His eyes narrow, appraising me. I chose the most elegant thing in my wardrobe today—a sparkling blue gown with a corset that lends curves to my hips and pushes up my chest invitingly. Finn’s gaze drops, following my figure, and my breath snags. “I don’t believe you,” he whispers. “He’s got eyes, Lyria. We both do.”
The music lilts. He takes the opportunity to spin me, and I land clumsily against his chest. Finn’s arms tighten, and I can feel the swell of his bicep under my hand. I’m still not close enough. “Is there something I should know?” he asks.
I think of all the secrets between us—how much I’m longing to share them all.
“Nothing,” I lie instead.
“Are you sure?”
“Careful,”I say, looking around the dance floor. “People are watching.”
“Let them.” His lips glide to my throat. My whole body quivers, though the night is warm. And when those lips rise to find mine…Gods-damn me, I kiss him back.
This is one of those moments when time hitches and stills, like a single thread snagged in a tapestry. Breaking the kiss, Finn pulls back, searching my eyes. “Was that…” His throat trembles. “Is this what you want?”
I kiss him again in response.
I’m only hazily aware of our surroundings as Finn leads me away from the crowd. We find a grove of trees, slipping into the shadows, and then he’s all over me again—fiercer this time. Hungrier. The bark is rough against my back as he pushes me against a trunk, his hands gliding over my hips, my neck, over my hair.
This is beyond stupid. This is reckless. I’m supposed to be steeling my heart in preparation to leave him forever. Instead, I sink into him, pressing in with my waist, submitting to the driving sweep of his tongue, silently begging for more.
Finally, I shove him off. “We can’t do this here.”
“Yes, we can.” His voice darkens. Finn’s head drops, finding my neck again, drifting closer to my collarbone….
“People can see us,” I hiss.
“I don’t care.”
“Icare.”
This makes him pause. Finn’s eyes are firelit, searching mine. “Do you want me to stop?”
I hesitate.
He catches my pause, withdrawing another fraction. “I’m sorry. Should I go?”
“No. No, it’s just that I should find Daisy.” I look to where she was minutes earlier, but she’s vacated the dance floor. I finally spot her on a bench a ways away with Damien. The pair look forall the world like they’re headed the same direction as Finn and I just were.
“Daisy will be fine,” Finn says, observing the same thing. His hand slithers into mine, and his lips press against my ear to entreat, “Come back to the castle with me?”
I shouldn’t.
“Yes.”
I’m not sure what his invitation suggests, but I’m keen for anything right now…and there’s one activity in particular that I’m craving above all others. This night has bewitched me, I think. Our impending separation should logically make me want to withdraw from Finn, but my body is having the opposite reaction. If there is no future for us, shouldn’t we at least steal thisonemoment?Onenight together, before I’ll miss him forever?
I hear Cygnus’s warning again:Finn likes to play with his girls and then drop them.
But what about me? What ifIwant to play, too?
I don’t know if Finn feels anything akin to what I do. I might be alone in this all-consuming adoration. But for once, I want to just be young and uninhibited, as carefree as I might have been without the curse in my blood. Even if it’s a lie, I want to pretend like this is something I can allow myself, something I might have seized without guilt in a more peaceful lifetime.
I feel breathless as we follow the long, lantern-lined stairs up the hill. The palace is close to empty. It seems everyone has already gone to bed or is still reveling. We pass a red-faced group of young men warbling a drinking song, a nursemaid carrying a sleeping child, and a scullery girl canoodling with a busty nurse I recognize.
Finn takes me straight to his chambers. There’s barely a moment after the door shuts behind us before he’s kissing me again.
I’m absorbed by the warmth and heat, the need that drives us closer and still not close enough. Magic has always heightened my emotions, and I’m burning now—burning ineveryway. I want my clothes off. I want to share that kind of vulnerability with him again. I wanthim.
