I shook my head, my eyes tearing up again. “I can’t. Lanche… please. I can’t. I… I can’t. Wh-what if someone steals it again?”
He sent me a soft smile and cupped my cheek so I’d look up at him. “You love me?” I nodded. It wasn’t a question. Not anymore. I loved him with my whole heart, and he could feel it through our bond. “Then place it where no one can ever take it from you.”
My brow furrowed. “What? That doesn’t even make any—”
He cut me off by placing his hand over my heart. “Right here.”
I blinked. What the… “I can, like, push it into my chest?”
He nodded.
“Won’t it hurt?”
He shook his head. “Nope. It’s magic.”
That… wasn’t a great explanation considering my transformation was magic, and yet, it always hurt, but… I figured he’d know better than anyone.
“Why would I be able to…” I trailed off when he lifted an eyebrow. “Right. Because I’m your viramore.”
“Yep. Exactly. Go on.” He waved me on, and all I could do was stare at the icicle.
“Do I just… push it in?”
He nodded. “Think about me as you do it, and it should slide right in.”
“Well, that shouldn’t be too difficult considering you’re all I think about anyway.”
That made him grin. “Yeah?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
Then I held the icicle up to my chest right above my heart, looked at my snow yeti, and thoughtMy Mother, I love him more than anything in the world.
With an ease I didn’t expect, the icicle slid right into my chest, taking my breath away for a few moments. And he was right. It didn’t hurt at all. In fact, it felt good.
Right.
Like it was always meant to be there.
I took a breath, shaking myself out as his wonderful magic that was just as beautiful as he was secured itself into place, settling there like it was always meant to be. And… well, considering he was my viramore, it was.
Lanche leaned in and whispered, “And now you can use my magic any time you want.”
I blanched. “I’m not going to control you, Lanche! What the hell!”
He chuckled. “No, sweetheart, you can use my magic the way I would. With my icicle inside your chest,youcan use magic yourself. You don’t have to go through me.”
My eyes widened as I stared up at him in shock. “You… but… but… what?”
He chuckled and kissed my forehead. “Don’t worry about that right now. I think we have other things to worry about first.”
I grimaced because he was right. We had a lot of other shit to worry about before I had to think about every way possible to keep Lanche’s icicle safe inside me. Forever.
Chapter Seventeen
Lanche
When I’d seen Dain walking through my magical snowstorm, I’d panicked for a moment until a surge of my magic had come back to me, allowing me to keep him safe from the flying ice.
