After a couple of hours, we had successfully saved a handful of people and set up camp to let them rest while the medics took care of their wounds.
I had helped Michlael and others with my flames as best as I could, but that wasn’t any guarantee. Michlael had lost a lot of blood, the branch cutting off blood-supply to his arm for a while. It was unclear if it would regain its health… Perhaps he’d lose the entire thing—only time would tell.
Using this much magic exhausted me, I felt dizzy and the smell of blood around camp wasn’t helping in the slightest. I wandered off a little bit, found a small lake close to the camp, as darkness had already begun to claim the skies. Moonlight snuck out from behind some clouds, mirroring its light beautifully across the lake’s surface.
I cupped up some of the water between my hands and splashed it on my face. It felt refreshing, as if the tension in my body was washed off with it.
“Figured I’d find you here.”
I stiffened. His voice was low, velvet smooth, but carried that unshakable amusement, like he’d been watching me this whole time.
I turned my head slightly, and there he was, Malakai, leaning lazily against a tree, arms crossed, with a wicked grin tugging at his lips. He was the picture of calm, like this was nothing but another game to him.
“You shouldn’t sneak up on people like that,” I muttered, more to cover how my heart jumped than anything else.
“Then stop being so easy to sneak up on.” He pushed off the tree and walked towards me, slow and unhurried, like he had all the time in the world. His eyes gleamed faintly in the moonlight, catching every thought racing through my head.
I swallowed. “About earlier…”
“Mm?” He stopped close enough that I could feel the static in the air between us. “You mean the part where I told you I’d wait for you until the stars burn out?”
Heat flared in my cheeks. “Yes. That.”
He tilted his head, that grin softening enough to show he wasn’t just teasing anymore. “What about it?”
“I don’t understand you.” The words tumbled out before I could stop them. “I don’t understand why you stay, why you care. You could have anyone, someone less… complicated. So why me?”
The grin faded entirely, leaving something sharper, more vulnerable in its place. He took another step closer, I could feel the warmth radiating from him despite the night chill.
“At first?” he said, voice lower now, deliberate. “Ihatedyou.”
I pressed my lips together firmly, but he didn’t look away.
“You were loud, stubborn, reckless. Always so sure you could handle everything yourself.” His mouth twisted faintly, but not unkindly. “You reminded me too much of myself. And I hated that, hated that you hid your fire as if you were normal, the same way I hid my true nature. You were like a constant reminder that I didn’t belong, both of us pretending we weren’t ashamed of what the world made us.”
I stared at him, words failing me.
“But then,” he went on, softer now. “You changed. Or maybe you just stopped caring. You started lettingmesee it. The real you. Even when it hurt, even when it terrified you, and I—” His throat worked, like saying it cost him something. “I couldn’t look away after that, I didn’t want to.”
The world went still. My chest felt too tight, like the air had become too thin to breathe.
“You mean something to me,” he said, quiet but unflinching. “Because you’re the first person who made me want to stop pretending… you chose tosaveme, despite what I am.”
Something inside me broke open at that.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I grabbed the front of his shirt, shoving him back until his shoulders hit the nearest tree. His brows shot up in surprise, for barely a heartbeat.
And then I kissed him.
He met me halfway, one hand sliding up to cradle the back of my neck, careful but possessive, his other hand at my lower back, forcing me closer, or rather keeping me in place. The world narrowed to the heat of his mouth, thepress of him against me, the way he kissed as though he’d been holding back for far too long.
When I finally broke away, breathless, his forehead rested against mine, his grin softer now, almost boyish.
“You have no idea,” he murmured, “how long I’ve wanted you to do that… Now what, kitten?”
Slowly, he brushed his hand along my wrist, towards my hand as he gently pushed it open, braiding his fingers with mine and muffling the flames that had started to flare. “Stay focused.”
Then he kissed me again, like he was starving—deep and devouring. He spun us around, slamming our joined hands above my head into the tree, his body pinning me against the trunk without once touching me anywhere I ached for him to.
