Merrick’s eyes linger on my face. And I remember the shadows between us. He smiles again, and his voice is gentle. “I am not worried.”
My breathing stutters. Now, at this moment, I understand what he meant when he told me it would be hard. To know someone’s fate and not share it.
Callan’s hand slips into mine, and then we’re stepping through the door, cool air against my skin. I tip up my face, letting the night air brush over my cheeks.
Anticipation and nerves war for space in my stomach as I wait.
Large, careful hands cup my face. Then Callan’s lips are on mine, and I’m reaching for him as though I have starved for toolong. He presses me back against the doorway, before he pulls back with a gasp. “Gods. I wanted to do that all night.”
“Don’t stop.” I reach for him again.
Chapter forty-two
Callan
We run like children.
Selene’s breathless laugh fills up every empty hollow inside me as I press her back against another doorway, our breaths sending small white puffs into the air before I cover her mouth with my own.
She smiles against my lips. “This is not your house.”
I shake my head, my mouth too busy seeking out the sensitive skin of her throat to answer in full. Her moan is my reward, and I steal it as my mouth lifts back to hers.
I am undone. I will never get enough of this.
But she deserves better than a doorway. I wrap her hand in mine, and this time it’s Selene pulling me forward. I stare at her, at this creature with her eyes of night sky, with wings of darkness and a slow, curling smile that tells me I amfinished. “You are perfect.”
Her glance is almost shy. “You’re talking too much.”
My laugh fills the air. I have never laughed so much as I have in these last days. Not since I was a child, blissfully unaware of the horrors the world could hold.
This tastes like happiness.
I would not have believed it possible to find it amongst so much darkness. My eyes fix on her skin. On the soft glow of moonlight as she stops, waiting for me.
Thoughts threaten to crowd in. There is so much to do. There is Petyr and his schemes. The Never, and the inevitable journey waiting for me if we cannot fix it.
Soft hands clasp my face. “Look at me.”
Selene traces my heated skin. Her eyes blaze with stars. “We can have tonight, Callan. Don’t let them in.”
My words tear from somewhere integral. “I cannot lose you.”
Wherever she goes, I will follow. Her lips trace my neck, sucking against my skin, and I see stars. “Selene.”
Her name is a prayer, and a plea. Her lips brush mine. “Tonight is for us. One night, without the world pushing in. The gods know we’ve both given enough to earn this much, at least.”
My hands cover hers, my voice hoarse. “One night will not be enough for me. Not with you. If that is all it is for you—”
She presses her lips to mine. Softly, this time. “I don’t have the words you do.”
“I don’t need them.” My chest tightens, threatens to unravel. “But I need you.”
Selene looks down. “Everything that I have to give, I would give to you. But I can’t promise something I cannot give, Callan.”
“That’s enough,” I breathe. “Gods, more than enough.”
I will believe in her, each time she doesn’t believe in herself.
