70. Maren #2
Slanting my gaze at Kye, I leaned back in my chair. “To use our disadvantage to our advantage. They have the numbers—fine. We have stealth. And something else.” Their heads turned, following my line of gaze to Kye, who lifted his brows, waiting.
My fingers ran smoothly down the wall of his mind, until it evanesced away like seafoam between the rocks at sunrise.
He gazed back, and I wasn’t sure if we were in his mind or my own as I stroked his arm down to his hand, lacing my own into it.
Selena’s apartment faded away, tucked into the corner of my head along with all the thoughts I didn’t need at the moment: Naiad song and star wielding and gardening by moonlight.
He watched it all fade in wonder. We hadn’t done this before, walking into each other’s mind through our rings, throwing a veil over the rest of the world so that for a moment, only our souls existed.
Nothing surrounded us. A vast, deep, endless nothing, sparkling like the stars.
Kye’s brow stretched. What are we doing?
An experiment, I murmured, leaning into his chest. You won’t tell me to stay behind, thinking to protect me. I’ll be at your side, and you’ll be at mine.
He smiled, tucking a tendril behind my ear. The days when I thought I could tell you to do anything are over, Leihani.
As are the days when we separate.
His fingers slowed behind my ear.
Darkness’s voice whispered through Kye’s head, as clear in my own. You will become a servant of mine. Just like the Abyssi.
I hurried on, not wanting to discuss my bargain with the god, nor the future repercussions of such an agreement, dragging his hand to my neck and down my chest, leading him on a slow excursion of dips and valleys.
His breath hitched, a pause so long I could have counted the seconds in between the last one and the next.
My ancient markings flared under his touch.
He traced them like he was reading scripture.
A prayer he’d been reciting his entire life.
My experiment fell wayward as the dark gleam in his stare rooted deep within my bones, reverent and far away and as close as the sound of his heart, a hymn uncaged and seeking its own oblivion.
I probably should have waited until we were alone to wander into his thoughts, the core of him an intoxicating whirr in my head.
Every moment here was wine in my veins, and freedom gazed at me with gold woven in its eyes and violent patience in its blood, a crescent moon etched over his lip as if I’d marked him as mine the day we met.
I’m not sure if time stopped, or if it was moving so fast that we were two statues, locked in the churn of each other’s gaze. Maybe we were two constellations lost among the stars, our hearts made of fire and our souls of dust.
His mouth blazed against my collarbone. I hadn’t felt his heat in months now, but here in my mind, he was scorching.
I’d forgotten how warm he was, how I melted into him like gold over a forge.
Hands drove into my hair, tipping my head back as he nipped and kissed and cracked me wide, drinking my moan from the vibration in my throat.
I pulled away to see him, half-lidded and dizzy with fever, and remembered what I’d wanted to discover in the first place.
Every inch of Kye was glowing, sunbursts across his neck a searing white, disappearing under his shirt.
My lungs caught. I leaned away, studying him, and the sparkling nothing around us faded.
A flurry of faces stared at us both, shifting awkwardly as our breath ran ragged. My markings illuminated the surface of my skin, but Kye’s tattoos radiated like liquid fire.
Focus diverted to the map; Hadrian trapped a smile between his teeth. He looked like a carbonated bottle of volare, shaken and a moment away from bursting to laughter. My father had propped his elbow on the table, hiding his mouth behind a hand.
Diara regarded us both dryly. “I don’t want to know.”
I ignored them, angling my attention at Kye, who looked like he’d just been denied a raft in the middle of the ocean. “You can access your Sola power. You always had this glow when you felt something. Truly felt something. How bright can you shine?”
“I’m not sure.” He looked at me as if no one else existed in the room with us, a dark craving in his stare that stole the water from my mouth. “I’ve never noticed I glowed.”
“Really?” I didn’t try to hide the surprise from my voice. “Not when you left me on Neris Island? Or when you ripped Burian off me on the pirate ship? Or when you found me flayed and tied to a tree?”
“Mihauna alive,” my father muttered.
I turned in my seat, facing Kye fully. “You didn’t notice it when Thaan grabbed me in Selena’s office and started dragging me away? His water drops steamed off your skin. No one else could move through it.”
“Leihani,” Kye said wryly, “I wasn’t looking at myself in any of those moments. I was only looking at you.”
I sat back in my chair, something warm and smooth and brilliant curling in my chest, drizzling through my blood like heated honey.
Kazimir cleared his throat.
“Mhmm,” my father agreed.
“Well then,” Diara sighed, after a few moments of silence standing up. “Shall we regroup in a few hours?”
My eyes didn’t leave Kye’s as they filed out, mumbling that we still needed a plan, until Pheolix was the only one left.
The drone crossed his arms, a smirk growing over his mouth.
“I may be blind, but I can smell you both from across the table.” He pushed out of his chair, drifting toward Selena’s bedroom.
“Might as well get it over with so we can get back to work.”
The door snicked shut behind him, and for a moment, neither of us said a word.
Then Kye stood, and I stood too.
All thought evaporated from my head like a blood rush, and I leaned into him, dazed at how close his body suddenly was to mine. He curled his fingers around my hand, leading me through the study to the opposite door, with no one but the spiders in their webs to watch us go.