“What the hell?” Terra couldn’t help being startled. But she might as well take a chance to walk around and stretch, and maybe see if any of these apples seemed extraordinary…or, at least, juicy. She turned off the car and got out, gratefully popping her back and her neck, and then she went around the car to see if Onyx was all right. He’d landed on his feet, but just the same…
“Onyx, you okay?” He had a few flecks of dirt on his face. “You have some—oh!” Onyx had taken off, racing down the path between the trees. Terra didn’t think—she just took off after him. She followed his quick little body down the path for about two minutes, passing tree after tree, all of them covered in red apples and bright-green leaves. What on earth was he chasing?
Then the answer became clear, as he scampered up a tree and pinned a small, electric-blue bird between his paw and a branch. “Let me go, you dimwit!” That was the bird, of course. “Let me go or else!”
“Or else what? You’ll let me eat you? Why don’t you help us out, instead?” Onyx gave the bird a lick, and it shuddered under his tongue.
“You wouldn’t want to do that, kitty. You’d get a very bad stomachache if you ate me.”
“I very much doubt that,” Onyx growled. “Now, is it my lunchtime?”
“No! I’ll help you, I will! Just look for the rotten apple, pick it, and you’ll find what you need.”
“Good birdie.” Onyx released it, and it darted off, tweeting angrily as it disappeared through the trees.
“A rotten apple, huh? Of course the one I’m supposed to pick would be inedible. Of course.” She caught Onyx with a quiet grunt when he jumped from his high perch. Even magic cats didn’t come down from trees easily.
“Look, right up ahead!” he called out.
There it was, at shoulder level—the nastiest-looking apple she had ever seen. A dark, putrid brown, it was crawling with maggots. “Do I really have to pick that one?” But it seemed she did, so she shifted Onyx to her left shoulder, then plucked it from the tree as quickly as she could. Once it was in her hand, she fought the strong urge to throw it away and take off in the opposite direction.
But the apple wasn’t the same as it had been on the tree. It was now a dark, rich red, the most delicious-looking apple she’d seen in her life. “Talk about opposites.” Although she was slightly afraid it would change back mid-chew, she put it to her mouth and took a big bite.
It was every bit as delicious as it had looked—sweet as sugar, and its juices ran straight down her chin. She was only able to enjoy its taste for a moment, though, as next she bit down on something very hard. She yelped, spitting it into her free hand. Amidst the half-chewed bits of apple lay a delicate silver ring. It looked like a wreath of leaves, leaves identical to the ones on the apple trees.
“Put it on.”
Terra jumped, almost dropping the ring in the process. The old woman was standing in front of her again, but this time she wore a long, flowing dress, one that, just like the ring, looked just like all the trees’ leaves. As the woman slowly walked towards her, Terra realized it was made out of those leaves.
“Put it on?” Terra repeated. “What does it do? Will it turn me into an apple?”
“Oh no, something quite a bit better than that. It will give you the ability to save a life. Your own, or…”
“Or someone else’s?” She looked down at the ring again. It seemed to be her size, but just as she was about to put it on her ring finger, she stopped. No, that finger was special—she was saving it. So she put it onto her left middle finger instead, surprised to find that it fit perfectly.
“We’re all rooting for you, Terra. Especially your mother.” The woman smiled kindly, then looked down at her hand, which seemed to suddenly be holding something. “Oh, and this must be for you,” the woman said. “Catch!” She threw whatever it was at Terra, and Terra caught it in the hand that now wore the ring. Looking down, she saw that the woman had thrown a rock at her.
“Hey!” She was about to chew the woman out, but she and Onyx were alone once again. “What an annoying woman, always appearing and disappearing out of nowhere.”
“Yes, and I didn’t even get to eat that delicious-looking bird.”
She placed Onyx on the ground, getting ready to give the rock a closer look. It was flat and oval-shaped, and felt warm against her palm. Turning it over she saw that it said “Doorway” on its other side. “Doorway, huh?”
