As Zayn pointed at this and that, talking about ideas for adding on things to the house, I smiled. He was priceless. He’d even been going over some future plans for the four of us once this nightmare was over, what we’d do, how we’d be, all sorts of things.
He really was so special.
My mind kept wandering back to that day of my big Exalt meeting, and the time we’d spent together right before, how he’d helped me and just been so amazing, like the culmination of all that he was had come out in those moments.
“What we all have is special to me. You’re special to me. I needed you to be secure in that.”
“You’re so special to me, too.”
“Everything’s okay now. You can let go and just be. I promise. I’m here. We’re all here and we adore you.”
“No… leaving?”
“No. Of course not. I mean, except for this meeting right now.”
“Right.”
“But in the way you mean it, absolutely not. No fucking way. Is that clear enough for you?”
“Yes. It actually is. You’re so fierce and full of conviction with stuff like this… it really sets in deep. Just bring that same sort of thing during your meeting, and you’ll be golden.”
“Yeah?”
“There’s not one sliver of doubt in my mind.”
I blinked back to the immediate.
It hit me then. Why I kept recalling that.
That was the day I’d come so close to telling him that I loved him.
To actually saying it out loud.
I’d loved all my boys for a while now, but I’d just… I guess I’d wanted things to be right when I actually voiced it. Then thingshad just kept coming at us. That ‘right’ and perfect time hadn’t come.
But then Winter had done something to that for me when he’d uttered those three amazing words on the battlefield that day.
And it hadn’t mattered what the circumstances were, what had been surrounding us at the time. All that had mattered were those words.
“Ooh, these are perfect,” I heard Zayn cry, and I looked to see him walking over to some flowers. Dahlias—a deep plum shade—growing a few feet away.
He crouched down, appearing to study them.
There were a lot of different kinds all over the grounds, like hydrangeas, tulips, even some sunflowers.
I watched curiously as, after a few moments, his magic sparked, and then he was forming a fiery version of the dahlia with his fuchsia Ifrit flame.
He walked back to me and held it out between us.
“Aww, it’s beautiful, Zayn.” He’d captured every intricate detail of the petals.
His eyes sparkled at me. “Breathe your ice onto it. Your Chill Blast.”
Before I could, he got so excited to tell me, “I was talking to Professor Fyla Warrin who teaches myCreative Artistry in Flamecraft and Shadowcraftclass, about you and me, how we’d collaborated in class and despite being ice versus flame, we’d melded our magic and abilities really well together. She said that normally that’s not easy to do, and with it coming so well to us, it might be possible for us to pull offEcliptic Convergence. You know of it?”
I nodded. “It’s a rarity. It involves fusing our powers into thermal equilibrium—fire laced with crystalline frost.”
“Right. Cool, huh?”
