“Rominy.” Her fire magic blazes to life.
“Are you tired, love?” He pulls back to look into her eyes, and the heat in his gaze makes her heart race. “Too tired to stop waiting to live?”
If she was tired before, she isn’t now. Not when he looks at her like that. But...her fire magic. It’s already threatening to consume her.
“No, but we c—”
“Can, love. We can.”
She can barely breatheas his words settle into her heart. “Tharios—”
“Yes.”
A choked sob catches in her throat. “No more waiting?”
“No, love. No more waiting. Not tonight. But you have to promise me something.”
“What?”
“That you will tell me if you get tired and need to sleep.”
She hesitates longer than she probably should. “I promise.”
“I’d question your sincerity, except you can’t lie to me.” There’s amusement in his eyes, along with the smoldering heat.
“I will. I give you my word.”
“I believe you.” He leans toward her until their lips briefly meet. “Shall I romance you? Make your heart race, love?”
Before she can respond, the world transforms around them, and she gasps.
They’re no longer on the sea or a tropical beach. It’s much cooler, and snowflakes fall gently from the sky.
“Rominy,” she breathes as she stands and turns in a circle, taking in the winter wonderland surrounding them.
“Are you warm enough, love?”
When she turns back to him, he smiles over the guitar he holds, and her heart tumbles over itself at the happiness in his eyes as he coaxes a new song from the gorgeous instrument. It’s a gentle melody he plucks from the strings.
“What’s this song called?” she asks.
“I haven’t decided yet. I thought perhaps ‘Elowyn’ or ‘The Other Half of My Heart.’”
“You wrote a song for me?”
“My heart feels music whenever I look at you. I’m just letting it out.”
Her emotions hover near the surface, threatening to prickle her eyes and lodge in her throat.
“I’ll have to write words to go with it someday,” he says. “Sing it to you when you’re sad. When you can’t sleep. I hope you want a life full of music, love. You’ve awakened something in me I can’t seem to put back in its box.”
She can’t even begin to find words to respond to any of that, so she lets his melody wash over her instead as she closes her eyes and twirls in the wintry scene. Tiny frozen pinpricks of snow cool her skin as they fall, tempering her heat a little.
She’ll need more than snow to get through tonight, but it’s enough for now.
When the strumming of the guitar changes to the notes of a piano, she opens her eyes to Rominy smiling at her over that glossy behemoth.
Then he stands, but the music magically keeps playing without him there to press the keys.