“Yes, don’t you recognize it?” Onyx asked. “It’s a doorway stone, of course. Just look for a door and it will take you anywhere you want. All you have to do is place it on the ground in front of the door and go through. And I happen to know that someone is expecting you to do just that, right around now. I’ll meet you back at the car.” And before she could ask Onyx who he was talking about, or where she would find a door out in the middle of nowhere, he’d taken off, back toward where she’d left the Jaguar.
Terra turned around, planning to follow him and ask him for more information. But instead she shouted, “Fuck!” and took a few quick steps back, holding her now-aching head. Right in front of her stood the door she had been planning to ask Onyx about—a door she’d just slammed her poor head against.
The door was about a foot taller than her and surprisingly familiar looking. Where had she seen it before?
“Of course!” She was delighted, and the headache faded away to nothing almost instantly. She dropped the stone on the ground in front of the door and opened it, walking straight into Athene’s bedroom and into her arms.
“How on earth did you…” Before Terra could figure out how to end that sentence, though, Athene kissed her squarely on the lips, and for a few moments, she forgot that she had been about to ask her a question. The kiss was such a good one she almost forgot what the word “question” meant, but when they finally came up for air, she regained her faculties a bit, placing a finger on Athene’s lips. “Answers first, sex later.”
“I’m not sure my cunt approves of that order, but fine. I suppose I owe you some answers. And I think I know what you’re going to ask me, too. Here, come sit down with me.” Athene took her hand and led her over to her bed, where they sat down, and Terra listened as Athene began to speak again. “First, the stone is…was mine. Now it’s yours. I placed a beacon spell on it, in hopes it would find its way to you at the right time, which apparently it has. Second, I didn’t tell you because I didn’t know if I could actually make the spell work without Onyx’s help. Third, yes, I’m willing to have sex with you right now.”
Terra chuckled. “My brilliant girlfriend, always thinking ahead. And that third part was kind of obvious, just so you know. But how did you know I would ask?”
“Oh,” Athene said, licking her full lips and leaning forward. “Just a hunch.” She slipped her burgundy velvet dress over her shoulders and let it fall to the floor, which revealed the fact that she was wearing a strap-on with a glowing dildo.
“Why, might I ask, is that dildo glowing, sweetie?” Terra knew she sounded more than a little suspicious, but they’d never used anything during sex that…well…glowed before. She knew it wasn’t a sign of radioactivity, but a sign of magic. Still, though, what on earth did the glowing mean?
“It’s magic, dummy. It’s supposed to send warm, orgasmic tingles throughout your body.”
Terra reached forward tentatively and touched it lightly with a few fingers. As soon as they met its hard, smooth surface, each woman began to moan—in precise unison, too. “That was…nice.” Terra sighed, finding some sort of slight high flittering through her thoughts. A very, very nice high at that. “Mmm, I think I like this dildo. But why did you moan, too?” She turned her curious eyes back up to Athene’s face, eagerly waiting for an answer. And, she thought to herself, she was also eagerly waiting for another pulse of pleasure from the dildo.
“Oh, that’s just because I can feel everything that touches the dildo.” Athene smiled slyly at her, obviously rather proud of herself. “It’s kind of l
ike it’s my own dick. And look, it has sparkles, too!”
“Yes, it sure does.” She grinned. “Damn, Athene, you sure have some good ideas in that lovely head of yours!” Then she made short work of stripping out of her poorly fitting man’s dress shirt and slacks. She hadn’t bothered to put on anything underneath them, and Athene looked like she was very appreciative of that fact. “It’s great to be out of those clothes,” Terra said as she removed her feet from the slacks.
“And it’s great to see you out of them.” Athene growled, low and deep, and then leapt at her, grabbing her and tossing her onto the bed. “Get ready to receive the fucking of your life, my little slut.”
“Oh, I’m more than ready. Why don’t you touch me and see how wet I am?” So incredibly wet, Terra thought to herself as she lay underneath Athene. So incredibly wet, just from touching that amazing, magic dildo.
