The Demon General Is My Ex's Little Sister novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Ridge

Sora had ridden up to the ridge an hour ago to demand an answer from the Chancellor.

He had not come back.

The camp was awake and silent, every spear in its rack, every sentry doubled.

Across the valley two thousand torches burned along the northern crest.

Kaede led Rin up the southern ridge by the hand.

At the top lay a flat shelf of stone with a pine tree and a view of the whole dark valley.

Kaede spread her black cloak on the ground.

"Here," she said.

"It's freezing."

"I know."

"Are we really doing this?"

"We might not have another night."

Rin looked at the torches.

Then she looked at Kaede's face.

She put down her satchel, took out her inkwell and the fine brush, and set both on the cloak.

"Take your tunic off," Rin said.

Kaede did.

The cold wind made her skin pebble, and she did not seem to notice.

"Lie on your stomach."

Kaede lay down on the cloak with her cheek on her folded arm.

Her back stretched in front of Rin in the starlight, broad and muscled and scarred, the long ridge of her spine.

Rin knelt astride her hips and dipped the brush.

"This is going to be cold."

"Do it."

The brush touched down at the base of Kaede's neck, and Kaede shivered.

Rin wrote.

Her hand moved slowly, down the center of the back, stroke by stroke.

She wrote the number first.

Four thousand two hundred and twelve.

Then she began the names.

Goro, the miller.

Ume, widow.

Hanae, weaver, two sons.

Tobei, goatherd, and his goat, Biscuit.

Kaede lay absolutely still under her.

Her breathing deepened with every stroke.

By the thirtieth name she was trembling in long, steady waves.

"What are you doing?" Kaede asked, muffled.

"The census."

"The real one?"

"The true count. People, not demons."

Kaede made a sound that was half a laugh, half a sob.

"Keep going."

Rin wrote every name she could remember.

She filled the length of Kaede's back, and then ran out of space and wrote the rest over her shoulder blades.

The last one, at the base of her spine, was Kaede.

Kaede Sorano, Summoned, of the valley.

Rin set the brush down.

Her fingers ached.

"It's wet," she whispered. "Don't move."

She bent over Kaede's back and put her mouth to the first name.

She kissed it.

She licked it, a long warm stripe over the ink, tasting the bitter dark flavor and the salt underneath.

Kaede groaned into her arm.

Rin worked down her spine, one name at a time.

She kissed Goro.

She kissed Ume.

She kissed Hanae, and Tobei, and the goat.

Each kiss was soft and wet and slow, and the ink smudged under her tongue.

When she reached the base of Kaede's spine, she pressed her whole mouth against the last name and sucked, hard.

Kaede's hips jerked off the cloak.

"Rin."

"Mm."

"Rin, I'm going to die."

"No, you're not."

Rin slid down her body.

She kissed the swell of Kaede's ass, and bit it gently, and soothed it with her tongue.

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