Chapter 45
Chapter Forty-Five
Vale moves with caution. As much as the sight of me in tears ignites an immediate call to action in him, Vale discerns—this is different.
Resting his hand on my thigh, his touch anchors me while still allowing me to marvel at the miraculous flow all around.
It’s surreal and overwhelming. Finally—I look away from all of the magic coursing around me. I look to Vale, tears still fresh across my cheeks.
He doesn’t move. He waits. When I am finally ready, I speak.
“No words I say will ever do it justice.” My voice catches in my throat, a crack running deep down to my soul. Nothing after this moment will ever be the same.
I look into his eyes. Those dark pools of umber that have always held such light.
I see it there too. Fainter now, everything around me still thrumming with life but subdued, the way crowded voices soften into one incoherent sound.
But the light behind his eyes… gods. I feel as if I am seeing right into the heart of him.
The man he is. All the pain and love. More than even our most intimate moments have revealed shines outward now.
I clutch his hand and place it over my heart. It’s beating wildly. His eyes shift between awe and concern.
“It’s not just the Song of Caerhollan, it’s the life force behind everything.” My eyes scan the vast forest surrounding us. My perception is less vivid than it was moments ago, but it’s all still so palpable.
Vale rises until he is sitting upright next to me, wrapping an arm around me. His hold is gentler than usual. He seems to understand this is not something I need protecting from but a miracle of a moment for us to share together. “And now that you’ve found it, what would you like to do, my flame?”
Possibilities flood my mind. “I want to experience it all,” I say, the words spilling out on a breath.
“I want to know if fruit tastes different, if the wind has a song I have never heard before, if…” The idea snaps into place.
I made it this far without him questioning my sanity—surely my next actions won’t change that.
I pull at the laces of my boots, loosening them and tossing them to the side.
Each strap or button tying leather and linen in place across my body is undone and falls into a pile, save the thin layer of my undergarments.
Vale begins pulling at his own buttons with a watchful eye.
This man would follow me to the ends of the earth just to see if I smiled at what I saw. My heart warms at the thought.
I stand, and he matches my movements, removing his shirt and setting it down next to the boots he’s already taken off. I reach for his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze before moving toward the shimmering pool.
He stands there watching as I slowly dip into the waters.
The air warms as sunlight shines through the opening in the trees above, but the water remains crisp against my skin. Getting my footing, I spy a drop-off deep enough to fully submerge. I take a leap.
Beneath the surface, a new harmony surrounds me.
The frigid water makes my skin prickle, but I feel the way it seems to envelop me with its own curiosity.
I hold my breath a moment. Crossing my legs, I sink to the bottom.
Silence—and yet not. A resonance seems to bounce off the stony shore and back to me.
I feel the current filling the pool and settling around me before passing on to the awaiting stream.
Its fluid motion is more than the flow of water alone.
Just as the stone seemed to carry a pulse, so too does this.
I breach the surface calmly, arms stretched wide to carry me up and hold there. Vale’s laugh echoes through the woods, and birds take flight at the resounding boom. For a long while, he just watches me.
I lay on my back, floating there, drinking in the sensations.
I can sense the way roots sink into the earth just from the smell of it carried through the air.
The low tumble of the water as it meets rock on its way down to the pool reverberates through me, and I feel connected to the very life force of the land.
Overcome by it all, I move closer to the shore, closer to Vale. “Join me,” I call out. I needn’t ask him twice.
Buttons already loosened, he removes his pants and meets me at the water’s edge. Leaning over the large stone where we basked, he spots the same deep spot near the center of the pool. I move aside to allow him entrance.
Before I can react, he takes a large stride back, then runs to the edge, leaping into the air. I barely get my arm up in time to shield my face as the explosion surges all around, Vale disappearing into the hollow crater created in his wake.
He surfaces quickly, shaking his head until his hair is wildly disheveled around his face. My laughter carries across the air, and for a moment I wonder if he can hear the song too—only to realize my voice is his favorite tune.
