“What are you looking at?”
“Myself,” she whispered.
Shaw appeared in the mirror’s reflection, and for a moment, there were three beings shown back to her. She watched his hand drift, catch her fingers, and the manifestation dissolved at once in a haze of false smoke.
“We’ve been apart too long,” she said.
He lifted their hands, and his mouth brushed feather light across her knuckles. “I can’t disagree.”
Her eyes flicked upward to meet his. “So much has happened. Too much. I feel like I’ve so much more to tell you, but the only thing I want to say is that I’ve missed you a huge amount. More than I expected. It almost makes me angry.”
It did make her angry, but she’d grown to bite her tongue a little now and then to ease her penchant for stings.
Shaw took one look at her scowling face in the mirror and laughed. He hauled her to him until she met his chest with a gasp. His opposite hand—the one that wasn’t still holding hers—lifted to cup her face. “Is the lovely ice sculpture thawing for me?” He said it good-naturedly, chuckling, and Lux had hardly begun admiring the creases at the corners of his eyes when they disappeared. He sobered. “It hurt, watching you go that day. You wouldn’t have seen, but I watched you until the marshes swallowed you up. I understoodeventuallywhy you set out on your own. I like to think I’m brave, but I realized then you’re braver than me.”
She shook her head against his hand. “That’s because I haven’t told you yet how many times I thought of running back.”
“But you didn’t so really that makes it even more true.”
“Who am I to argue with your obviously sound logic,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“Do you mean to start a quarrel with me? When we’ve only just been reunited, and you know I always win?”
A shout of laughter left her before she could stifle it, and Lux clapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide and focused on the door. She pulled her opposite hand from his to shove against his chest. “Look what you’ve made medo. We can’t draw any attention to this room. Besides, you’ve not won—ever. And the one time I believe you’re thinking of, you had a knife under my chin, and I hardly think that’s fair or should be counted.”
“You cannot call resourcefulness unfair. We will have to agree to disagree. Though Idoagree with you on not calling attention to ourselves. At least for tonight.”
“And tomorrow?” She could sense the minutes ticking closer to that official time. The clock upon the mantle confirmed it. Her dread was a rising, creeping tide. She held little doubt if she wanted to accomplish what she had set out to do that day from Ghadra, that it would be then or never.
“Cannot be avoided,” he replied. “I fulfilled their order ofTimewhen I arrived, so that part is settled, at least.” At her cry of shocked outrage, he hurriedly added, “It’s fake. It’s paint.”
Lux settled her hand over her throat for only a heartbeat before she reached and gripped his chin. “You might haveledwith that.” A corner of his mouth lifted into a smirk. A shadow of growth pricked her fingers when it did—and Lux entirely forgot what she was irritated over.
She pulled him toward her, and he came willingly. His head lowered, his hand reaching to cover hers. But his finger landed atop her nail-less one. Though the skin had healed, she couldn’t help but wince over the bare tenderness.
Shaw dropped his hand but snatched hers again right after. He turned it over while she grimaced.
“What are you doing?”
He answered with a question of his own. “What happened to your finger?”
“My nail? It was nothing.”
“I didn’t ask if it was something.”
“I… Well, I traded it.”
Shaw’s eyebrows met. First in confusion and then in something else entirely. “Forwhat?”
Devil’s tits.No, I’m not brave at all.
She already knew this, of course.
“…berries.”
Hedidn’tappreciateherexplanation. She knew he wouldn’t. It did remind her, however, to clean up the mess she’d made in her search forThe Risen.Meanwhile, Shaw returned to the armchair where she’d discarded his book in her rage. She didn’t care for it much anymore. Aside from the fact it cost an astonishing amount, its contents were tarnished and worthless as far as she was concerned. What else might they have changed?
Shaw stayed silent. He’d thought it was beyond foolish of her to offer up a piece of herself to someone she’d only just met, but she’d argued it wasn’t blood, and at any rate, it hadn’t even hurt…at first. He’d not argued after that. However, the tick in his jaw had yet to stop.
