His release crashes through her, the mage and the woman subsumed in the fire. She jerks against him, clenches around him, cries out as she flies apart in his arms.

Slowly the tremors subside into shivers, the feedback dialing down to levels where she feels almost settled in her own skin. Dizzy and strung-out, she nuzzles her head against his shoulder, laving soft, open-mouthed kisses on the skin she can reach without shifting.