He paused when he saw the marks fully — the delicate patterns that traced my forearms like frozen flames, glowing faintly in the reflected light from the sconces in the upstairs hallway.
“You’re marked,” he said quietly, his fingers hovering over the patterns without quite touching them.
“So are you.” I reached up to trace the faint scars on his chest, following the pathways that the dimensional energy had burned into his flesh. “I suppose we match.”
He laughed softly, and then he was kissing me, his electromagnetic signature merging with mine. Yes, I’d been right. We absolutely illuminated each other, our bioelectric fields synchronizing so perfectly that the dimensional marks on our skin glowed brighter.
Faint light danced across our skin as we undressed each other carefully, mindful of burns that were still healing. Ben’s hands traced patterns on my back, and I explored the marks on his chest, feeling how the dimensional energy had subtly changed the texture of his skin.
We were different now — but we were still Sidney and Ben.
When he finally moved over me, when we came together with the kind of desperate gentleness that spoke of how close we’d come to losing this, our electromagnetic fields merged completely.
I gasped as Ben’s consciousness flooded through our connection. Not just his emotions, even though I felt those as well — love and desire and fierce protectiveness tangled together. No, this was his actual awareness, his thoughts…his sensations. What it felt like to touch my skin, to be inside me, to experience this moment from his perspective.
Shared consciousness. Just like during the merge, only voluntary this time.
“Ben.” I managed to get out his name, although speaking was difficult when I could feel what he felt. “Can you — ”
“Feel you? Yes.” His voice sounded hoarse, and I could sense his shock and wonder. “Sidney, I can feel everything. What you’re feeling…what you’re thinking.”
“Is it too much?” I didn’t want to pull away, but I would if that was what he needed to preserve his sanity, his sense of self.
“No.” He shifted, and the sensation doubled — what it felt like for me and what it felt like for him, pleasure cascading through our merged consciousness. “God, no. It’s perfect.”
We moved together, our electromagnetic fields creating cascading waves of soft light that lit up the bedroom. I was aware of my body and Ben’s simultaneously, experiencing intimacy from both perspectives. Feeling what he felt when he touched me, sensing what I felt when he moved inside me.
It was overwhelming…transcendent.
Absolutely right.
And then we came together, our electromagnetic fields pulsing in perfect synchronization, light dancing across our skin.
For a single breathless moment, we were one consciousness, one awareness, experiencing this moment as a unified entity rather than two separate people.
Then we separated slowly, our fields gradually distinguishing themselves while remaining connected. I collapsed against Ben, both of us breathing hard, our marked skin still glowing faintly in the aftermath.
“Well,” I said when I could speak again. “That was different.”
Ben laughed, the sound breathless in the quiet space. “Understatement of the year.”
He was probably right. “And the glowing was pretty obvious.”
“Worth it.” He pulled me closer, taking care even though I’d assured him that my burns weren’t bothering me too much anymore. “Sidney, that was…I’ve never experienced anything like that. Feeling what you felt, being inside your consciousness while we — ”
“I know.” I pressed my face against his chest, feeling the strong beat of his heart against my cheek. “The electromagnetic connection created some kind of shared consciousness. I suppose we merged.”
“Not as deeply as you merged with the phoenix, but still.” His hand stroked my hair. “Is it always going to be like that?”
I reached out with my expanded abilities and sensed our electromagnetic fields. They were still synchronized, still resonating. The marks on our skin glowed faintly, although the glow was fading now that the intensity had passed.
“I think so,” I said. “I mean, this is just an educated guess, because I don’t think anyone truly knows all the ramifications of what we experienced. But when we synchronize, when we connect that deeply, we’re going to merge consciousness every time.”
He pressed a kiss against the top of my head. “I can live with that.”
“Me, too.”
We lay together in comfortable silence, our marked bodies fitting together like two pieces of the same puzzle. Somewhere beyond the window, over at the edge of the forest, the unicorn was maintaining its patient vigil.
