His eyes dropped, transfixed on the place where their hands met, and something again passed over his features she couldn’t comprehend.
Slowly, his eyes lifted to hers. He shifted their palms, interlocking their fingers, as he said, “Lead the way. Show me.”
They couldn’t risk leaving. Not right now. They’d wasted too much time here.
So they slipped into a stairwell, climbing flights of stairs as quickly as they could. She was marked here. They wouldn’t be able to hide for long, but there was one place she’d found where it took them longer to track her down. At least in her dreams it did.
Her ashes fluttered along the door, the only way she’d figured out how to get in. It swung open, and she slipped inside, pulling Cethin in with her and quickly shutting the door behind him. Dropping his hand, she leaned against it, her bow digging into her back. Her eyes fell closed as she listened. As she sent her ashes beneath the door to search. To feel for them coming.
“Kailia?”
Her eyes snapped open, finding his once again pinned on her.
It was dark in here. She could barely make him out, but she knew he stepped closer. So close, that if she moved an inch, they’d brush against each other.
“What do you fear here?” Cethin asked, his voice low and rough.
Everything.
Her eyes dropped to the ground. The answer was on the tip of her tongue, waiting to fall from her lips. But that would be admitting yet another weakness to the male. Even in her dreams, she couldn’t do that.
But in her dreams, she was stronger. Able to overcome the weaknesses easier. She’d fought her demons here. Spilled blood in vengeance, so she knew exactly how to do it outside of the dream planes.
What if…
She slowly dragged her eyes from his boots up his tall frame to his face. Sharp features mixed with shadows, whether from the dark room or his own power, she didn’t know. But they made him more foreboding. The male she knew he truly was.
But here, she was in control. Here…
Here, she could take and test. She could start small here, in a place that was her own.
She pushed off the door, bringing her shaking hand up and placing her fingertips on his chest. He went preternaturally still in that way only the immortals could.
Until he brought his own hand up, wisps of his dark power dancing along her fingers before he placed his hand atop hers and pressed her palm flat along his tunic.
Atop his heart, beating at the same frenetic rhythm hers was.
She paused there, letting herself get used to just…feeling. Of touching someone else without feeling the need to recoil. Of letting the coolness of his magic soothe the burn of physical contact.
Fingers still trembling, she tentatively slid her palm up. Across his collarbone, over a shoulder, pausing at his neck. Her thumb swiped, and she felt his throat bob when he swallowed. The only part of him that moved.
If anyone knew…
But no one knew what happened in dreams. Secrets stayed locked here.
Her eyes were fixed on his lips, and he clearly noticed because his tongue slid across the bottom one. Pushing onto her tiptoes, she slid her hand up farther, cupping his jaw so she could swipe her thumb along the same path his tongue had traveled.
She felt his whole body shudder beneath her hand.
Marveled at the feel of it.
She knew touch was as controlling as their power could be. Her power with touch had been from withholding it. Choosing not to give that to anyone. But this…
This was a different kind of power.
His breaths were uneven against the pad of her thumb where it still hovered along his lip.
“Can I tell you a secret?” she whispered, the words sounding harsh in the quiet of the room.
