The closer I got to Aralia’s office, the worse my nervous jitters got. My imagination was running so vivid and wild with what might happen to me when I got there that I found myself outside of her door without quite knowing how I’d arrived.

I knocked and obeyed the muffled command to enter.

She was sitting on a couch, her back to the enormous window. Faint scent of spicewood, golden-ringed eyes, pleased half-smile. The door clicked shut behind me.

My breath came shallow and quick. I stopped in the center of the room, trembling freely.

“Ellie, thank you for coming so quickly.” Aralia’s smile grew.

I stared. Was she making fun of me? I couldn’t help but hear the double meaning in her words.

“You’re w-welcome,” I stammered.

“I’ll have to give you a treat for that.”

I almost choked. “A…treat?”

She hummed to herself. “I wish you knew how fun this is, playing with you, watching you respond.”

She was definitely making fun of me. And I was already blushing hot, energy racing all through my nerves. I twitched involuntarily as Aralia rose and she laughed, beginning to circle me. As she paced behind me and my trembling shifted into full-on shaking, her voice hardened.

“Strip.”

My sex clenched. With clumsy and unsteady fingers, I shed my clothes until I stood naked and shivering in the middle of the office.

Aralia stopped in front of me and held out her hand expectantly. “Panties.”

Cheeks flaring, I snatched them up, then deposited them in her waiting palm. My wide-eyed gaze met her tawny one, dropped to the floor, then slowly returned, unable to resist the magnetic draw of the taller girl.

Aralia tilted her head to one side slightly, holding my eyes with hers. “Open your mouth.”

I obeyed, my sex pulsing wildly, my breath coming in short little gasps.

Smirking at me, she bunched up my panties and slowly began to shove them past my lips.

I stared at her glassily, shuddering with lust, emitting little whimpers at each thrust from her fingers.

When my mouth was full, and a little fabric still protruded, Aralia patted my cheek brusquely. “There we go. You like that, don’t you?”

I moaned loudly through the gag, eyes glazed over and face burning. My clit was blazing.

She pat-pat-patted even harder and I swayed, my moan trailing upward into a whine.

She grinned at me wolfishly. “So thirsty for it,” she marveled. “It’s amazing how far a little degradation goes with a needy little thing like you. Although that hepatic should have done something by now.” She frowned at me. “Have you even been taking it?”

I blinked and shook my head, trying to convey my chagrin.

Aralia snorted. “Of course she hasn’t taken it. I should have known.” Her fingers trailed up into my hair and I shuddered in anticipation. “Ellie, do you actually like being so keyed up all the time?”

I whined through the wadded up panties stuffed in my mouth as the idea shot a thrill of heat through my center. Did I like it? I certainly liked how much everyone else seemed to like it. Being desired so much by all these attractive, confident girls was like being launched into a heady new dreamworld.

Aralia’s fingers tightened into a fist in my hair and I shook like a leaf in the wind as her face lowered and came close to mine. She stared penetratingly into my soft, heavy-lidded eyes as I whimpered up at her. “Very well. I propose a simple condition. I will mete out a punishment every time you don’t take your medicine.”

She watched my eyes widen, even as my sex clenched.

“If you wish to avoid the punishment, you can take the hepatic. If you prefer the punishment, on the other hand….” That wolfish grin. “How do the terms suit you, Ellie?”

My head nodded pleadingly as I squeezed my slick thighs together. I desperately wanted her to touch me, to do anything at all to me.

“Excellent,” she purred. “Let’s see, shall we?”

Her grip firm in my hair, she drew me over to the couch and sat, pulling my upper half down until I was bent over, face to face with her. Cheeks blazing, I moaned through the gag in my mouth as I watched her eyes feast on the sight of me.

Aralia swore under her breath. “You make me want to just…” She bit her lip. “You’re too far gone to even listen, aren’t you?”

She yanked me down over her lap so that my ass was raised and my face was in the cushion. My hips juddered as her free hand dipped between my legs to tease my sopping sex with a slow brush of fingertips. I whined as the fingers withdrew and tried to follow them backwards.

“Ha,” she taunted. “Not yet, pet. I just couldn’t resist.” Her palm cracked down on my ass, leaving a deliciously stinging heat in its wake. “Let’s get you nice and worked up first, hm?”

I gasped and squealed through the sodden underwear in my mouth as her hand began to rise and fall in a quickening rhythm.

“Shouldn’t—” slap.

“Be—” slap.

