So it was something of Faustite trying to breach the surface and find its way into Eles. Malory’s head throbbed way too much to think about it, but he still thought about it. Was that what he’d been experiencing? The fire inside the General King? Maybe that first fire?

Sighing and mentally adding a few more days, maybe half a week to his healing time, Malory stroked those blonde locks, sweaty from the walk home and the strain he was still recovering from. “Yes, I suppose once was enough.”

He glanced at Eles’s abdomen, it’s motions still unsteady, and thought about the soft, complete flesh, the very human stomach and organs underneath. He considered its lean tenderness and the way it felt under his hands. Mouth. And in the quiet, peaceful motions of sleep.

“It doesn’t need to happen again.”