A blink and Brand was there, staring down with burning intensity, somehow closer than before. It was her turn to note the details. To show him the face she beheld was starting tobecome her own sort of deliverance. Her own anchor within the storm of herself. She leaned in and?—
Snap!
Lunara sucked in a gasp as their connection broke. Brand reached out with a curse and caught her arm as she swayed, the blood rushing through her veins with electric tingles.
“That was… Fuck. Are you alright?”
The cadence of his voice soothed, every low syllable calling out to a new ache blooming within her. The severance had left a wound that time, bereft and bleeding. Longing to have the piece of him she’d held returned to its rightful place.
“I… I’m fine. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean?—”
“Don’t apologize,” he rasped, sinking his hand into her hair gripping her nape. “Not to me. Not for that.”
She let her head fall forward onto his chest, content to do nothing more than breathe him in while she settled.
“Weeping Sisters, did you see that?” Nyri’swhisperwas more of a shout in the silent hall.
“Aye.” Magnus, something like reverence in his tone. “I did.”
Lunara didn’t have it in her to look. To see countless other faces gaping at them. As long as she stayed still, eyes scrunched closed as she basked in the scent of salt and fresh pine, they didn’t exist. Hadn’t witnessed whatever the fuck that was.
A bench screeched across the floor, hissed reprimands following the sound, and the tension broke like a sigh.
“Alright, enough gawping!” Magnus thundered over the growing din of murmurs. “Be gone. Off with you. Aye, Nyri—especially you, you bonny wee shite.”
Lunara had no control of the giggle that bubbled up, made worse when Brand’s own rumbled out of him.
“Thank you,” he said on a heavy exhale. “It… comes out of nowhere, usually, and I’m not sure... I never meant?—”
“You don’t have to explain.” Lunara lifted her head, dragging her thumb over his lips to silence him. “I understand,remember?”
His brows fell, a crease forming between them as he nodded.
It was so easy to get lost in him, time slipping away like sand through her fingertips. Lunara shook herself to break the spell. “This has been thrilling, but Fern needs me. It’s been too long as it is.”
Lunara started to pull back, but Brand only gripped her harder. “I’ll be going with you. It isn’t safe on your own. Not after the watchtower. Please.”
She was helpless to resist him when he used words likeplease,but… “It’ll be harrowing.” Her voice was firm, brooking no argument. “You cannot interfere. There’s a reason I prefer to do it alone, and it’s well-meaning people like you who think they’re helping when they’re not.”
“I won’t hinder you, I swear it. I only wish to ensure you’re not in danger.”
Her ire from earlier reared its head for a moment, and she jabbed a finger into his sternum. “One chance.”
He grabbed hold of her finger and bit the tip, eyes dancing. “Agreed.”
“High-handed, overbearing Demon,” she muttered, her lips curling at the corners.
His grin was devastating. “Reckless, stubborn Sorcerit.” He bent to her ear. “I plan to astonish you. You’ll never want to heal another without me.”
“Is that so?” She raised a brow at him. “Prove it.”
“Oh, I will. But first…” He turned away, one arm extended. “I’d like you to meet my brother.”
Fuck.
“Luna, this is Valandyrian.”
Lunara’s legs nearly buckled for the second time that day, the relief was so stark. Smiling, she lifted her eyes and?—
