It was hard to think with her this close and looking so disheveled. Icarus placed the stick in between them and Seren smirked, lighting a fire within him.
“Because your magic is unique and as you have come to see, even other witches demonize what they don’t understand,” he said.
“So you would have me fight Musgrove?” she said with a small laugh that lit up her eyes.
“I would have you be prepared,” he corrected.
Seren’s smile fell and her eyes darted to him, searching. “You are nervous about something.”
The fact that she saw through his defenses was a testament to her intelligence. Most people took what he said at face value, but Seren always saw more.
“What will Calder do with his influence on Arabella? What does he want?” she asked.
“He thinks she is the vessel. If he finds the Omnis stone he will use that and the grimoire to maximize her powers and prove she is.” Icarus said, quietly.
“What if she is the vessel?” Seren asked, discarding her training stick onto the floor.
“Then it would change everything. Humans, witches, and wizards would fight like children for access to her. Some would try to kill her or imprison her. It’s been five hundred years since the last vessel and many don’t even believe she existed. It’s hard to say what would happen.”
Seren stepped closer and pushed aside his barrier and gods help him, he let her.
“What are we going to do then?” she said, breathless.
We.He should tell her there was no such thing, but his fortitude was falling by the minute. He must have given away his thoughts because Seren’s eyes flicked to his mouth and he felt consumed by fire.
“Icarus,” she whispered his name and gods spare him for what it did to him.
One step was all she took, but it was enough to press her body against his. He could feel the shape of her and her warmth and it was all he had ever wanted. Her lips parted. All he had to do was bend down a fraction and he would finally know what she tasted like. He had spent his darkest hours imagining the taste and feel of them and now he might finally know. Despite his good intentions, he lifted his hand to her cheek and she leaned into his touch, eager.
She deserved better. She deserved someone who wasn’t broken and wasted. She deserved someone who could match her fire. She deserved more than him.
For once doing the right thing, Icarus let his hand fall from her face and put a healthy distance between them.
Seren shook her head, feigning anger, but the rapid rise and fall of her chest gave her away just as he knew his did. They were dancing around something dangerous, something forbidden.
“We need to find the Omnis stone before they do,” Icarus said with less conviction than he felt.
“Where do we look?”
Gods, she was perfect. A lesser witch might have questioned the validity of the stone or asked why they should help, but Seren’s eyes flared with the promise of using that brilliant mind of hers.
“It’s in Calami somewhere. Calder was sure of it and with the grimoire, I suspect he’s right.”
“He told you that?” Seren’s eyebrows rose.
Icarus felt what might have been a smile on his lips. “I didn’t give him a choice.”
Seren’s answering smile made him feel like he had done something more glorious than just using a compulsion spell on his brother.
“I hope he hated every second of it. I’ll start looking as soon as I can. I’ve been reading and some historians seem to think the vessel died in Calami. That might explain why it’s here.”
His father had hypothesized that very same thing once upon a time. He was setting down a very dangerous path. Would he become like his father if he pursued this? How could he not when Calder had the grimoire and was searching for the stone?
“The third floor used to be a clinic of sorts. If the vessel was ill and at Calami, they would have taken her there.” He had searched when the night was long and sleep evaded him. It was unlikely there was anything there, but if there was he had no doubt Seren would find it.
“All right, I’ll look when I’m sure Arabella isn’t watching.”
It felt like a dismissal. An end to the reasons for them to be together. Except, there was one more thing.