Athene reached between her legs and gasped as her fingers met Terra’s cunt. Yes, she was obviously realizing that Terra had been telling the truth, because she was amazingly, undeniably wet, her pussy more than ready to be entered. But it seemed Athene wasn’t ready yet to slide her magical dick inside Terra. “Why don’t you jerk me off a little while I play with your cunt?” she suggested.
“But why can’t you…” Terra was desperate to be fucked, but this was worth a try. “I guess I can do that, just for a little while.” She reached forward, and instead of saying anything else, she found she had to moan instead as soon as she’d wrapped her hand around Athene’s dildo. Her cunt told her loud and clear (or wet and tight) that this had been the right decision.
She began to jerk Athene off, and as she did, Athene slipped two of her fingers inside Terra’s dripping cunt. They went in easily, not a single bit of resistance, but Terra was still deliciously tight, her cunt gripping Athene’s fingers as they slid in and out of her. Both of them were panting and crying out, and they had only just started. Terra tried to smile as she thought this, but her lips were too busy quivering and letting moan after moan escape.
She was having fun making all kinds of interesting sounds come out of Athene’s lips, too, just from sliding her fist up and down the magic dildo. Athene made especially wonderful noises when she added pressure, and even better ones came when she concentrated on the dildo’s top, gripping it harder and twisting her fingers around it as she watched Athene make funny, pleasure-filled faces. She knew she was making the same faces, though, as with each movement of her hand, she felt pleasure flowing out of the dildo and into her fingers, traveling down her arm and all the way to her cunt. The pleasure she felt from Athene’s touch seemed to be double, if not triple, the usual amount (which was not a small amount of pleasure to begin with).
Terra continued to jerk Athene off, and she almost came the second Athene’s fingers traveled to her clit, just barely managing to continue moving her hand up and down the dildo. She held it tighter now, as she gripped and massaged its length, her hold on it as tight as her cunt was around the two fingers thrusting in and out of it. This was her first time jerking off a dildo, though, and definitely her first time with these particular magical powers, so she asked, in between gasps and moans, “How am I doing? Is the speed…the tightness of my fist…does it feel good?”
“Fuck, does it ever! Just keep going, please. I think I’m close…very…very close.”
“Me too, Athene, me too.” And then, all she could say was, “Oh, Goddess!” because sooner, much sooner, than she had expected, her cunt began to squeeze around Athene’s fingers, the two fingers that had somehow turned into three, and then, as Athene shoved one last finger inside her, she arched her back and came. Athene just barely managed to put up the magic bubble in time.
And very soon, Terra’s sounds began to mingle with those of Athene. As they did, she noticed—with the only bit of brain that wasn’t devoted to just feeling pleasure—that the usual sensations of coming were echoing throughout her body in a new, so intense way. It was almost too much.
But right before it actually became too much, Terra found her body growing weak, and she collapsed to the bed, panting and more than a little limp-limbed. A few moments later, Athene collapsed at her side.
After only a little while of lying by Athene’s side, though, feeling completely spent, Terra popped up. Suddenly, she was full of energy, feeling like she’d just had a double shot of orgasmic espresso. “I feel so…awake and energized all of the sudden.”
Then Athene shot up, almost as quickly as Terra had. “Me too! That was part of the spell, as I figured that after feeling that much pleasure, we might need a little recharge.”
“Great thinking, honey,” she said with a quick kiss on Athene’s nose, “like always.”
“We both know that neither of us is exactly an idiot.”
“That’s for sure! Especially me, when it comes to choosing who to fall in love with. I picked a real winner in you, you know.” Then Terra remembered something. “The woman in the orchard…she said something about my mom…what was it?” She chewed at her lip for a moment, then raised her hand, pointing her finger at the ceiling. “Aha! It was about my mom. She said something like…‘We’re all rooting for you, especially your mom.’ Yeah, that was it. What the heck do you think she meant, Athene?”
