“You dance like an offering for hungry wolves, little lamb,” somebody growled behind him. Hands touched his hips, tracing the hip bones with thumbs in a challenge to bat them away. A wolf snout appeared in Kuo’s field of vision. Kuo hummed, shushing the spark and pushing it back when it tried to reach out to test the intruder.

Kuo didn’t want to know, didn’t want to think, and evaluate if his spark liked the person or not. Maybe, for once, it could be about how well bodies fit against each other and not about magic.

The Wolf was silent and took his own silence as approval. He just tugged the ram closer, until their backs were moulded to each other and both synced in their moves, dancing madly slow to the fast beat of drums.

It’s the Lenten feast. Let go. Apologise later.

***

He’d go to hell for it for sure if he were found out. And he didn’t want to justify his actions to his Page, Aro or anyone else. Not now, not for this inexplicable attraction.

Embry wanted.

After the angry ram had fled, he knew the person had to live inside the monastery, so chances were high he’d see him again. If not today, another day. They had to meet here and there. The area was big, but it wasn’t a city, and nobody could hide forever. Bumping into each other would be unavoidable. He had hoped he could find him again that evening if he was sneaky enough to mask not only his face but also his magic.

So, he had swapped masks and tunic with Mikolaj, who was empathetic enough not to ask too many questions. Miko knew about the constant quarrel with Berinn, the strained relationship, because Embry needed to keep their interaction professional, which Berinn didn’t want to accept. So they rarely talked, the Page being furious and Embry suffering through endless hours of complaints and ranting, fruitless flirting before going back to ranting. Embry was exhausted. He regretted the sex profoundly.

Seeing the ram again, dancing with slow, sensual and almost syrupy moves, he had weaved his way carefully through the crowd like a wolf hunting the prey. He kept his magic shielded, entrapped inside where it scratched and growled, asking to reach out for the spark again like a beast in rut. His skin prickled. But embracing the Spark was worth it.

“You dance like an offering for hungry wolves, little lamb,” he growled.

He felt the approving hum reverberating through the lithe body moulded to his front. They barely moved to the beat of the drums anymore, just savouring the feeling of closeness.

Embry was a bit miffed that the ram didn’t seem to care who he danced with, but thinking about it just awakened ugly emotions and images of how different the night could have ended for the Spark if he hadn’t caught and claimed him again. The Mage encircled the hips of the Spark possessively, sneaking thumbs under the hem of the loose tunic to trace the shape of the bones straining under the skin with every move.

They danced for hours, Embry always making sure they stayed close to the storehouse, away from the big fires that could give away his features. Not that the Spark seemed to care. He was pliant and Embry loved it. As much as his own mask allowed, he nuzzled into the ram. His tongue traced skin covered with a light sheen of clean sweat, and he couldn’t resist dragging his teeth down the younger man’s neck, nibbling and sucking.

“No marks!“ the Spark gasped. “If you so much as try to bite me or leave a hickey, I will zap you into the next county,” he growled and turned around.

Embry couldn’t use sight without giving his identity away, and in the dim light so far from the fires, he couldn’t see if the young man was actually upset or just giving him a warning.

He tentatively stroked the little bit of cheek left unmasked and traced the lips of the Spark. “Sorry,” he grumbled, not sorry at all. Of course, the Mage had wanted to mark him all over so he’d be easy to spot the next day. There was no denying it.

He tugged him closer again, grinding shamelessly against the smaller man and was pleased to hear a soft hiss.

The ram wrapped his arms around his neck, fingers tangled in the fur of the mask extension covering neck and shoulder blades. Embry could hear the faint sound of quickened breathing, the young man’s mask front plastered to his chest, unmarked neck exposed. He realised the Spark was looking down, focused on the slow grind they started to the beat of the music.

Embry felt heat pooling in his groin, his pulse quickening fast.

“If you don’t want me to come in my pants this second, you need to stop,” he confessed in a low murmur, raspy and breathless. His head swam and vision blurred, his grip on the bound magic already slipping.

The ram’s head shot up, so close that he could see the amber eyes staring at him, pupils dilated and cheeks heavily stained by a deep flush.

Before he could lean forward to kiss the Spark stupid, somebody bumped into him. A sideways glance revealed Berinn angrily shoving people aside, probably looking for him. With the magic shielded and his owl mask replaced, Embry was practically invisible to the Page, and he was glad to have this moment of peace. Especially given the circumstances of him being extremely hard and plastered to another Spark he badly wanted to have under him.

Or over.

As long as they were naked, he’d be okay with every position.

The ram pressed closer, away from the furious Page, and pushed Embry against the wall.

”Do you have any business with the cat?” he whispered.

”No,” the ram huffed. “Just not keen on trouble.”

They watched Berinn disappear into the crowd, moving to the northern buildings and wall again. Far away from them. Embry exhaled in relief. They stood in silence for a bit, the ram’s eyes darting around nervously, as if again realising where he was and what he was doing. Embry just watched the movement, noticing as the Spark got anxious again and looked ready to bolt.

The Mage didn’t want to let go yet. One arm snaking around his waist, the other lazily travelling down to cup his ass, Embry pressed him closer, pleased to feel the desire wasn’t completely gone. “Tell me what you want. You can have everything.”

