Flight and Fantasy (3 page)

She held perfectly still as he rocked against her, sliding in tiny increments into her depths. When he reached her hymen, he stopped and looked down at her in surprise. “Annanya?”

She stroked the base of his wings hard while wrapping her thighs around him and his hips jerked forward, breaking through.

She winced and fought the tears of pain that rippled through her. Amidst the pain, she felt a defiance. She had chosen the man of her first time and he was beautiful, fun and charming. When she left the exposition, she would have this memory to remind her of being desired for once in her life.

Denaric wasn’t moving inside her, but he was fighting for breath. He retreated cautiously and thrust back into her with the same care. Sweat was slicking his torso, which brushed against her breasts as he rocked into her and withdrew in a slow rhythm.

Pain took a back seat to pleasure as he trailed kisses down her jaw line to her neck and over to the other side. When he started to move inside her in earnest, he pulled back and met her stunned gaze with his own.

He reached between them and rubbed at her clit, building her rise to climax in under a minute. She opened her mouth to shriek, but he claimed her mouth with his own and took the sound into his body.

His groan was given back to her the same way and he slumped over her, his wings covering them both. He lay there for a few minutes and then rose to dampen a cloth in water. He washed his cock and then returned to her with a fresh cloth and removed the blood from her thighs.

He tossed the cloth to the side of the bed and rejoined her, cuddling her against him spoon fashion. “You should have told me.”

She closed her eyes and then muttered, “You figured it out.”

“I could have made it easier for you.”

“It was wonderful. I am sorry to have importuned you. I will go.” She tried to move out of his embrace, but he held her still.

“You are going nowhere. I have you and I intend to keep you.” He nuzzled her neck and trailed light kisses across her skin.

“I am not yours to keep, Your Highness.” She settled more firmly into his embrace, the silky softness of his wings a lovely blanket.

As she drifted off, she thought she heard, “We will see about that.”

“Your Highness, there is a message for your companion and you are needed on the platform. The Orion Rift delegation has arrived.”

Annanya bolted upright, but Denaric’s wing stayed between her and the guard in the doorway.

He was holding a folded parcel that seemed to be her coveralls. “What is the message?”

“They have moved up your category because of the incoming storm. You have half an hour to make it to the display area.” The guard nodded and placed the coveralls on a chair near the doorway.

The instant he disappeared, she turned to Denaric and gave him a quick kiss. “I have to go.”

He laughed and ruffled her hair. “Take your mask off first. I will see you later. Have a flawless exhibition.”

Blushing, she removed her mask and splashed water on her face. The coveralls went on quickly and she found her security tag in the pocket. She may be barefoot, but she was set for her day.

She turned to wave goodbye to Denaric and he was standing and stretching. The perfect image to leave her with. She muttered a quick goodbye and ran for the storage area, flashing her card to the guard on duty and making her way to her storage section. The knots were intact and she sighed in relief that her creation had not been tampered with.

With no thought to her potential audience, she stripped off her coveralls and pulled on her flight suit. The wings were stabilizers, but they added a certain style to the whole creation. Annanya was listening to the wind pick up, but she was confident in her creation and its ability to fly.

With her registration tag on the outside of her suit, she test fired and was relieved when she lifted a few inches off the ground.

She moved toward the exhibition grounds, ignoring the laughter and mockery aimed her way. The suit was white with gold banding, designed to use electromagnetic force to lift her from the ground.

“Annanya Fennor. Final call for Annanya Fennor.” The loud speaker announced it and Anna broke into a run.

She skidded to a halt next to the registrar and handed her entry pass to him.

The mocking look she received was unmistakable, but she took the stage slightly out of breath.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the exhibition, I present to you my flight suit for the flightless. It uses electromagnetic propulsion and the wings are both cosmetic and used as stabilizers.”

The panel of four were looking at her suit with expressions varying from interest to contempt.

“May I demonstrate?”

They nodded.

