Candlelight swirled around me, but my ankles failed and I toppled to the left.
Derrick caught me and I looked up at him. The black pits in the center of his eyes had swallowed up everything but a thin ring of blue.
His delicious scent of oak and vanilla drew me in. My hands found his chest, his heart pounding like a drum against my palm. His lips were so close to mine.
I wanted him. Forsolong, I had wanted him…
But then the memory of what my mother had done tore through my mind.
I spread my hands against his chest. “I hate your father! He made my mother kiss you!”
Derrick’s smile did not falter. “What?” Then he blinked and shook his head. “Right! This helps me forget!”
He held out a thin silver canister that looked like a tiny flute. I picked it up—it was colder than an icicle against my fingertips. “What is it?”
His smile stayed on but his breathing was shallow. “Uncle Ragnar said it makes the pain go away.”
My thumb flipped open the lid. What a clever contraption! The metallic tang of silver hit my nose, but was it all silver? Something was underneath it…something stronger.
I took a deep sniff and breathed in a cloud of dust.
Fluffy pink clouds floated around us. Winged babies sang. Derrick and I swirled together, dancing in a dream. Every fiber of my body was awake and asleep at the same time.
“Derrick.” Even my sigh was a song. “Derrick, is this the first time we have danced?”
“Yes, my darling.” His voice wrapped around my waist and pulled me in closer. “A thousand wishes will never change what was written in the stars.”
“And I will shine forever,” I answered. “Because I am the sun.”
Someone had likened me to the sun once…too bad I could not remember who.
Derrick’s watery eyes made me gasp. “Derrick! You cannot be sad on your birthday!”
His lip trembled. “A thousand wishes. I should have made a thousand and one more. Then maybe it could have been us.”
“No, Derrick!” My hands searched his doublet until I found the pocket with the tiny cold flute. “Make the sad go away! Make it all go away!”
His hands found my jaw and lifted my face. I raised onto the tips of my toes as his lips found mine.
He tasted like an endless dream.
Derrick kissed my jaw, then my cheek. I was limp in his arms as his lips traced my cheekbone to the shell of my ear. He nipped my earlobe and I choked on a gasp. Every hair on my arms stood on end as he whispered, “Mine.”
The flying babies sang higher as he dipped me backward. Magical little dust sprinkled on the column of my throat. Derrick’s tongue followed the dust in a line, tasting me all the way up to the underside of my jaw before his mouth found mine again.
His tongue traced the dust against mine until stars exploded behind my eyes.
My breasts pressed against my bodice. Hands explored the laces on my back. Lips and teeth caressed my neck as my chin tipped up toward the night.
This was our dream, sweet and pink and beautiful. No one else was amongst the clouds but me and Derrick, my Midnight.
His breath caressed the shell of my ear. “I love you, Serafina. Do not seal your blood bond.Please.”
Blood bond? Oh, silly Derrick! “I do not have a blood bond anymore.”
Derrick jerked back and grabbed my jaw. His eyes were new moons as he examined me. “Is he dead? Did the plan work?”
Waswhodead? “No. The blood bond is gone. Magic of the mountain.” I raised my hands, pushing away the pink cloud that was floating between us. “Poof!”
