When they broke apart, gasping, purple and gold light drifted around them like enchanted snow.
“That was…” She couldn’t finish, couldn’t find words for what had just happened.
“I know.” His forehead rested against hers, both of them breathing hard. “Hazel, I…”
A branch cracked somewhere behind them.
They jerked apart to find Azrael perched on a low tree branch, watching with his usual inscrutable expression.
“How long have you been there?” Hazel demanded, face flaming.
“Long enough.” Azrael began grooming his paw. “The hellhound training was impressive, by the way.”
Marcus cleared his throat. “We should head back.”
“Probably,” Azrael agreed. He hopped down from the branch and started toward the cabin without looking back.
They stood in the sudden quiet, the kiss still humming between them. Marcus’s eyes kept finding her lips. She kept swaying toward him without meaning to.
“Hazel.” Just her name, but the way he said it, rough and wanting, made her shiver.
“One more,” she said. “Just one more, and then we’ll go back and figure out what this means.”
“One more,” he agreed.
This kiss was slower, deeper. Without the desperate edge of the first, but with intent. His hands tangled in her hair, and she pressed closer, trying to memorize the feeling. The solid warmth of him.
When they finally broke apart, the sun had shifted, painting longer shadows through the trees.
“We should actually go back now,” he said against her lips.
“Mmm.”
“Hazel.”
“I know.” She stepped back, already missing his warmth. “Back to the cabin. Back to reality. Back to pretending this didn’t just change everything.”
He caught her hand, threading their fingers together. “This changes things.”
“I know.”
“The trial?—”
“It’s in thirteen days. I know that too.” She squeezed his hand, then let go. “But right now, in this moment, I don’t care about the trial or the future or any of it. Right now, I’m just… happy.”
His expression softened. “So am I.”
They walked back through the forest in comfortable silence, carefully not touching but painfully aware of each other.
At the cabin door, Marcus paused. “Hazel…”
“Don’t.” She pressed a finger to his lips. “Don’t analyze it or apologize or make pro and con lists. Not yet. Let’s just… let it be. Just for today.”
He kissed her finger, a gentle press of lips that somehow felt more intimate than their kisses in the clearing.
“Just for today,” he agreed.
She opened the cabin door, then looked back over her shoulder. “Marcus? For the record, today was a really good day.”