She pressed the toggles on the generator and lifted from the ground to a gasp from the crowd. She lifted herself fifty feet in the air, did some aerobatic manoeuvres and returned neatly to the stage.

Applause followed and she waited until they subsided before she continued. “The suit has a power supply that will last for two hours. It can be adapted to fit those who have lost the ability to fly or for those born without wings entirely. Thank you for your time.”

More applause followed and the contempt was gone from the one judge who had worn it. He had a contemplative expression now.

“Who assisted you with the design?” One of the judges looked at her with an assessing glance.

“No one. I learned propulsion systems as a child and have been tinkering as long as I have been able to remember. My family is all winged, so I have had ample opportunity to watch and make sketches of wing patterns and aerodynamics.”

“Thank you, Miss Fennor. We appreciate your creation.”

Dismissed, Annanya left the stage and wandered around the exhibition grounds. A few folk came to her and asked about the suit, several took pictures. That made her smile. All of the inner workings were protected from the elements and prying eyes.

The wind jolted her a few times. Striking her wings and sending fliers tumbling above her. She watched them in the sky and then turned her attention to the flying platform where Denaric was meeting with the dignitaries from the Orion Rift. The platform was rocking in time to the blasts but when a  particularly vicious blast struck it, it tilted ominously.

The wind did not die down, but started a horrible rocking that must have petrified the occupants of the platform. Many of the winged jumped off and then were sent ass over teakettle into the sky, eventually gliding to safety. Fabric fluttered loose as those on the platform fought for balance.

Annanya fiddled with her gear and her visor snapped across her eyes, enhancing her vision. The tiny fluttering of fabric was a woman with platinum hair. “Damn it.”

There was no time to waste. She powered up her suit and shot toward the platform. The woman had people trying to pull her back onto the platform, but the wind was not letting up. Her repulsor field was working to keep her straight, the wind simply moved around her.

She moved faster when the woman was dangling by one arm and surged up to catch her as she began her fall.

Annanya grunted as she gripped the woman and she deposited her back on the platform. The guards were looking queasy. “Where is your control panel?”

Only one pointed, but that was enough. She unclipped her wings and sprinted to the control panel. With precise control, she started to lower the platform, keeping it completely level.

“Do you know what you are doing?” Denaric’s voice was behind her.

“More than anyone on this platform. We are going down. Have everyone gather in the centre and each wingless person needs to cling to a winged one.”

He pressed a kiss to her neck and she smiled at the caress as she held the controls in a slow and controlled descent.

Their drop was slow and it took all of her strength to keep the platform dropping evenly. She didn’t have time to check and see if everyone was safe, she simply needed to keep an eye on the dials as they dropped altitude.

It took them three minutes to land, but eventually, they were safe on the grass of the exhibition ground. She powered the platform down to ride out the storm and went to check on everyone.

Her wings were being examined by two men. One had wings, one didn’t. The woman that she had caught was in earnest conversation with the queen.

Annanya approached timidly, she waited until the women stopped speaking before she came forward. “Are you all right?”

The woman turned and met her with a face that was an aged mirror of her own. “Yes, thanks to you. If there is anything I can ever do for you, I would be honoured.”

Annanya removed the visor, hood and shook her hair out. The woman’s face went from grateful to shocked. “Thank you, madam. I…you are the first wingless woman I have ever seen.”

“Drayson! Stop fiddling with those wings and get over here.” There were tears in the woman’s eyes. 

“What is it Tehshia?” He frowned down at his wife before turning his gaze to Annanya.

Anna stared into eyes that were the same deep brown as her own with the bronze rings around the pupils that she thought were hers alone.

“Who are you?”

“Annanya Fennor. Who are you?” Between the woman’s white blonde hair and the male’s eyes, she was feeling a little lightheaded.

Denaric cupped her elbow and made the introductions. “Annanya, this is Queen Tehshia and King Drayson Norfil of the Orion Rift consortium. They are one of our greatest trading partners and the supporters of many of these inventors.”

