He once again leaned back to meet my gaze. “Then what’s that?”
“What?”
Gesturing to the stylus sitting behind me, he said, “Vorjyn told me it belonged to the person you actually want.”
I blinked. “Wyn…”
“And how do you know we will work? How are you so sure? I’m a mess of worry, and you’re calm about us. We are not close in age. We are from different stations and backgrounds. We have nothing besides our attraction to tie us together.” He slammed his fists against my chest, eyes wet. “So how do you know? Or are you pretending? Do you not actually want me?”
It was time to tell him. I hated sharing my inner fire for many reasons, but two main ones stuck out. The first was my father.He had true precognition rather than perfect intuition. People expected me to be like him, and I wasn’t. I didn’t have the full picture, only a feeling that would turn out correct. The second reason was that people expected me to have all the answers, which I didn’t. No one did.
But Wyn was mine, and I’d hurt him. He deserved to know, to know all of me.
I swiveled, turning so Wyn could see the shelf behind me more easily. His eyebrows drew together while a frown marred his perfect face; I smoothed the tension. I gestured to the stylus that always sat right behind me, close at hand if I ever needed to leave quickly.
“I don’t understand, unless you are telling me it does belong to the person you actually want,” he said.
“This is my most valuable object.”
His eyes turned glassy, and his breath picked up.
“Look at it,” I said, pulse racing. “Please.”
The stylus floated off the stand and into Wyn’s grasp. “It’s a cheap stylus cadets sometimes use. Have you had this since then? No, you said it was important.”
“I got that nine cycles ago.”
“I don’t understand, Monqilcolnen.”
Shaking, I took the stylus from him and flipped it, so he could see the rough etching, like it had been made by a claw. It was a single letter.
“Wyn,” he read, then froze. His eyes opened wide, shooting up to meet mine. “I put my name on everything. It was a habit from my care home. We labelled everything.” He shook his head, voice soft as he said, “This is—was mine.”
I dragged my thumb over his cheek. “It’s yours.”
“What? I mean… What?” He shook his head again, eyes wide.
I chuckled softly, though my pulse thrummed in my ears and my limbs trembled. “Nine cycles ago, I went to the academy toteach a lesson for an old instructor of mine. When I was leaving, a very excited new cadet ran right into me. He was the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen. He barely looked at me, offering his throat and apologizing before running off. But he dropped his stylus, and I picked it up. That was you, of course.”
Wyn didn’t look touched. In fact, it was the opposite. His arms crossed and his mouth flattened into a harsh line. “You kept this because I’m beautiful? Is that all this is? Some weird obsession? Some need to have another trinket on your shelf?”
I snagged Wyn close when he tried to leave my lap. “Please let me finish. Please don’t leave me, Peace.”
He grunted.
Keeping him tight against me, I continued, “I didn’t keep this because you are lovely, even though you are, or because I want to collect you. I don’t. I kept this because I knew you were going to be important to me.”
“What?” His arms fell to his sides.
I pressed a kiss between his furrowed eyebrows, breathing him in. “My inner fire is perfect intuition.”
“What?” he repeated louder.
“I have a sense that something is going to happen sometimes, and it’s always right.” I hastily continued before he could say anything, “I don’t have visions, and I don’t know everything, but sometimes my inner fire gives me hints of what’s to come.”
I cupped his cheek with one hand while the other remained planted on the small of his back. “I knew from the second I saw you that you would one day be important to me, exceedingly so. I didn’t know exactly how, only that you and I would meet again.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.