“Too—” slap.

“Hard,” she grunted. Slap slap slap slap.

I mewled and bucked frantically on her lap, trying to find friction in the slippery mess I’d made. There was a coil of pure lightning throbbing between my legs. I could feel my sex spasming and clenching and dribbling needily.

“Should it?” Aralia murmured triumphantly, watching me writhe, her hand lifting and squeezing my reddening globes. Her hands plied my sensitive flesh with a gentleness and a firmness that sent sparks right to my clit.

Then Aralia used her grip in my hair to yank my head backwards and I stiffened, stilling.

She leaned down, and I felt the press of her waistcoat on my naked back, the firm curve of her breast. I shuddered as her hot breath bathed my ear. The soaked wad of my underwear was eased from my mouth.

“Ellie, in a few moments I’ll put you on the floor. I want you to hold your hands behind your back for me—no touching yourself for now, I think—and ask me very nicely if you may taste my cunt.”

My moan of mindless lust turned into a squeal as she slid me off her lap, legs first and I slowly crumpled between her feet. Quivering with pent up lust, I knelt upright, swaying slightly and looked up at her through glassy, lidded eyes.

She whistled long and low at the sight of me before her. Then her other hand was on the move, unbottoning her pants and sliding inside. I watched her wrist move at a luxurious pace.

I wet my lips with my tongue and swallowed hard, transfixed. The corner of her mouth lifted.

“Take off my boots,” she whispered silkily, the slow circling of her hand never ceasing.

I complied eagerly, fumbling with the laces. When I’d pulled them off, my gaze was pulled inexorably back to the unfolding drama between her thighs. Her movements quickened slightly.

“Ellie,” she husked.

I looked up into golden slitted eyes, the catlike curve of her lips.

“I’m waiting.”

I swallowed hard. “A-aralia,” I stammered, instinctively liking the feel of her name in my mouth. “Please let me—” I couldn’t look away. “C-can I lick you?”

She arched an eyebrow at me expectantly.

Oh fates. I was basically panting.

“Can I eat your cunt?” I choked, flushing.

She peeled off her pants and kicked them away. “I thought you’d never ask.”

The glistening flower parting between her thighs drew my attention like a lodestone. I extended my neck—

Her voice snapped through my trance. “Hands held behind you.”

I complied thoughtlessly, my mouth watering as much as my sex. Aralia slid forward on the couch and began gathering my hair in a handle of sorts behind my head, the firm little tugs drawing a throaty moan from me.

The smell of her musk wafted over me as she scooted forward again. There was barely a hand’s breadth of empty space separating her steamy pink center from my mouth.

She twisted her grip on my hair, yanking my head to one side. My gasp made her chuckle.

Narrowing my eyes at her, I extended my tongue and strained forward.

She slapped my face. “Brat.”

My eyes rolled and I sagged in her grip, quivering.

“Oh, you like that, hm?”

“Y-yes,” I muttered weakly. How had she known?

“Good, because I like it too and I plan on doing it a lot more.”

“Araliaa,” I pleaded up at her, trembling. Being ordered to hold my hands behind my back as I was slapped and taunted was making my sex pulse wildly.

She tutted.

“Can I please just taste you?”

A laugh of delight. She began to let me inch forward, and I settled for planting little kisses on her inner thighs—the only part of her I could reach. I nibbled and licked, savoring her gasps and trying to beseech her with my wide-eyed gaze.

“Don’t think you can get what you want just by turning on that look,” she warned. “It won’t work.”

But she didn’t hold out much longer before relaxing her arm and letting me bury my eager mouth in her wet folds. She moaned as I delved my tongue deep inside her, trying to coat myself in her flavor. It was so delicate and so fragrant, so soft and so strong. Delicious. I settled into a rhythm of slow, firm licks that elicited a steady stream of pleased murmurs.

Then with a short yank, she used the handle of my hair to direct me to her clit.

“Suck it, yess—ah, good. Use that tongue—there.”

My own sex dripped as I followed her commands, alternately sucking her nub with my tongue, then swirling, then lashing.

Aralia drew a hissing breath. “Oh fates—you little minx, you’re going to make me—”

I groaned into her sex, my hands still clutching each other behind me.

I felt her tensing, then she seized my head and held it, her hips urging and bucking against my face. A strangled little cry slipped out of her, and I sealed my mouth against her lips as her pussy spasmed and began to disgorge silky, honeyed nectar. Her thighs closed around my head, squeezing so hard that all my muscles automatically went slack. Little whimpers poured out of me, mingling with Aralia’s gasps.