Queen Tehshia grabbed Anna’s hand. “How old are you?”

She didn’t fight, she could feel an acknowledgment of kinship with these two. “Twenty-five. Papa says I was just a baby when he found me.”

Tears started in both their eyes as they clung to each other. Anna moved to stop them. “Wait. I think I know what you are thinking, but isn’t there some kind of test to confirm this before we all get teary and blubber?”

Tears were pricking her own eyes and Denaric wrapped his arm around her waist.

Tehshia smiled. “So logical. Yes. We will run some tests. Our medical bay on our orbiting ship is quite well-equipped. May I have a hug in case we don’t meet again? We knew she was lost, but never thought to look for her here. How could someone hide a wingless girl among a winged population?”

“Apparently, it worked, but I did get a good family and sisters and parents who love me, even if someone left me in the path of a tractor.”

They flinched in unison.

“Your majesties, I know where to find Miss Fennor after the exhibition. You don’t need to worry about anything. She isn’t going anywhere.” His squeeze was proprietary and Anna looked at him in surprise. After their night together, she thought he would be done with her. The look he gave her communicated many things and she couldn’t figure them out.

King Drayson was frowning at Denaric, the familiar eyes narrowed with a gaze that took in the prince’s hand on her waist as well as the position of his fingers under her breast. If it was Vorlar’s gaze, she would have said it was fatherly.

Bemused, she turned her attention to the comings and goings outside. Concerned crowds were forming around the outer edge of the platform. The nobles who had been trapped on the rocking contraption were making their way to the fairgrounds as the wind up above continued to rock those foolish enough to fly.

The queen grabbed her hand, startling her out of her consideration of the botched flights. “Come and have dinner with us, Annanya. Whether the tests are positive or not, I want to know you better. How did you come up with the idea for that suit?”

The woman eased her away from Denaric and Anna smirked as Drayson kept him from following. Anna explained growing up flightless in a winged family and the problems inherent in the common designs.

Tehshia asked intelligent questions and explained that she had a background in mechanics. It was why she had been chosen to be on the King’s assessment team and how she had met her husband all those years ago.

“You lost your daughter?” It had to be asked.

“I did. We were away at an exhibition of this type and we had left her with her nanny. There was a break in and her caretaker was murdered. My daughter was taken and we never saw her again.” The tones were calm, but the emotion that Tehshia was radiating was incredibly sad.

“And there were no clues as to where she was taken?”

“The conspirators died during a shuttle crash. They left no clues as to what they had done with my daughter.”

“You had no other children?” Anna found herself clinging to the queen’s hand.

“No. We tried, but no other children survived birth.” The woman shrugged. Years of pain were unspoken.

They fell into a soft silence that was broken when Denaric handed her her wings and asked her to meet him for dinner.

“I really would like to, but this is all I have clothing-wise. I was not expecting any events like this.” She shrugged. “It will have to wait until the next exhibition, I suppose.”

His surprise didn’t faze her, but his words did. “I will have something appropriate brought to you. The guard will accompany you and I will see you at seven.”

Tehshia was smiling behind her hand. “I look forward to seeing you again before you leave, Annanya. Make sure that you don’t forget.”

Anna wasn’t pleased, but she bowed as gracefully as she could in her flight suit. She picked up her wings, bowed again to Grayson and Denaric’s mother and left the platform.

She stopped when applause broke out and quickly made her way through the crowd and back to the invention storage facility. Her coveralls were where she had left them and when a throat was cleared behind her, she realized that the prince had made good on the threat to assign her a guard.

It was the same guard who had flown her to the party the night before. “I have been assigned to keep you safe, Princess.”

She shushed him. “There have been no tests. Nothing has been proven, so call me Anna and turn your back. I have to change back into my coveralls. This suit gets too much attention.”

He turned his back and flared his wings, giving her a feathered curtain to change behind.