Kell’s laughing grin faded into curiosity. The music slid off his fingertips. “What is it?”
“Set that down,” Saeldian said.
He did. “All right. What is it?”
Saeldian let themself cross the distance and stand close enough to brush Kell’s hair away from his eyes. When those eyes widened, Saeldian bent to kiss him.
It was seamless. Kell stood up and caught Saeldian in his arms and saved them from the trouble of standing on knees gone weak. He kissed them like he’d been waiting to do it for ages. Kell kissed Saeldian like nothing, no one in the world could mean more than this moment. Saeldian fit in Kell’s arms perfectly; their head rested in Kell’s steady, cradled hand, and not a single mark in all their life could have taught them what it was like to kiss someone like it should have happened years ago, like it would happen in all their tomorrows—like Kell would give them the shelter of his arms and stop the world for them to kiss like this—
Saeldian’s fist closed over the gem. They looked at the honey-golden wooden bed, the rumpled blankets, and the hourglass still sitting on the bedside table with all its sand in the bottom, because Saeldian didn’t want to remember what happened next, when they had realized what they were doing. Saeldian remembered how cold their heart felt, how they felt the warmth of Kell’s arms and shivered with what they’d just done. They had stepped back and made some excuse to stop, lied about talking about it in the morning, and left Kell alone in his room to cast an illusion cantrip.
When it still worked, Saeldian ran away from Kell and Baldur’s Gate and everything they would lose if they didn’t.
“Fuck.”
This was the real Kiss of Enduring Love.
“Saeldian.”
The door opened, and Kell Redsong stood staring at Saeldian with the gem in their hand and their pack at their feet.
“I know how this looks,” Saeldian said. “Believe me, I know. But it’s not what you think.”
“Dad told me what you said,” Kell said. “Were you wrong?”
Saeldian’s relief made them feel sick. Kell believed them. He didn’t reach for the worst explanation. He trusted them.
That hurt worse than they had assumed. Saeldian shook their head. “Get Lorzok and Jubilee.”
Footsteps clattered behind Kell. “We’re here. What’s going on?”
“It’s a scam,” Kell said. “That’s the real Kiss of Enduring Love. The reverse heist was only reversed on us.”
Chapter Twenty
Withering
Where Saeldian’s Second Hunch Is Tested
They managed to fit in Kell’s room, but only barely. Lorzok sniffed at the air before remembering himself. “You’re sure?”
Saeldian closed the door behind them and said, “We’ve been had. We stole the Kiss of Enduring Love. The real one.”
“What?” Jubilee swiped her hands down her face. “Shit!”
“That doesn’t make any sense. Why make us steal a fake at the party?” Lorzok said.
Jubilee folded her arms. “That’s the scam. Bumping up the buy-in. We went through a real burglary to get a fake so we wouldn’t question what we were doing.”
“So we would think we were doing the right thing instead of the wrong one,” Kell said. “Would you have agreed to steal a gem from an archfey, Lorzok?”
“I would not,” Lorzok said. “Neither would you. Nor would Jubilee—”
He stopped talking, uncomfortable.
“That’s all right, Lorzok,” Saeldian said. “We all know I would have picked it right out of her pockets. But I’m not certain stealing the gem is the point.”
“Why not?” Jubilee asked.
