Trying to shake her out of her somber state, I toss out, “Imagine it, sunshine.” I imitate finger guns, blowing each off before tucking my hands back in my pockets.
It hits the mark, the corner of her lips quirking up in a small smile. “Gods, could you imagine? Every time I’d lift a hand for a high five, people racing away in a panic?” She brings her fingertips to her lips in a chef’s kiss. “Simply beautiful.”
Stone slowly follows my lead, shooting a bolt of lightning out of his finger at the nearest tree, smoke rising as pieces of wood splinter off and go flying. “No imagining necessary, beautiful. It’s absolutely possible, you just need to put some time into practicing.”
Eyes wide, she looks between the tree and Stone before throwing her arms up in defeat and stalking away. “Oh, fuck you. Two days, and you’re the quickest draw in the east? I’m not practicing around you, you damn show off.”
While he tries not to laugh, I scoop up our mate, finding a seat on a nearby boulder and forcing her to straddle my lap. Lacing my fingers behind her lower back, I beam down at her. “Don’t stress, he does the same shit to the rest of us. If anything, you should be flattered that he thinks so much of you that he’s not pulling punches anymore and showing you how annoying he really is.”
Dramatically loud, I whisper, “He considers you an equal, recognizes your dangerous potential. I’m pretty sure if you hit him with a bolt during sex and gave him his first out of body experience, he’d hand over the keys to his precious Aston Martin.”
Stone opens his mouth to tell me off, pauses, and shrugs. “Yeah, that’s fair.”
Amara wraps her arms around my neck with a chuckle, kissing me hard and fast before slipping off my lap and eyeing Stone. “I’m not a car person, is that a good one?”
I commit his eye twitch to memory.
“Yes.” He takes a deep breath. “I’ll buy you one if you’d like.”
A mischievous glint flares to life in our deceptively sweet mate’s eyes. “That seems silly if you already own one. We can just share yours.”
Raiden covers his mouth, chest silently shaking as he fights back his laughter. To Stone’s credit, he catches on quickly and narrows his eyes on her, grabbing her hips and dragging her closer.
“Alright, then. Show me what you’ve got, and I’ll let you take it for a spin,” he offers, and I know how much that cost him.
That car is literally theonepleasure Stone has ever allowed himself to have in all of his years. I’m ninety-nine percent sure if the castle were on fire, he’d leave me and Raiden for dead and bring it as his date to our funeral.
Amara seems to sense this, cutting him some slack and turning her focus inward. None of us say a word so she can concentrate, and my stomach is a riotous mass of trepidation. If she can’t tap into other sources and the block really is something worse? She very well may never try again.
This has to work.
Ten minutes later, the air around us builds like a coming storm, the fine hairs on my arms standing on end. A split second later, a bolt of electricity races out of her palm to the ground beside her. My grin falters as I catch the furrow of Stone’s brow and his frown, but he hides it right before Amara looks up at him in victory.
He crushes his lips against hers in a fierce kiss and demands, “One more time, beautiful. Give it everything you’ve got.”
This time, rather than watch Amara, I study Stone’s face closely. The longer the stretch goes on as she builds up a catch of energy to release, the deeper the lines in his face become. Once more, when she releases it, he wipes away every trace of concern before she catches sight of it.
“How do you feel?”
Tilting her head, she does a systems check before answering. “Kind of tired, but not too bad. Sort of like exercising muscles I’m not used to using.”
Raiden takes that as his cue, swooping in to save her from further testing. “We don’t want to overdo it, especially since you’re still recovering. Sit for a bit and drink some water.” He tugs a bottle from the satchel, taking a seat on the ground and dragging her with him.
Poor guy’s still so shaken up, he tries to hold it to her lips like she’s an invalid.
“Raiden,” she sputters with a laugh, wiping her mouth on her wrist and snatching the bottle out of his hands. “I’m perfectly capable of drinking by myself.”
With a heavy sigh, he clasps his hands over her stomach and rests his chin on her shoulder. “Two days. Two days, and you barely moved the entire time. Gods, I kept checking to make sure you were evenbreathing,you were so unnaturally still.Now you’re up here stretching the limits of your abilities so you can be prepared to protect yourself the next time we fail you?”
He turns his head, pressing a kiss to the side of her jaw. “You scare the hell out of me, Amara. I want to be everything you need, but I don’t know how, and it’s driving me crazy.”
“I never asked you to be my everything. I never asked for a damn thing.Youthree insisted on chipping down my defenses until I gave in to your stupid, chivalrously endearing charms. As for what I need?” She closes her eyes, resting her cheek against the side of his head. “I just need you, Raiden. The insomniac with control issues that needs my help now and then because he’s so busy worrying about everyone else, he forgets to take care of himself. Stop trying to be everything for me, and just be you; for me.”
An invisible weight falls from Raiden’s shoulders, some of the tension he always carries fading away as he soaks up the peace that only Amara can offer. Nothing more needs to be said, and the following silence is comfortable. For a little while, we all simply lounge around, absorbing the crisp air and staring down at a world that doesn’t want us to exist, but content that we truly don’t give a shit about the opinions of strangers.
I reach over to toy with a lock of Amara’s hair, watching her from the corner of my eye while she stares off into the clouds. Eventually she sighs, but it’s more amused than exhausted. “If you have something you want to say, Kodi, just spit it out already.”
Swallowing my nerves, I cut right to the chase. “Since we’ve solved the mystery of your abilities, I have to go for broke and ask. Do you have any impulses that don’t feel like your own, but sound like a reeeaaaaaally good idea?”
