Page 173 of What Lies Within Masks & Shadows

“What you did for Jade…” His voice was a tender caress. “Thank you. She would normally be standing in the shadows, so far ash could not touch her, on nights such as this.” Silver eyes glistened in the starlight, turning to her. “Do not take this lightly, though. Giving your magic away is very dangerous. That part of you, your magic, will always feel the missing piece. It will weaken you.”

Alora couldn’t stop watching as Jade threw her head back, mouth wide, swelling her cheeks in a smile. “She’s worth it.”

“Indeed.” Garrik watched Thalon lift and hold Jade in the air. Then he fell back in the grass, folded his arms under his head, and closed his eyes.

A sly smile crept up Alora’s face. Maybe from that quick gentleness or merely because she occasionally wondered. “You and Jade. Was that ever a thing?”

Garrik’s eyes opened, side-eying her, his grin twisted. “Never.”

“Calla?” Alora smirked back.

Garrik’s head rotated on his bicep, furrowing his eyebrows with intrigue. “Calla?”

“I saw the way she hugged you. Maybe you should visit her tonight, would certainly make a pleasurable end to your birthday.” Alora gently elbowed him with a wink.

He scoffed, shaking his head. “I do not desire Calla. And from what I have seen in her mind, she would sooner visit Aiden. I am not entirely sure they have not … I do not want to know.”

Alora fell back on the grass and folded her arms underneath her head. “Has there ever been anyone?”

The echoes of music and frivolous laughing filled the silence for a moment.

“None that I truly desired.”

Alora pivoted her head when she heard him shuffle, meeting his glowing silver irises.

“Not until you came, of course. You kissed me in my bed that first night and I knew I was forever yours.”

The sarcasm was enough to irritate her wholly. “Mighty bastard.” She gently kicked his leg, making him chuckle. “Seriously, though. There really hasn’t been anyone?”

Garrik turned his head to the stars. The exploding bursts of shapes and patterns illuminated his face in hues of crimson, navy, and emerald. He was silent much longer than she expected when the gleam in his eyes dulled, rippling some brutal ache inside her chest.

“I have never willingly shared a bed with anyone.” His voice so low, she could barely hear him.

Alora’s eyes raked down his abdomen, watching the steady rise and fall of his breaths as the black tunic covered his rigid scars below. She should’ve realized, after all, she knew a small amount of his past. And from the change in his eyes, she knew she went too far.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked you this.”

Garrik still stared into the stars. “You can ask me anything.”

But she knew that ‘anything’ didn’t meananything.

Alora rolled onto her side, propping her head in her palm. Magic exploded in the sky, its detonation far louder than the rest. Garrik winced as if the sound had injured him. And she wondered, “Can you hear them all at once? Their minds, conversations. Does it ever stop?”

“Not always. Only if I am actively searching for something. Imagine it as water in a river. Winding from rock to rock until it finds its final destination. Most of the time, everything is quiet.”

Alora twirled a cold blade of grass. “Did you have a good birthday?”

“It was just another day, but … far louder.”

Alora chuckled. “Does ‘just another day’ usually come with gifts?” Sitting up, she dove inside her pocket, pulling out folded parchment. A thin, silver ribbon that she’d scavenged from her chest of gifted clothes was tied, slack, around it. “It’s not much, but … it’s your birthday. Everybody deserves a gift on their birthday.”

“I do not celebrate my birthday. A gift is not necessary.”

“Why not?”

Garrik went silent. Shadows swirled around his face, neck, pulling at his hands. “I did not enjoy the way it was celebrated … who it was celebrated with.” A muscle twitched in his jaw, illuminated by bursting light, as his eyes returned to that far-off, distant world.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

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