Gradually, the crush of her thighs around my head loosened, and she slumped back on the couch, breathing hard and looking at me in something like wonder. I couldn’t help smiling dreamily back.

“Fuck, Ellie. How are you so—” She shook her head, let out a long sigh. “That never happens to me.”

I frowned. “You never come?”

She reached down and pulled me up onto her lap, her firm grip in my hair making my face go slack and my eyelids flutter. I was still trembling with pent up sexual energy.

“No, you hot, dumb slut.”

I flushed and curled into her like a cat.

She wrapped her arms around me from behind and squeezed, hard enough that a breathy squeak slipped out of me.

“It’s just—I never let anyone see me…well, that way. I didn’t even think I could unclench enough in front of anyone, like that. Not anymore.” Her voice turned musing. “But for some reason, with you…”

I squirmed self-consciously on her lap. I felt languid, cuddly, soft. All I wanted was to melt and let her whisper nice things in my ear. It was so hard to remember that I needed to stay watchful. There was nothing special about me, I reminded myself. Aralia just happened to hold so much power over me that she felt safe enough to use me as a fucktoy.

And that thought sent a thrill of shaky heat through my limbs. It was just…why did I have to enjoy it so much!?

Besides, it felt so good to be liked as a girl, to be wanted as a girl. I couldn’t resist the lure of it, the drug-like euphoria…

Aralia buried her nose in my hair, at the nape of my neck, and took a deep inhale. I felt her shoulders drop as she sighed it out. “I love the way you smell, Ellie.”

I couldn’t stop myself from blushing with pleasure.

“Well, right now you smell overpoweringly like I came all over your cute face, which I also relish. But I am looking forward to getting the scent of you all over my pillows and sheets.”

My eyes fluttered. Was she implying that she would—

“If you’d rather not spend the night alone, you can always come find me here after your shifts are over, and I’ll take you to my bed.”

Oh, wow. A small glow lit up in my breast. I struggled around to face her. “Really?”

Aralia favored me with an eye roll. “No, I’m kidding.”

My heart sank. Stupid, stupid. “Oh—”

“Of course I’m serious, fluff-brain! You are so utterly gullible, you know that?”

Relief blossomed inside of me, and I couldn’t help a smile from breaking on my face. “Uhh—”

Aralia grinned. “Don’t answer that question. We wouldn’t want to overheat your adorable little head with a recursive paradox.”

I bit my lip, hot blood rushing to my cheeks.

Her hand slipped between my legs to cup my sex and I gasped, my head lolling back against her shoulder.

“There are better ways to accomplish that, after all.”

I quivered as her fingertips teased playfully. How did she seem to know just how to press all my buttons?

“I confess, I’m not usually this…distractable. But you just bring it out in me. Tell me, Ellie, what is it about you?”

She watched me arch, a whine sounding deep in my throat, as she nudged my clit with her thumb.

“That’s what I thought,” she said with satisfaction.

One of my eyes twitched as she swiped her thumb again. “Not f-fair,” I managed.

She raised an eyebrow. “Says the slut who keeps mysteriously forgetting to take her hepatic.”

“I just h-haven’t—” A slow teasing circle and a stutter of her finger. “—I’ve b-been busy.” I was in danger of losing my words.

“Oh, you’ve been working hard, hmm?” I could hear the languid smirk in her voice. “Surely you must be going wild with boredom down there, when you’re not sleeping or eating. What’s been taking up so much of your time, outside of your shifts?”

I silently blessed the fact that I was already twitching and trembling so much, otherwise my sudden stiffening would have given me away.

I took a deep breath.

Sensing my shift, she withdrew her hand.

I had to conceal Mila and Roxa from Aralia. If I didn’t, she could use me to compromise them. It would be a breathtaking betrayal, after which there would be no chance of Mila tolerating my presence any longer. Just imagining the look on her face when she found out was like a fist to my gut.

Thankfully, there was a truth in easy reach that could cover all the emotional tells of my lie, one that I suspected Aralia would take at face value.

“Maybe I haven’t taken the hepatic yet because…I don’t want to do anything to stop the, um, changes?”

A pause.

I held my breath, not even trying to pretend I wasn’t.

“Yes, of course.” Her voice was gentle. “That makes sense, Ellie.”

I exhaled with real relief.

She let me slip from her lap to sit beside her on the couch.

