I close my eyes as the sensation of plummeting begins to churn my stomach, my chest rising and falling in quick succession. I start to feel heavier, the weightlessness of the Middle fading away with each passing second.
Selene shouts, her voice echoing as if coming up from a deep well, “Rhea, promise me something before you go.”
“What is it?” My body shakes as I fall and fall. Though I know I’m close to waking, my ears strain through my descent back to Olymazi to hear her final plea.
“Promise me that you will always remember that you areneveralone.”
It is hardly a whisper in the tumultuous wind as I vow, “I promise.”
And then, there is only darkness.
I wake to find myself half thrown over Nox’s body, one knee digging into his side and my hair splayed over the both of us. Carefully untangling myself from him, I reach for my journal, and I begin writing, feeling called to preserve the memory ofthis visit to the Middle. When I’ve poured my words out onto its cream-colored pages, I set the journal down and turn back towards Nox. It is not like him to wake up after me, but after last night, I am happy that he is resting.
My eyes trace over him like one would delineate a rare flower, each defining line and soft contour of his body as fascinating the hundredth time I’ve seen it as it was the very first. Maybe even more so because I’ve thoroughly explored him now and know the secrets his skin keeps. Like the short scar in a smooth line on his right hip. Or the small mole that dots his left shoulder. When I close my eyes, I see a map of Nox that only I understand.
“Am Ithatdevastatingly handsome that you must stare at me as I sleep?”
My cheeks lift as I tickle his chest. “When did you wake up?”
He stretches his arms overhead before turning on his side to face me, his hair a messy collection of waves that fan out in all directions. “While you were writing. I didn’t want to disturb you.”
My magic is a warm hum along my bones. I can feel the edges of Nox’s magic too, the pulsing of his signature tugging on my own. His fingers reach out to trace over my face, tucking my hair behind my ear as he does.
“Sometimes, it hurts to look at you.” He says it like a secret, one pulled from the very middle of his heart and laid bare and bloody before me. “You’re here, and you’remine, and there are moments when I realize that and can’t draw in a full breath.”
“Nox,” I whisper, covering his hand still lingering on my face with my own. He lifts onto one elbow, kissing my shoulder and then my collarbone, before he climbs over me and the warmth of his body blankets my own.
“Let’s spend all day in bed together,” he all but begs, his lips skimming over my chest.
My fingers rustle through his hair, nerve endings burning brightly as heat coils low and tight in my stomach. “What about the council? We can’t just avoid them for a day. And your duties…”
His warm mouth moves lower, making my thighs strain to rub together. Dark gray eyes glowing with starlight find mine as he lifts his head from my body. “I’m a prince, am I not? Surely the title comes withsomeagency over how I spend my time.”
“Does it?”
He smiles, trailing more kisses down my skin until his hands are gripping onto my thighs and spreading them wide. “If I want to spend all day between your perfect thighs, then I will.”
My brow arches as I curl my fingers into the sheets. “Could you last all day?”
A low noise rumbles over me, my skin pebbling as he speaks his answer over my core. “Let’s find out.”
After my shower, I sit cross-legged on Nox’s bed and thumb through the pages of the book Elora told me to read. While at first it seemed like something much more suited to Nox’s taste, I had admitted to Elora that I was enjoying the stories of what life was like before the war. I’m reading a passage that speaks of Queen Lucia when Nox settles in next to me with a book he plucked from the shelf adjacent to the bed.
“Why was there no queen of Void Magic crowned after the war?” I ask, drawing his curious gaze. Lifting up Elora’s recommended read, Nox glances at the title before understanding settles on his face.
“It’s not known. She had small children, but none of them had the signature blue flame during their Flame Ceremonies when they came of age after her death. My ancestors took overknowing that, the moment a blue flame was shown, they would need to relinquish the throne, but the gods seem to be taking their time choosing the next queen.”
“Is it the gods that choose?”
He tilts his head, a small stream of sunlight illuminating his cheek as he does. “They do. The queens of Void Magic come from a single family line, one that may date back to the formation of Olymazi itself. Their rule is announced if their blood sparks a blue flame at their Flame Ceremony.”
“Would you wantmeto do a Flame Ceremony?”
If Nox is surprised by my question, he doesn’t show it. “Only if you want to.”
I tell him of my latest visit to the Middle and what Selene thinks I should do. In true Nox fashion, he leaves the choice up to me, but there is a certain excitement that dances in his gaze as we talk. Eventually, our conversation moves on to practicing with my magic.
Facing me on the bed now, he hands me an egg-shaped black stone, the surface of it nearly shiny enough to show my reflection.Dragon stone. Holding it flat in one hand, I call the white light to my fingertips.
