A sigh of relief escaped me.
Experiments were my forte. I nodded. “What do you have in mind?”
“This.” She lifted both hands, cupped my face with a gentle touch.
My heart pounded so hard against my rib cage I thought I might’ve cracked a rib.
Her lips curved into a teasing smile as her hands slid over my cheeks and around my neck, and she pulled me into a hug.
The feeling detonated under my sternum.
It didn’t burn. Itached.
“Yes,” I said, startled laughter in my tone as I carefully let my arms wrap around her.She was so warm.“That’sthe feeling I’m chasing.”
She leaned back, but not enough to where my arms fell off her, and I couldn’t bring myself to pull back.
Then, she leaned in and kissed me.
It wasnotexperimental. It went way past theoretical. It was…somethingdifferent. Something I couldn’t put a name on.
My brain paused.
I was completely taken aback for preciselyoneheartbeat before instinct took over. I kissed her back because my soul understood something my research had only ever described.
Her lips were petal soft, and it made my annoyingly common erection strain against my pants.
She moved back, her golden eyes twinkling with shock and desire. “How do you feel?”
“That’s the feeling,” I said with reverence. “Butterflies. My heart’s pounding. Happiness is too simple of a term.”
“Drecken,” she murmured, smiling like she knew something I didn’t, “that means you have feelings for me.”
“Feelings?” I repeated, and the word ricocheted off my skull. “I’ve…never hadfeelingsbefore.”
“Sure you have,” she giggled. “Just maybe not these kinds of feelings.” She tapped the spot over my sternum, and my body buzzed at her touch. “You can’t put this in a bottle.”
My mouth opened to argue, but I closed it. I’d never found a feeling I couldn’t replicate, but this kind of feeling wasn’t just new. It was unreliable. The only thing that could cause that feeling in me was Rune.
“…Maybe not,” I conceded. “But I can try.”
“I’d be happy to help you try,” she told me.
The door swung open as Rune’s squad arrived for their final.
I stepped back, my hands stuffed into my lab coat.
Slater had his chaos manifestation wrapped around his neck as he winked at me; Zuko smirked at me with knowing eyes; Koa raised a brow at me; Dimitri frowned as he noticed Rune in front of me; the rest of the class was oblivious.
“Final,” I snapped as Rune moved from me and found her desk with the rest of her squadmates. “Essence Craft capstone. You need to weave a ward under hostile interference. Begin.”
I was in an objectively good mood. It did not lower my standards; it did, perhaps, raise my patience, though.
The next hour, squad one passed their finals.
I teleported back to the comfort of my lab, wondering why Rune Bloodwyne seemed to have such a magnetizing effect on me and why I kept replaying the memory of her kissing me.
slater