“Your mom? And ‘We’re all’…all of some kind of group…I can’t say I understand, really, but maybe this means you’ll get to see your mom.”
“Don’t say that, don’t. It’s too sad.” Terra had thought she’d seen her a few times, reflected in mirrors and on shiny surfaces, but that was when she was a bit younger, and she had always believed she’d just imagined those sightings. She’d dreamed about her mother a number of times too, also when she was younger, and they had been good dreams, but she’d known it wasn’t really her mom in them…or was that still true?
“I used to dream about her, you know.” She wasn’t looking at Athene when she said this, but instead was staring out the bedroom’s large window, only barely taking in the redwood trees at the edge of the Werths’ land. “It happened on and off for a number of years. From when I was about fourteen to when I was sixteen or so. She was always telling me something…something about how I had more power than I realized, and that I would begin to receive it when I was older, or whatever. But they were all just dreams.”
“Or they were visions.” Terra whipped her head back toward Athene, and Athene sighed. “Or they were nothing. Who knows?” she said, putting up her hands in a sign of defeat. “I’m almost positive you’ll know someday. I may not have the ability to predict the future, but I think Onyx might, just a little, so maybe he can help you with this once you go back through the door to wherever you were before.”
“I don’t think I’m going to ask him. It’s obviously just nonsense.” But when she saw the hurt look on Athene’s face, she sighed and reached toward her, brushing a few hairs from her slightly sweaty face and tucking them back behind her ear. “Now, do you have any clothes I can borrow? I doubt I’ll run into anyone in the orchard, but just in case…”
Chapter Eight
Once Terra was properly dressed again, in a pale-pink T-shirt and women’s jeans, she went back through the door, blowing Athene a kiss as she stepped through it and back into the apple orchard. She started to head back toward her car, the “doorway” rock in one of her jeans’ tiny pockets. She’d have to be extra careful with it, as she really didn’t want to lose her only way to see Athene during this journey. Yes, this was an excellent turn of events, the fact that she could still see Athene—still see her and still have amazing sex with her, too. But of course, she thought with a smile, that was only a faraway second to being in Athene’s arms, fully clothed, and feeling the love in the way Athene held her so, so tight.
Soon, she was back to the Jaguar, and back to Onyx as well, who was lying on his side on the car’s hood, looking like he might slide off it at any moment. He slowly lifted his head as Terra reached him. “Ah, the simple pleasure of a warm car and a war
m sun. A shame you humans can’t enjoy such things as well as us cats.”
“And it’s a shame ‘we humans’ are much bigger than you cats, too,” Terra said, and she grabbed him off the car’s hood and swung him back and forth a few times.
“You win, you bitch! Now put me down.”
“‘Put me down’ what?”
“Please?”
She did as he requested, placing him on the dirt, and then she opened her car door, waiting a moment so he could get in first. Once he had settled into his now-official spot, she got into the car and started it.
“Have fuuun?” he asked in a devilish tone.
“Oh, shut up.” She rubbed his head and then began to turn the car around. “And yes. More than you can imagine.”
“Hey, it’s not my fault there aren’t any other gay cats on the grounds. You don’t have to rub it in.”
“Sorry, kitty. I’ll look into that when we get back. After all, I’ll owe you one. Or two. I already do!”
“Thank you,” Onyx said, and he actually sounded like he meant it. Terra couldn’t imagine going without sex for as long as he must have, but then she grimaced at the thought. She really, really didn’t want to be thinking about a cat’s sex life, or even its lack thereof.
They got back onto the highway and started heading in the same direction as before. Terra was happy that it was a beautiful day where they were, wherever the hell that happened to be. Meeting that woman and getting the ring seemed to be a good sign, though, and so did the fact that she was now happily sated sexually, at least for the time being. Right before she’d left, Athene had told her to come again (hopefully in more than one way!) that day’s night, sometime after nine p.m. She hoped she would have found somewhere to stay by then, because it was starting to seem like this middle-of-nowhere business she was currently experiencing might last for a long, long time.
Under Her Spell Page 5