Eight
Cyrus
The white light that formed the basis of my energy liked her. It was vibrating … seeking out whatever power lay within Emmy. The longer I touched her perfect skin, the more difficult it was for me to not keep touching her. To not shift her robes away completely so than I could touch and taste every inch of her. She watched me with wide, wary eyes. But not with the level of fear I would have expected. In fact, she hadn’t tried to back away from me—or push me away from her—since I started touching her, which was unexpected.
Something was shifting between us, and my Neutral energy definitely liked her.
So did I.
Before I could think it through, I was pulling her into me. She lifted herself onto her toes, like she’d been waiting for me to make the move. Our lips met. The moment she opened her mouth, a rumble rocked through my chest.Mine.
Normally I would question the instinct that was rearing inside of me, the feeling that this woman in my arms was the only one that I was ever going to want in my world. But I was beyond questioning anything. All I wanted was this moment with her.
She pressed closer to me, making small throaty sounds. My hands slid down her body, along the shiny smooth robes, before I cupped my hands under her. She was tiny compared to most gods, weighing nothing as I lifted her up into my body.
She didn’t fight me, but she also didn’t wrap herself around me that way I’d seen Willa do with Abil’s sons. It was like Emmy didn’t know what to do with her legs, so she left them dangling there.
Or maybe she was too distracted, because our kiss was moving past the hot stage straight into an inferno.
“Cyrus,” she gasped, wrenching her face from mine. “What are you doing?”
I took my time answering her, preferring to press my lips to her jaw first. Between each kiss I said, “I’m … unlocking … your … power.”
She groaned. “But you said pain … I’m…”
Her words trailed off like she’d completely forgotten what she was going to say, and I grinned against her skin. Having her flustered was a novel experience; I liked that I was capable of making her lose control.
“Cyrus,” she said again. There was something different in her tone and I paused, before lifting my head so that I could see her. “I’m glowing,” she finished, her eyes wide.
I’d thought it was from me, the white light—even though it was unusual for me to lose control of it, even in such highly charged, emotional situations. But she was right: the glow that filled the room wasn’t coming from me at all. It was hers.
“Am I like you?” she asked, swallowing hard. “Could I be another Neutral?”
I shook my head. “No, you don’t have my power. I’m certain.”
She hadn’t been born of Topia; she didn’t hold the same power. She was something different to me.
Her body arched slightly and the light filtering from her skin increased. And increased again. Within a click the room was so bright that anyone who wasn’t a god would have been blinded from the light.
“Emmanuelle,” I said slowly. “What are you doing?”
She didn’t answer immediately, and worry edged through my mind—such a foreign emotion that it actually took me a moment to figure out that’s what I was feeling.
“Emmy!” I repeated, with more force.
“Cyrus, I think this is my power.”
My eyes were burning from the light, forcing me to close them. “You’re a lightning bug?” I asked sarcastically, trying to figure out what I was supposed to do now.
“No,” she answered, her voice huskier than I’d heard before. “I feel it now. I know exactly what my energy is … I’m life. Creation.Fertility.”
I stilled before slowly lowering her to the ground. She let out a low laugh, and then slowly the light faded away. My eyes adjusted immediately, and I blinked more than once, wondering if what I was seeing was possible.
“Fertility,” I echoed back her previous word. “That’s one way to put it.”
The entire inside of the cave floor was now filled with plants and flowers and vines. Emmy had managed to bring an entire garden to life with her light. She could create life where there was nothing but emptiness.
“Do you know what this means?” she asked, breaking through my train of thought. I pulled my eyes from the lush flowers sprouting at our feet, lifting them to the stunningly beautiful goddess before me.
