With a shallow breath, she nods, and he kisses her lips softly again. And this time, when his lips trail along her jaw, she relaxes into his touch.
“Focus on this moment,” he whispers. “Exist with me here and now. Don’t worry about what happens next.”
“What...what happens next?”
“You’re not very good at doing what you’re told, are you?”
She laughs. “Evidently not.”
But he already knows that about her. It feels like he’s known her forever.
“Relax, love. If you need water, you have it.”
The drizzle has been helping, but even it might not be enough.
“Just let go of your water magic. Let it exist with you in whatever way you need.”
She gazes into his eyes again and reads the sincerity there. There’s no fear. No doubt. He trusts her completely.
Is he offering to exist in her magic with her? The thought makes her heart trip over itself.
“Yes,” he whispers as he presses his forehead to hers. “I see the question in your eyes. Whatever you want. Whatever you need. My answer is yes. Always yes.”
“You want to get lost in my magic?”
“Yes, love.” His voice is soft as he leans near her ear, his breath sending shivers to her toes while both their hearts race.
When his lips graze the sensitive spot where her jaw meets her ear, her breath hitches.
“Let go,” he whispers. “Close your eyes and just exist in your magic.”
Breathing out slowly, she nods, and as he lifts a hand to her ear, she releases the control she maintains on her magic before pulling it back. “I don’t want to burn you. Or drown you.”
“You won’t.” He runs his finger over the tip of her ear. “Let go, love.”
“I almost drowned you at the waterfall. I don’t—”
“You were controlling it that time. This time, I want you to let go.”
“But—”
He cuts her off with a kiss so gentle and undemanding that she melts against him.
And lets her magic go.
It pulls at the sea, mixing with the growing heat of her fire magic as it draws a swirling swell of warm water toward them. Up their legs and around their waists.
He doesn’t even flinch.
It lifts them off the pebbled beach, and she relaxes into it, lying back as a soft bed of seawater holds them aloft with the weight of his body hovering over her.
He trails kisses along her neck, and she drops her head back and lets him follow his passion wherever it takes him.
She just exists, the burden of her powerful magic lifted and abandoned as it swirls around them and carries them.
“Trust your magic, love,” Rominy whispers. “It’s part of you. Feel it. Don’t control it.”
“Who have you been talking to?” She whimpers as she gives in to the desire to wrap him in threads of water magic like a caress, tracing every dip and flex of his muscles beneath the linen clinging to him.
