Throat tight, I swallowed. “I like it this way,” I said softly. “The first one stays exactly where it belongs, the only thing I’ll ever wear on my wrist.”
His touch lingered, and for several beats, everything stilled. The world, my magic, the ache I’d carried for too long.
Foolishly, I let myself believe it could last.
Chapter
Fourteen
BRENTON
I layon my bed mat, reading the book Teddy gave me while I waited for Finley to return. She’d been out there for a while. First, pushing herself through magic training, then some combat drills with Everly. Meanwhile, Elias was busy doing his kingly duties and meeting with Kassidy so they could plan the day for us.
Everly’s loyalty was steel, but she’d mistaken Finley for an enemy. Yesterday morning, I had set her straight, and she’d apologized. Now all that remained was seeing if she could offer Finley the respect she deserved. The respect I demanded.
The small space still smelled of Finley, proof that my mate had spent two nights with me and hadn’t run away.
She wanted me. She chose me.
“I cannot breathe in a world where I don’t get to be with you. I’ve lived that life, I’ve suffocated in that life.”
I knew that life too well. I’d suffocated in it too. Choked on the distance we kept between us, on the torment of wanting what I thought I could never have.
When our fingers finally threaded together, it was like a fissure cracking through my chest. Something so small andinconsequential, yet it’d torn through me, letting hope flood into the crevices I hadn’t realized were starved and vacant.
Our first kiss hadn’t stolen my breath as I once imagined it might. It had given it back. Her mouth against mine, soft and yielding, had split me open, and air and light rushed in where our broken bond once pressed against me. She hadn’t simply kissed me. She’dun-suffocated me.
I smirked when I reached a page with a hidden note from my sister.
The kids and I left you a little surprise in your pack. You’re welcome.
I grabbed my bag to dig through my belongings, pushing aside the other book I’d brought, another dead end to finding out something about our gods, when my fingers brushed something hard. Already knowing what it was, I pulled it out and let out a loud bark of laughter when I held Rocko in my palm. With him being the twins’ favorite of Teddy’s growing pet rock collection, we’d had to use something stronger than magic to keep his eyes in place. So far, the epoxy glue was holding the best, though I still preferred the hot glue gun for my crafting needs.
After another quick search, I pulled out another rock with a note clipped to it in Victoria’s neat handwriting.
Uncle Brent, we know you miss Luana, so here’s Luana 2.0. We promise we’re taking good care of her and not letting Hee-haw bully her. We miss you.
The note was signed with all three girls’ signatures and two squiggly lines belonging to Caspian and Zayne. I held the paper to my chest, grinning like a fool as I took in the faint but familiar scent of my family. I missed them, their giggles and wild imaginations, even the way they thought a rock could stand in for my dog. It couldn’t. Luana was irreplaceable. And as much as I missed the younglings’ chaos and Teddy’s steadiness, it was Luana’s absence that somehow ached the sharpest.
“What’s that?” Finley asked, closing the flap of our tent.
I held the note to her, watching the smile that bloomed across her face while her eyes softened. Sweat glistened on her forehead, streaking through the dust and grime smeared across her hands.
She looked renewed, and glowed in a way that made it hard to turn away.
From the ease of her posture, I hoped things had gone well, not just with her magic but with Everly too. I wanted to believe the tension between them would lessen, that maybe friendship wasn’t so far out of reach. Still, if it ever came down to choosing, there’d be no question where my loyalty would fall.
“Which one of those rocks is Luana 2.0?” she asked.
“Neither,” I said. “Lua cannot be replaced. But this guy is Rocko.” She took the offered pebble, shaking him to make his googly eyes bounce. “It was the rock I gave Teddy on her coronation day.”
“Yes, I heard of that,” she said, shifting the rock from one hand to the other. “I don’t mean to judge, but I don’t understand the tradition or attachment humans have to rocks.”
I laughed, the kind that ripped free from my lungs before I could stop it. Then I leaned forward, gesturing for her to come closer. She sat in front of me, her knee brushing across mine while my shorts, which she still wore, rode up her toned legs.
Gods, she looked beautiful in my clothes. The sun had kissed her skin, bronzing what Niev’s winter kept pale. The sight of her wrapped in my shirt stirred something primal, and I reveled in knowing my scent would linger on her skin long after the fabric was gone.
“Can you keep a secret?” I asked, my words dipping conspiratorially, inviting her to play along.
