shoulders and bolted for the door. “I am sorry,” she breathed her apology as she paused at the open door. “This is for the both of us.” She ran then. Through the dim hallway and bursting into the main room of the Midnight House. Bumping into the back of someone as she burst from the curtain. A quick apology fell her as she pulled the cloak over her head and slipped between the people.

Apollo seemed to catch her, near the door. “Norah? Are you okay?” But she twisted her shoulders just enough to miss his hand that reached for her. “Goodbye Apollo,” her voice was filled with emotion as she ducked into the alley and raced her way home. Away from everything. Her everything. With a scolding Deimos at her side.