“Does it matter?” Malachi asks.
“Yes,” I say. “Knowing which narrative they’re dealing with will help us to best them. Their motives are already out in the realm for all to see. We just have to bend it to our will.”
“Now you’re speaking like a leader,” Nash rumbles with a smirk of approval.
The fire pops. Sparks leap and vanish.
“I should have asked,” I mutter.
“We will tomorrow,” Hart says, waving the pocket mirror in the air. “Tonight, center yourself on Theo. The Idols are distractions that can wait.”
“I feel like I’m running out of time.”
I think I have PTSD from the white rabbit. Or maybe it’s my actual death that I still feel like I’m trying to outrun.
“We have time, Daphne. Just breathe. Everything’s okay,” Malachi declares.
The mountains loom around us, dark shapes carved against an even darker sky. Theo is up there somewhere, burning himself hollow. One by one, the knights settle. Malachi first, lowering himself to the ground with a stretch of his limbs, one hand still resting on Excalibur as sleep claims him. Hart follows, curling onto his side near the fire, his breathing evening out within moments as though he can will himself into rest. I envy that.
Nash remains upright the longest, unmoving, his gaze fixed on the flames as if they might confess something to him that the rest of us cannot hear.
“You’re angry,” I whisper.
“I’m focused.”
“On?”
“Everything.”
“That’s not an answer.”
He exhales slowly and raises his dark gaze to meet mine. Gone is the green, the darkness is now in charge. I don’t flinch away like he expects. “I watched you die.”
The words land heavy.
“I know.”
“And now you’re walking into fire again.”
“As is my destiny.”
“I know.”
There it is. The fracture. We’re linked through a wish he made, and the stars answered. We’re bound by an inescapable fate, and all we can do is hold tight to each other as the pain tries to drag us under. It won’t win. There’s nothing we can’t face together. Can’t he see that in his moment of weakness, he created something unbreakable?
“I don’t like that he gets this part of you,” Nash says.
My breath catches. “He doesn’t get it,” I reply. “He is it. But can’t you see you have another part of me? All of you.”
Silence stretches. He nods once before lying down. He rolls, facing away from the fire, creating a distance I won’t allow. Not now, not ever.
I jump to my feet and sink to my knees in front of him. He blinks up at me and opens his mouth to argue and push me away. I cover it with my own in a soul-stealing kiss. If my words can’t explain how I feel, then let him taste it on my lips.
He growls into my mouth before flipping me beneath him, his body settling over mine, possessing me in a way that makes my head spin. My legs wrap around his hips, and I rock myself against him in demand.
He works his hand between us, finding my panties damp with need. He tears my underwear free from my body and pushes his fingers inside me, rubbing against a spot that makes my eyes cross and my body tighten in anticipation.
I tear my mouth free. “Nash, please.” I need him to claim me. This distance is not something I will survive.
