Page 124 of Our Radiant Embers

The implication was clear, and I struggled to think past the quiver of panic in my belly. Breathe. He doesn’t know a damn fucking thing. Just a lucky shot in the dark.

“Letting go of outdated grudges is a skill.” I smiled, aware that Liam had gone very still beside me. “You should try it sometime.”

“Sure,” Bianca said. “Just as soon as you climb off that high horse you’re surgically attached to.”

“Oh, this old thing? It’s more of a pedestal, really.” I ignored it when Cassandra stepped on my foot and kept talking—all attention on me, none on Gale. “It gives me the perfect vantage point to study how long one can survive on hot air and self-righteousness. For science, you understand.”

“Cute,” Jasper hissed and clearly meant the opposite.

“All right, everyone.” Cassandra’s voice had taken on a decisive edge. “I believe that’s quite enough for tonight. How about you”—she nodded at Bianca and Jasper—“make your way back? We’ll be right behind you.”

She was right. Trading barbed insults was a beloved sport in our community, but our history with the Ashtons meant this could escalate.

I inhaled through my nose and focused on my magic, felt her lick at the air in anticipation of a pounce. Not today. When I glanced at Liam, he was looking at me in that slightly unfocused way I now recognised. I drew my magic to me like a blanket, and his eyes cleared.

A handful of snide comments later, Jasper and Bianca made to leave. I took half a step aside to let them pass, and it wasn’t an accident when Jasper’s shoulder bumped mine, hard. Arse. I held my tongue.

Once they were gone, brief silence spun out, broken only by the gentle trickle of water and the buzz of insects that moved between the plants. I closed my eyes and counted two breaths, three. Then I turned to Gale, my pulse unsteady in my ears.

“What the hell were you thinking?”

“We just wanted to have a look around,” Laurie jumped in to respond, defiance in her tone. “Someone mentioned the greenhouse and it sounded cool. How were we supposed to know they were going to follow us?”

“You know better,” I told Gale when what I really wanted to say was, I should have been there. Maybe a hint of it showed because he raised his head.

“I’m not made of candy floss, you know?” He met my eyes, frowning just slightly. “You can’t protect me forever.”

“I can bloody well try!” It came out far harsher than I intended, guilt twisting like poison through my blood. I should have fucking been there. And I hadn’t been because I’d been…distracted. Selfish. Caught up in Liam to the point where I couldn’t see straight anymore—blinded by him, acting like tomorrow was light years away.

Gale stared at me with a flat expression. “You sound like our father.”

“He’s right about some things,” I shot back, dimly aware of Cassandra’s hand on my shoulder, Laurie watching me with a raised eyebrow.

“Adam.” Liam’s voice was quiet, soothing, an anchor for my spinning thoughts. “They were being arseholes, yeah. But they wouldn’t have hurt them right under Archer Summers’ nose—not unless they have a death wish.”

I turned to face him, gravity tripping along my spine. God, I was in love with him—the flecks of green in his ocean eyes, his brilliant mind, and the way he touched me.

But I had to let him go.

“They’re like piranhas, Liam.” My throat hurt. “They smelled blood in the water, and they’re not going to let up until they trace it to its source.”

We’d have to orchestrate ways for Gale to casually display powers he didn’t have. One of the construction sites maybe, pretend it was his doing while I stood innocently by. Make sure that word got out. He’s a Sun, no doubt about it.

Maybe we couldn’t fool the world forever. But the Ashtons had four Novas in their ranks; we were just three. Last time we’d clashed, my mother had evened the odds, but not anymore, and now we needed—we needed—God. Bringing Cassandra into our ranks, fully expanding the alliance with the Hartleys—no. I couldn’t ask that of her.

Liam’s weapons. He didn’t generally sell them, but—but, no. It would mean asking him to betray his own beliefs and moral code, and I couldn’t do that either. This was on me.

“Let’s head back,” Cassandra said after a quiet moment, and it vaguely felt like I should apologise for something, but I didn’t know what. My head was stuffed with cotton, my heart cast in a layer of lead.

Here we were, at the end of everything.

* * *

Pale moonlight snuck through gaps between the curtains. It cast ghostly trails across the contours of Liam’s face, shifting as he moved—there then not. How bloody symbolic.

One last time.

Just one last time so I could memorise every line, every shadow—the map of his back as I ran my hands along his spine, the husky murmur of his voice that wouldn’t travel past the walls of his bedroom, the way his tongue curled around mine before he slid down my body. Breathing hurt as shards of glass got stuck in my lungs.

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