My head tilts. “Are you casting?”
His eyes should not be so bright, not without the maegis. But he shakes his head in silent denial, standing still and letting me examine him, his hands loose and open at his sides.
His nose is slightly crooked. As if once broken, and never fully healed. His lips, the strong lines broken only by the scarthat slashes a jagged line through them, lift in amusement as he notices my focus. “Sol and I had a fight when we were seventeen. He broke my nose, and I broke his.”
“Why?”
His grin spreads. “We had odds on when he would finally claim Matthias as his partner. Matthias won the pot, but the bet was my idea.”
I can’t stop the laugh that bubbles free as I imagine it. “I bet he was furious.”
But Callan doesn’t move. His eyes lower. To my mouth, I realize. The hairs on the back of my neck prickle. “Do I have something on my face?”
The amusement settles into something deeper. Hotter. “I was wondering how I could make you laugh again.”
“You’ve heard it before.”
“No.” He takes a small step toward me. “No, I have not. Not like that. But I would very much like to hear it again.”
I don’t know where to put my hands. Or my eyes. I inch back, feeling the water at my heels. Swallowing, I seek out something to lessen the heat in my body. Yet my response sounds playful. Almost teasing. “Then perhaps you should amuse me.”
His head cocks. Bronze gleams, his lips pursing. “And how would I do that?”
When I lift my shoulder, his eyes drop to the space where my skin is on show beneath his shirt. “I’m hardly an expert.”
Gods.
I’m hot. So hot that I feel as though I am burning. As though we’re standing in the embers of a hearth. Heated, almost dizzy as I watch him.
And he watches me. Callan’s eyes linger on the skin exposed at my neck, and I swallow as he turns back to me. “I have a new game for us.”
Exhilaration makes me bold. “Let’s hope you’re better at this one than the last, since I won.”
He grins. “That dress was a highly unfair advantage. I’ve never been so pleased to lose before.”
My lips clamp down on the laugh that threatens, but his cheeks crease. He points at me, and my teeth sink into my lower lip in the effort to hold in my amusement. “Isawthat.”
I shake my head, swallowing it. “You saw nothing.”
Give me more of this. Whatever this may be, I want more.
Let him chase the darkness away.
Because whenever I am near him, all I seem to feel is light.
Chapter thirty-six
Callan
My heart feels as though it pumps faster with every twitch of her lips that she tries to hide from me.
I want—
No.
Ineedher to laugh again. Need to hear that sound—low, and husky, and real.
I dare another step closer to her. She tips up her chin, as if daring me to come closer still. “Tell me about this new game, then.”
