The Stepsister Who Followed Me Through the Shrine Gate novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: A Different Book

The Saint's House was very quiet after the Great Hall.

Hinata sat cross-legged on the bed in her white under-robe with a box across her knees.

It was a flat wooden box tied with leather cord, and she had not opened it.

Mai stood by the window with her arms folded.

"Odile says the Gate can only be answered," Mai said. "She won't say with what."

"She doesn't know with what."

"Then what do we do?"

"Leon's paper trick is the only door we have," Hinata said.

"We can't reach our world to use it."

"No."

Hinata looked up, and her brown eyes were very steady.

"But the Temple is here, and the Temple keeps a book."

"So I'll walk into the Temple tonight and ask for the page myself."

Mai's throat went tight.

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying I don't want our names in my father's book any more."

"Not as step anything."

"I want a new book, with the two of us in it, and no parents on the page."

She drew a breath.

"I want to write us down as wives, Mai."

The lamp hissed.

Mai had her answer ready and could not get it past her teeth.

She had been a daughter and a student and a pharmacist and a fixer.

Nobody had ever asked her to be anything she had chosen.

"Hinata," she said at last, hoarsely. "Ask me again after."

"After what?"

Hinata untied the cord and lifted the lid.

Inside, on a bed of grey cloth, lay a harness of soft black leather.

A smooth polished shaft of pale horn curved out from the front.

Mai stared at it.

"The leather maker on Tanner's Row," Hinata said.

"I ordered it three days ago, before the letter. I was going to ask you on a good day."

Her ears were pink and her chin was up.

"I'm twenty-two and I know what I want. I want you to wear it, and I want you to use it on me."

"I have never..."

"I know. Neither have I. So we're even."

Mai's mouth was dry.

She crossed the room slowly, and took the harness out of the box, and the leather was warm from the lamp.

"Show me how it goes," she said.

Hinata laughed, low and shaky, and slid off the bed.

She undressed Mai herself, one button at a time.

The blouse went, and then the skirt, and then the plain white underwear.

Mai stood naked and tall in the lamplight with her glasses still on.

Hinata knelt and buckled the harness around her hips.

She drew the straps snug at the top of Mai's thighs, and checked each one with a small careful tug.

The shaft stood out from Mai's body, pale and heavy and absurd.

Mai felt the base of it press against her clit with every breath she took.

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