He stays there in the center, moving just enough to keep near the surface, sending ripples my way with each shift. When at last he moves toward me, finding the ground beneath our feet, water still touching my shoulders and his chest, he wraps his arms around my waist.
“I thought perhaps the magic lived in you,” he confides. “But I see the way you look at the world. I always have. And now, now I can see that whatever has happened, whatever you have found—it’s all around us, isn’t it?”
I nod at his question, loving the way this man knows me so well. He pulls me closer and we both look all around us.
“I’ve often wished I could see the way things look through your eyes, even more now. If you ever find the words, I would be honored to hear them.”
I press my hand to his chest and rest my head. So many moments I have wanted to lock away and live in their memory forever, and this one may be my new favorite.
Vale lifts me up, and I wrap my legs around him, just as I did when we first arrived at this spot earlier in the day.
I lay back and half-float, still linked around his waist. Swaying just slightly, I allow my body to flow with the water.
It seems as if it is forming around me even more than I am simply lying in its hold—a sensation that is confirmed when I rise.
Lifting myself, I feel the water still pressed up against my back until the moment I thread my hands around Vale’s neck.
It all falls down in a column, the undeniable sound of it crashing in its release.
I clutch more tightly around Vale, and we both look over my shoulder, stunned for a beat as the very laws of nature seem to have been suspended.
“It seems someone wants to play,” I say with a laugh to the water more than to Vale or myself. I turn to him and admit what I have now come to realize. “I was trying to take without giving.” Quiet guilt settles over my misguided training attempts of the last days. “That’s not how this works.”
I settle into the crook of his neck and rest my head on his shoulder. “We’re already given so much, and yet we take and take.” A heavy sigh escapes me at having taken it for granted.
I look back at all the majesty around me, and I am grateful beyond measure that it has allowed me to bear witness, let alone has responded to me. “I have to do better. We have to do better.”
“If anyone can show us the way, it’s you, my flame.” Cradling my head, he looks down at me with such adoration before kissing me on the forehead tenderly.
“You’re shaking,” he says, rubbing at my arms.
“I know how you can warm me up,” I whisper, pulling us closer for a kiss with a bit more heat behind it.
As the fire between us grows, so does the flush across my skin.
Without warning, Vale stills. He breaks the kiss by the smallest degree, just enough for his breath to brush my lips. A flicker of suspicion crosses his face.
“It’s not… watching us, is it?” he murmurs.
I laugh softly. The question isn’t unreasonable—not with the way the world itself seems to stir around us—but the truth of its nature feels settled in me now.
“No,” I say gently, warmth and certainty braided in my voice. “Not like that, love. It listens… but only to our hearts. To our intent.”
I feel the shift in him as the unease fades, replaced by trust. His arms tighten around me, sure again.
Still, when he begins to move us across the pool, guiding us until the waterfall thunders down his back, I can’t help but wonder if it’s so the forest itself won’t hear any sound I may no longer be able to contain.
Pleased with himself for his tactics, his hands move over my exposed flesh with new urgency.
I burn beneath each caress and kiss. Having seen how magic is woven through every living thing, I know without question it runs through us now.
I glimpsed the gold in his eyes moments after my awakening—as our bodies answer each other’s nearness on nothing but instinct, that same wild power coils through me.
It is transcendent.
As the proof of his desire presses against me, I relax into his hold. Some fires are meant to rise, others are meant to last. I fully intend to take my time.
My head falls back into his hand, fingers caught in my hair. He doesn’t tug—not yet. I ease into him in every way. My shoulders roll along my back as every natural urge within me surrenders to the moment.
He lifts me in a light, rocking rhythm. The friction between us sends a pulse low through my body. I bite at his bottom lip, asking for more without a word. Our thin garments cling to our wet skin, a sheer barrier drawing out the exquisite torture of not yet joining in full.
The sun breaks through the canopy above in a widening spill of gold, warming my chilled skin inch by inch. Droplets on my shoulders catch the light and glow like scattered embers. A breeze drifts through the trees, slow and lazy now, carrying the heat of the day across my back and down my spine.