Saliva ran in strings from the corners of her stretched lips, pooling on the mattress beneath her. Her eyes were half-rolled, her body undulating with each push, her tail swinging in sluggish, overwhelmed arcs.
Tianlong gripped her tail gently, steadying her.
"That's a good girl," he murmured, and kept going.
GLUCK—GLUCK—GLUCK—
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
Water Affinity Response: 14%... 18%
Yang Qi Absorption Increasing. Partner's Spiritual Channels Opening.
Estimated Breakthrough: Pending.
The water on the floor was now moving in slow spirals. Without current, without wind, it orbited the bed in a lazy, unconscious rotation.
Sai couldn't see it. Her eyes were rolled.
He pulled free from her throat.
SCHLORP.
A thick rope of saliva connected his tip to her swollen, wrecked lips for a moment before it broke. Sai gasped—a raw, animal sound—her gills flaring to full extension, her whole body shuddering as oxygen flooded back in.
"Hahh—hahh—'hahh'—"