“I promise that I would never do anything to reverse what you feel you must do with your body, or obstruct it or slow it.”

There was that word again. She promised.

I peeked up into her clear, golden-brown gaze.

“I would never try to take away what you’ve fought so hard to gain. In fact, I am bound by old oaths and ties to kith and kin, those still living andthose long-dead, to protect and defend it.”

What? I blinked in surprise. What did that mean?

She hesitated. “In this place of nightmares that we find ourselves in, however, I feel some responsibility to keep you safe from what I know could befall you.”

My head spun. Place of nightmares? Who was I even talking to right now? My mind struggled to recalibrate my conception of Aralia Cordivar, to square this unexpected, somewhat pained-looking confidante with the brisk, sharp, ruthless Factor of the Special Research Laboratories

“After all, even though you now have access to the means of your own embodiment because of me, it has also caught you up in this mess.”

A soft sigh.

“For what it’s worth, Ellie, I’m truly sorry you are going through this in such stricken isolation, hemmed in by such a repressive worldway. You are doing something so fierce and internal and courageous that it escapes description and I wish you could blossom and run rampant without constraint, and yet…”

She grimaced.

“As things stand here and now,and given our respective positions, I do have a better idea of how to protect your fledging than you,” Aralia said carefully. “And much of the time it will very much resemble control.”

I bit my lip, unsure of what to think of this. I wondered what Mila would think—what the tea girls she knew in Opali would say, in my place. It sounded reasonable, but…

But never mind that, it could all wait, because a burning curiosity was towering inside me.

Aralia had spoken as if she was familiar with transformations like mine—far more familiar than I’d thought. What if she wasn’t merely helping me out of some happenstance kindness or self-interest? What if—

“Aralia,” I said slowly. “Do you know other kuffa?”

Her hesitation made me perk up. “Are there more like me? Here?” I searched her eyes, barely able to contain my excitement at the idea.

She averted her gaze. “Ellie, you know I couldn’t compromise anyone without their permission. Even if there were, that ignorance is a valuable firebreak that protects everyone from inquisitioning. But I will tell you this—you are the first I know of to take Apomasaics and see it for what it really is.” She sighed. “What it really was,” she finished softly.

“But—but you’ve known others!” My eagerness made my voice go high. “Before this!”

Aralia’s eyes went far away. “Yes…”

I stared at her intently. “You—you didn’t discover Apomasaics, did you?”

She glanced back at me, her golden gaze softened by time. In that moment, I couldn’t tell if she was seeing the past or the present or both at once.

“Apomasaics is nothing,” she said absently. “A shell, a cloak around the real thing. It’s old, Ellie. Much older than the Imperiat. What’s important is the halia, and the key inside it.”

“The what?”

Aralia shook herself a little. “The, ah, alterant—and the skill to make it. As well as deeper, more dangerous things.” She sighed. “It’s been years since there was a reliable supply.” Then her mouth twisted. “I want to tell you more—I do, Ellie. But it isn’t safe. I’d be putting you and others in far too much danger.”

“But I want to help!” I reasoned eagerly. “And I know how to make it!”

She frowned at me. “Your job is to keep your head down, understand? I’m not risking you.”

“But—”

She seized me by the hair and yanked my head back. Words fell from my tongue forgotten as I gasped, twitching, my eyelids all aflutter.

“Don’t make me tell you twice, Ellie,” she warned. “On this there will be no debate.”

I whimpered something enough like assent that she released me and I went limp in her arms.

She stroked my head softly. “Besides, you apparently can’t factor an alterant that doesn’t turn you into a dripping little slut if anyone so much as thinks about bullying you. Stop pouting at me like that.”

“I’m not pouting,” I muttered. Was I pouting? I tried to rearrange my features into something that was definitely not a pout.

Aralia looked amused. “Get dressed. We’re going to my chambers. I want to sleep with you tonight.”

“Okay,” I breathed, my heartbeat thrumming with relief, the heady flush of being wanted. I hadn’t been looking forward to the long walk back to my chilly sleeping cell.

Aralia pulled me up and watched me totter around collecting my clothes from the floor. “Needless to say, we mustn’t be seen walking together.”

Right. Of course. I tamped down my sigh of disappointment and straightened, clutching my dress.

Aralia smirked at me. “It’s not far.”

She liked my attachment to her—really liked it. Perhaps I could use that to draw more information out of her about the halia.

I needed to know more. I didn’t care if it wasn’t safe.