“I’m not sure.” Stone opened the map and laid it on the ground. “This, though”— he tapped the map’s center—“is proving extremely valuable. I still can’t believe we have a real map of Ravki.” His voice lit up.
Aesira’s eyes drifted from the map to Stone and she found herself studying him instead. The curve of his mouth, the way he ran his finger softly against the worn parchment. Then, as he traced a long line down the map’s center, she tore her eyes away. The way the veins in his hands worked as he moved them and the softness in which he traced the paper made her cheeks flush.
“Why wouldn’t Desmond take it?” she asked, forcing herself to focus on anything but Stone.
“Take what?” Stone didn’t look up.
“The map.” She stood and peered over his shoulder, getting a closer look. “It’s authentic, right?” she asked.
Stone nodded, running a hand across his jaw.
“And it gives us a direct path to one of the most fabled cities in the world. If Ravki is where Desmond was headed, why wouldn’t he take the map with him?” Adrenaline and exhaustion warred with each other as more and more questions rose in her mind.
Stone frowned and tucked his pencil behind his ear. “Maybe he didn’t know it was authentic. Maybe he was just adding it to his collection.”
“Desmond went so far as to write about Ravki in not one, but several journals,” she said. “He drew pictures of Lunaris moths, of dragons. Things no one alive should have any reference to. It doesn’t make sense. If he thought that this map would lead him to Ravki, he wouldn’t have left it behind.”
Stone sat silent, his eyes still roaming the map, his brows pinched together. “I can’t believe I haven’t thought of that before.”
Pride surged through Aesira’s chest. That she had thought of something Stone hadn’t. “Well, maybe you’re not as smart as you think.”
He laughed. “Definitely not.” Their eyes met and warmth kissed Aesira’s cheeks. The last few rays of sunlight fought through the trees, just enough to highlight Stone’s eyes. The scar running down his cheek. The shape of his lips. “Birdie and Bee will be gone for a while,” he said.
“You don’t know that.”
“I’m willing to bet after last night, they’re more than ready for some time alone.” He shrugged. “You know, after nearly dying and all.”
Aesira didn’t want to think about that.
About the Dreamweavers and how close they came–how close Stone came–to not waking up. She wondered what he dreamt about. What kept him pulled under so long. If it was anything as terrifying as what they showed her.
“Are you hungry?” It seemed like a safe question, a way to steer the conversation away from her thoughts of Stone and his lips andhis implications. Until those lips tilted up and his head cocked to the side.
“Starving, actually.”
Her stomach erupted, like a million Lunaris moths fluttering inside of her, trying to get out. She didn’t know why she’d let him kiss her last night. Didn’t know why she kissed him back. But as he scooted closer, as he attempted to tuck her untamable hair behind her ear, she found it more and more difficult to care. Because it felt good to be looked at and it felt good to be wanted and the chances of them even making it back to Vargah seemed less and less likely so what did it matter?
“Commander–” Stone started but she didn’t let him finish, running her fingers through his hair and pulling him in until his mouth was close enough to hers that she could almost taste him.
“Yes?” Her lips brushed his with her question, brief enough to send a wave of anticipation through her.
“What happened to forgetting the night at the Phoenix?”
She pulled away enough to see his face. “Maybe something has changed.” She nipped at Stone’s bottom lip, coaxing a groan from him while his hands found their way to her waist. “Or maybe we have cheated death twice and I need a distraction.”
His lips brushed against her jaw. “I could do that,” he said against the soft skin of her neck. “If that’s what you wanted.” His hands ran up her spine, then back down again.
There was no future for Aesira Zeliath and Stone Odega and before, she was fine with that. But now, they were friends, weren’t they? She hadn’t considered what their friendship might look like if they took things further. Truthfully she hadn’t considered their friendship past this journey to Ravki.
Perhaps she should have thought about it before kissing him again, but she’d never had a partner who lasted more than a few lust-filled nights. Never bothered to know someone on a level as deep as she now knew Stone. Her thoughts must have played across her face because Stone bumped her arm with his shoulder.
“What did I say? Did I mess this up?”
Aesira stood and grabbed his arm, pulling him up. “No. I’m just not good at this even though I try to be.” She let out a nervous laugh in an attempt to cover up all the things she didn’t want to say outloud.
My job would never allow me to be with you, she wanted to say.My family would never allow it.
I would never allow it.
