He looked like a stumbled Atlas, finding the will to stand and carry the world on his shoulders once more.
“We are to prevent all loss of life.”
“Wh-what?” Appreciation for him telling her in advance hit Jo like a Mac truck. She would’ve never been able to keep herself together in the briefing room when he broke the news. She could already feel it ripping at the seams of her facial composure. Scenes of wide-spread carnage from the news they’d been watching for nearly a month all flashed before Jo’s eyes in a visceral assault. “It’s too much this time. It’ll be impossible.”
“We’ll think of something.” He glanced away.
“No, we won’t.” Jo grabbed his hands, taking a full step closer to him. Their hips were almost touching now. “Snow, this isn’t hacking into a mainframe or getting revenge on a mob boss. This is a volcano. It’s already happened, we can’t just get a do-over.”
“We can.” He tilted his head to her, eyes locking.
“What. . .” Jo’s voice had fallen to a whisper.
“I’ve done all I can.”
She searched his face, her fingertips still mapping the curves of his cheeks and the line of his jaw. “Are you all right?” Jo wanted to groan at herself for the question. He gave her that cryptic response and all she could ask was if he was all right?
“I did. . . all I could, Jo.” He rephrased his statement, weaker, almost trembling in breath between the words.
“What did you do?”
“You have no idea what you’re asking.” Snow’s mouth pressed into a hard line, but didn’t move away. If anything, he felt closer. He leaned forward. She was sure now: he was closer than he’d ever been.
“Then tell me.” Jo pulled him but there was no more space to give; their legs were touching, chests brushing. “Tell me something real. Tell me whatthisis.”
His eyes widened and Jo felt hers mirror them. Was she even asking about the wish or his ever-elusive magic anymore? Or was she seeking validation for the pull between them?
“Jo. . .” All words failed him just as they were eluding her.
Grammar and structure melted away as his silver eyes bore into hers. Jo swallowed hard. There was one thing left in her mind, a singular request that would not let her breathe again until it escaped.
“Stay with me tonight?”
“What? Why would you ask that?” The rasp of his voice was thickening to a velvety chocolate paste.
“Don’t let me be alone, not knowing this,” she begged softly. “It’s been torture waiting, and now I have to wait with knowledge I can do nothing with. Stay with me, at least until the others are stirring.”
“I can’t do that.” Even as he spoke, their separate personal space was condensing into a singularity that would suck them both in. “You know I can’t.”
“I don’t know anything. You won’t tell meanything. . . The one thing that I do know is that I want you here.”
“And I—”
When he cut himself off, swallowing down whatever he’d almost confessed, Jo found herself hanging on those two words to the point that a groan of frustration rose in her throat. Eventually, true to all prior form, Snow ended things with the tact of a four-year-old.
“I need to go.” For a man who could usually put the grace of a ballerina to shame, he’d suddenly turned into a boar. Snow half-pushed, half-steered her to the side.
“Why? Tell me one thing, Snow, please!” Jo demanded, voice raised, even as he opened the door. “Don’t shut me out again!”
He shot her a near-painful look, equal parts glare and nervousness, before his composure returned and he leaned forward. Her treacherous heart beat faster almost instantly.
“This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be.” Something was at the point of breaking, and it wasn’t just the way his last couple of words cracked and shattered. “Staying distant, because of your magic—right now, this is all I can do.”
He was pleading with her to understand but giving her just enough to have only the vaguest idea that felt more like a shapeless blob than a tangible thing labeled “understanding”. Still, one thought came forward. A singular memory.
“You’d said something about my magic before, after the first wish.” Jo stepped closer, trying to pin him in place. “What did you mean then?”
“I can’t tell you.”
