Only a few feet of space separated us, but it felt like a chasm. I took a small step forward, eating up some of the distance between us. “I waited for you. Right here, almost the entire time.” I pointed to my sleeping bag on the floor in the corner. “I didn’t know what had become of you, but I hoped…”
“That had to be hard for you.” His eyes softened imperceptibly, but I was so attuned to him now that I didn’t miss it.
A lump formed in my throat, so I nodded rather than respond. He had no idea what that time had been like. Not knowing if he’d been alive or dead, or if he’d ever come back to me, had been torture.
“How did Arthur find out that you’d helped steal his talisman and let me go?” I asked, trying to focus on something else.
Gage ran an agitated hand through his hair. “My magic,” he bit out. “He brought in a specialist who was able to pull traces of it off the safe we broke into. Once that lie fell apart, he was able to deduce most of the truth. He obviously didn’t take it well that I’d betrayed him.”
“Gage…” I took another step forward, bringing us almost toe to toe. His own father had attacked and injured him so brutally he would have died if not for the angels in Avalon. And it was my fault. If I hadn’t blackmailed him into helping me, he wouldn’t have been hurt. I didn’t know what baggage this new Gage carried, but I had to wonder if he even wanted me in his life.
“You still have his talisman?” Gage asked.
I nodded. Aurelia had it under lock and key. A look of relief spread over Gage’s face. “Good. His anger makes him unpredictable, and unpredictability is dangerous, but at least he’s not as powerful as he would be with his talisman.”
I took a deep breath to steady myself, sucking in a lungful of air that was tinged with Gage’s unique spicy and sweet scent.
There were so many things I wanted to talk about. My feelings for him. His for me. Our last real interaction before he showed up in front of Lumen Academy on the brink of death had been explosive. We’d both said hurtful things, but that kiss…
My lips tingled from just the memory of it. There had been an attraction between Gage and me since the moment we met. We’d both tried to ignore it, but we were like magnets pulled to each other by an invisible force. Now that he was literally back from the dead, I wasn’t interested in ignoring it any longer, but I didn’t know how to break down these walls between us.
I couldn’t help it when my gaze slipped down his face to rest on his perfectly sinful lips.
A low growl emanated from Gage’s chest. It was only when I felt the rumble underneath my palm that I realized I’d raised my hand to touch him.
“You know I don’t really hate you, right?” I said, referencing the harsh words I’d spat at him in the dark alleyway after our kiss.
The corner of his mouth pulled into a half-cocked smirk. “I know. But I still think you’re my weakness.”
I looked into his eyes so that I could read his expression. Being someone’s weakness wasn’t good, right?
“If I have to have a weakness, I’m glad it’s you,” he said, lifting a hand and running the pad of his thumb over my bottom lip. “So soft,” he mumbled, and then his lips were on mine.
A whimper of relief ripped from my mouth, and he inhaled the sound, our tongues reaching out to meet each other. His hands gripped both sides of my face as I deepened the kiss, pressing my body fully against his. Gage growled and the butterflies in my stomach increased tenfold.
Kissing Gage was an out-of-this-world event. I’d never been so consumed by someone in my entire life as I was when our bodies were this close. His lips, the soft stroke of his tongue, the warmth of his breath, and the tender way he caressed my jaw with his thumbs, it was overwhelming in the best way and melted all the worries from only moments before into a puddle that leaked through the cracks and then disappeared.
Gage moved from my lips to my collarbone, peppering small kisses along the exposed skin there before moving up to my nose and planting one peck before dipping back down to my throat.
“Tate, you have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that,” he muttered against my neck.
I just nodded, not trusting myself to speak. I was drunk on Gage and in disbelief that he was really here in front of me, holding me.
For weeks I’d slept on this cold hard floor in the hopes that one day Gage would walk back out of that portal alive, and now that he was here, I was in shock.
I finally collected myself and leaned back, meeting his stormy green eyes.
“Does it… hurt?” I asked, lightly skimming my hand over his back where the raised scars were.
Gage immediately stiffened and pulled away. “It’s fine. Should we go out and see the others now?” was all he said, but I saw something shutter in his gaze before he turned away from me. He was blocking me out, hiding some part of himself, and that didn’t feel good.
I took a deep breath, telling myself I needed to cut Gage a break. He’d been through a lot, of course it was going to take him some time to process before he wanted to talk about what happened in Avalon. Maybe we weren’t on the exact same page, but we were definitely reading the same book. It was okay that we weren’t perfectly in sync, because now that he was back we had time to get there.
We started to leave, but right before we shoved through the doors, Gage stopped and glanced over his shoulder at the portal to Avalon.
“Give me a second?” he asked.
“You’re not planning on hopping back in, are you?” I asked with a nervous chuckle.
