Sweat bloomed along my hairline as Tritans made way for the dark-haired foreigner, giving me a moment to inspect the broad cut of his shoulders. Long, lean legs that screamed of strength and health. Deaf and blind to the sweltering masses going about their business. My every available sense fixed tohimand the ki I could no longer feel.
And yet, that sweet taste lingered upon my skin.
More.
Ineededmore.
If I could just reach out and touch it again… Goddess, what would it feel likewithoutthe Glaith between us? Skin to skin.
“Do you have any idea how lucky you are?” the captain hissed, hustling me into some dark little corner between two buildings. He shook his head, fingers tightening on my bicep. “If one of the others had found you first…”
I blinked, left hand moving to the pendant of Glaith about my neck, eyes never leaving his face.
“To risk revealing yourself for the sake of a trinket,” he snorted, dark eyes flicking over my shoulder, watching a shadow pass the mouth of the alley. “Stupid. So bloody stupid.”
The insult prickled my skin, but I took a step toward him and thumbed the clasp securing the pendant around my neck. So… savage… soraw.I just wanted to touch it…
“You’re lucky I’m the only one who can sense you,” he continued, uttering a breathless laugh, turning dark eyes down once more. Pinning my soul to the back of my spine.
Skin to skin…
The Glaith slipped from lax fingers, clinking and clattering on the cobbled street. Well and truly separate for the first time in four years, my ki-sense unfurled great dark wings behind my ribs.
“What is wrong with you?” he hissed, stooping to recover my pendant. Going to his knees in the cramped alley.
Eyes fixed to the crown of dark hair bowed before me, the entire population of the market made itself known. Men and women, each with varying degrees of health, emotional spectrums, and available ki. So much information.Flooding my senses with the brilliant pulse of ki, burning me from the inside out.
But I swallowed it down, for next to him, they were worthless. Utterly eclipsed by the mere memory of the only one Icouldn’tsense. Somehow,incredibly,blocking my efforts to break through his Glaith and drink until I couldn’t.
“Did you hear me? You are a beacon without this pendant, girl.” The stone atop his finger caught a beam of sunlight between the passing shadows of the Tritan civilians outside the mouth of the alley, throwing off the Glaith’s trinity of colors as he knelt before me.
My eyes fell, landing on his ring.
Skin to skin…
I smiled.
“I felt it the instant you took it off.” He jangled my pendant, making it dance. “Felt you clear across the market.” He stood, towering above me once more. “Even now, your ki is…”
Meeting that dark gaze, I placed my palm on his chest. Fingers splayed. Trying to turn his heat into fire before I withered in the cold without it.
“What…” He shook his head. “What are you?”
“Take off your ring and find out.”
Eyes narrowed, he lifted his finger, letting my pendant dangle in the tight space between us. “No.”
But I wouldnotbe denied. “Have you ever sensed another like me?” I pushed him back, holding him with the weight of my palm. “Can you imagine what it would feel like? Without the Glaith?”
Skin to skin…
He shook his head, brows furrowed.
“You have ki I’ve never tasted before, Captain Rawlings,” I breathed, heart pounding in my ears, close enough to see the darker ring of his pupil. To watch it dilate as he stared down at me. Shadows from the street flicking over us both. “I just want to touch it. Just for a moment.”
Silent, he said nothing. Did nothing but breathe. Watching me.
And because silence wasn’t a ‘no’, I reached for his hand, thumb tracing the stony edge of his ring. Feeling the distant sparkle of numbness laced with something… wild. Something burning just out of sight. Trembling, I tugged, and for a moment his fist refused me. Kept the ring secure.
