“They’ve already noticed, I’m sure.”
“…You’re probably right.”
“I’m honestly surprised they haven’t sent a search party. Especially since I’malsomissing.”
“They should know I’m safe with you.”
I yawned, tossing a larger log onto the fire. “Or they’ll think I’ve abducted you to have my wicked way with you.”
“That sounds far more enjoyable than enduring more meetings with them.”
“I would hope I can bring you more pleasure than politics,” I said, grinning slightly. “A low bar to exceed, isn’t it?”
She smiled back, though her amusement was short-lived. Shaking her head, she leaned against my shoulder. “Wicked ways.” She scoffed. “My point is that I don’t care about what’s happening with our magic; wicked or not, I’d still rather behere than dealing with another round of kingdom and council disputes.”
Her voice was soft, fading a bit toward the end. The firelight danced across her features, drawing my attention again to the exhaustion written in them. She hid it so well most of the time. But now a memory dropped into my head—that moment in the Hollow Grove, when she’d nearly given in to the vines and visions that had tried to trap her in place.
I’m so tired, Aleks. I’m so tired of moving forward.
It shattered something in me to remember those words. To think about the unfairness of it all, and how I’d been keeping my distance all day when she’d clearly needed me at her side.
I hooked a hand under her chin and pulled her toward me, angling her lips to mine for a slow, deliberate kiss. She was tense at first—the side effect of an entire day spent keeping her guard up—but she soon relaxed into the warmth building between us.
Before long, she was crawling on top of me, straddling my lap, balancing on her knees as she deepened the kiss. I wrapped one arm around her waist. The other gripped the back of her head, fingers raking through her hair, taking her in a commanding grip and crushing her mouth so completely to mine that I could barely breathe.
But I didn’t need to breathe.
I only neededher.
She squeezed her legs against me and rolled her hips, moaning softly at the delicious friction the movement created. Wisps of shadow curled around us both. It wasn’t an unusual side effect of her arousal, and it wasn’t particularly powerful, threatening magic…
But it still made me pause.
Because what if my magic reacted?
What if I knocked hers off balance again—or worse?
She paused as well, sensing my hesitation. “I meant what I said earlier,” she said quietly. “I don’t care about whatever is happening with your magic. I’m not afraid of it. Or you. I never have been, and that isn’t going to change.”
And yet I’ve seen the fear in your eyes.
I didn’t say it out loud, though. I only brushed a strand of hair from her face and said, “There’s a fine line between fearless and foolish.”
“Yes, and some might say we’ve been walking it together since the beginning of all this.”
“You’re not wrong about that.” My fingers stilled in her hair, my hand framing her face. She leaned into my touch. We stayed like that for a long moment, suspended in uncertainty.
“We are not a tragedy,” she whispered. “Isn’t that what you told me?”
I frowned at the words, even though she was right: I was the one who had said them. And then we’d faced tragedy after tragedy, uncertainty after uncertainty.
But somehow, we were still here.
She crawled from my lap and stood, pacing the room a few times before coming to stand before the blazing fire. She glanced back at me, her gaze unflinching, her eyes reflecting the fire in a way that seemed natural—like she was something ethereal and inhuman, an extension of both shadow and flame. “It’s still true, isn’t it?”
I didn’t hesitate this time. “Yes.”
It was still true, and I still couldn’t resist her pull, even knowing the risks. Which was why I rose to my feet as well. Why I stood right beside her and stared into the flames.