The Spark laughed and relaxed a bit, lowering their shoulders and relaxing their defensive stance. “You shouldn’t make such an offer to a stranger. You could end up losing more than you bargained for.”

Embry turned his head a bit to avoid bumping the snout of his mask into the man and leant in close, lips hovering just a fraction away from the Spark’s lips.

”Everything,” he rasped. He closed the gap and kissed him tentatively. The young man whimpered, fingernails digging into the Mage’s biceps, possibly leaving little, angry crescents.

”More,” was all the Spark could whisper before crashing their mouths together.

Embry was surprised by his boldness but, at the same time, it made everything exciting. He imagined their encounter in bed would be passionate, all shyness gone. Heat started to crackle all over his skin as the younger man slipped his tongue into the Mage’s mouth.

A boar lady standing close started cackling.

“Boys, you should take that inside somewhere. Unless you want me to join,” she snickered and they both tried to ignore her.

Embry tried to pry away eager hands slipping under his tunic, fingers grazing the seams of his pants. “We should…” He gasped when the Spark’s fingers slid into his pants and showed no intention of stopping.

This was too fast, too public.

”Embry,” the Spark moaned into his mouth.

What?

”What?” Embry shoved him off, surprised and panicked.

The ram looked confused, panting heavily before realising what he had said. An ugly shade of red crept down his face and neck. ”Fuck. I am… sorry. I don’t know why I said that. I—”

And thus, Embry realised it had been an accident. The best. The Spark still had no idea who he was. He let his magic ripple through him, reaching out, licking at the crackling spark flitting all over the confused ram’s body. Eyes grew wide as realisation hit him.

“You.”

”Me.”

”Gods, please don’t tell me you’re related. That would be awkward, even for me,” the boar commented, still watching the scene with great interest.

Embry’s head whipped around. ”Don’t you have anything else to do?” he grouched.

The boar hummed, took a sip of her beer and shook her head, little bells attached to the ears jiggling. ”No. And he just took off.”

Embry turned around to the blank space before him, Spark nowhere to be found.

”Fuck!” He cursed himself for getting sidetracked and searched frantically for which direction to go.

The boar pointed towards the oak. “He went that way.”

Embry thanked her before hurriedly shoving people aside. He knew he knocked over some beers and was stumbling through the crowd like a person possessed by the ghouls, but he couldn’t lose the young man a second time.

But the Spark had just vanished. Embry wheezed and tugged down the wolf mask, sweat already running down his back, hair sticking to his scalp, wet and itchy. “This can’t be true. I had him.”

He couldn’t believe this was happening.

Not now.

Not after… all this.

He finally gave up searching when the first light started to tint the sky and the crowd had dwindled to a handful.

***

“Go to Eva and ask her for the elderberry linen.”

“The one used by the Pages?” Kuo inquired.

Aro turned around, putting down his reading glasses and massaging his temples. “Yes, that one. For one full set. She will know how much we need.”

“Whose desk should I leave it on?”

It was late, and the Pages had already left the sewing rooms. The silence was calming. Kuo had spent the last week inside, hadn’t dared go out, and helped Eva as much as possible. The Ouga had just snickered and pushed all her work into his hands before climbing up onto the high storage cabinets to nap. She was lazy, but at least she left him alone.

Aro watched him with a calculating gaze, dark shadows under his eyes making him look older than he was. He looked so tired. “The fabric will go to your desk, Kuo.”

The Spark stared at him, gaping. ”But I am not a Page.”

The old headmaster stood up and clapped his shoulder. “Start working on your uniform. I have a feeling we’ll need it soon.” He took his notebook and his reading glasses and smiled. ”Go.”

Kuo nodded, still surprised but also worried. Worried he wouldn’t like the choice Aro made, worried the Mage wouldn’t like him… worried about a lot of things.

Two pages had recently decided to marry, surprising not only their Mages but everyone else by breaking their contracts for the sake of the family they intended to take care of. The monastery had several Sparks who’d be a good fit for replacements though.

Kuo was deep in thought when he closed the door to the entrance hall of the sewing rooms behind him and passed the small square between the page quarters and the storage house.

He almost started to panic when a group of Mages came down from the training area in the backyard but remembered that he had stitched a row of masking spells into his shirt.

Even Aik ignored him when he passed him by.

He was like thin air.

Embry, all roughed up and dirty, laughing carefree, was still a beautiful sight and Kuo remembered vividly how it had felt to have those hands roaming over his body.

Before frustration and anger could begin to coil in his stomach again, he opened the door to the storage room and slipped in.

***

The Spark didn’t see the grey-haired Mage stopping in his tracks, frowning as he turned around.

“Embry. You forgot something?”

“I think so. But I can’t remember what it was,” the young Mage murmured as he scoured the courtyard.

Aik clapped his shoulder and pushed him. “Come on, you stink. We need to bathe, otherwise Carla won’t let us have dinner.”

Embry scratched his head, magic nervously tangling around thin air, searching but finding nothing.

He thought it could have been the doe, but maybe he had been wrong.