Page 28 of Two Who Live On

“The point stands.” I crossed my arms. “Are you telling me not to get involved seriously or suggestively?”

“If I were being suggestive, telling would ruin it. And if I were being serious, you wouldn’t believe me anyway.” Milo stepped toward me, closing our distance. His chest practically touched mine, and he raised a single arm up. Playfully, he tapped my forehead. “You’ve got too many thoughts in there, and you’re always anxiously sorting them. I understand why me tracking demons makes you nervous. It’s not anything like what happened…before.”

He shifted his gaze, and his mind spiraled into intangible nonsense like he feared the wrong word, wrong thought would burst what he believed I’d worked so hard to improve on. I hadn’t worked hard on anything. Every step of progress came from his patience and love and trust.

“It won’t be like with Finn?” I asked, thinking of the other person I owed every fraction of my growth to.

Milo’s eyes widened. Finn’s name no longer burned my throat when I mentioned him, my body didn’t feel like it’d shatter into a thousand pieces at his mere memory, and I stopped having the urge to fling myself from a cliff when I remembered how much I’d fucked things up in my youth.

“It won’t. What happened then was awful, devastating, but I know more now than I ever did then. This isn’t the first time I’vedealt with demons trying to migrate into a bigger city.” Milo rubbed his hands up and down my biceps, comforting with a hint of desire. “Occasionally, demons forget the strength of guilds and think they can get lost in a crowd.”

He had a point. Cities held an allure for demons and all forms of demonic energy, given the massive surplus of magic in them. Wisps weren’t sentient, so they moved purely like magnets, and fiends were base creatures fueled by hunger. But demons knew to stick to rural areas with less guild and government oversight, someplace they could remain unseen. All the same, it didn’t make them any less dangerous, and whether experienced or not, I worried Milo was overhyping the strength and skill of Enchanter Evergreen.

“As much as I like you being all supportive,” I said. “And only mildly manipulative—”

“Hey!”

“While having your blessing to delve into your mind whenever is great, the biggest problem is I’m not sure how to turn it off when it happens.” I chose each word carefully. “Which makes functioning difficult.”

“So you’re saying I constantly turn you on? Or turn your magic on. Interesting.” Milo didn’t muse over his words half as thoughtfully, blurting whatever popped into his head. “No, I get it. Sporting a psychic boner for your boyfriend at work would be challenging.”

“That’s not what I said.”

“I know what you said. I’m in your thoughts because you’re in my head.”

“Just saying sorry in advance for any eavesdropping. I’ll try my best to quell my telepathy. It’s just been erratic lately.”

“How many times do I have to say it? Don’t quell anything.” Milo leaned close, his lips soft and sweet against mine. “I like having youin my head. When I feel you here, I know it’s because you care. The fact your branch is growing, improving, and seeking me out above everyone in the city—I want to believe it’s because maybe we have something real.”

I pulled my lips back and pressed my forehead against his. “It is real. Everything I feel for you is beyond my limited vocabulary.”

If I had a lifetime to explain it, I’d never find the right words. But I wanted that lifetime to search for them. That lifetime to spend with Milo.

Milo tilted his still-pressed head until the twinkle in his sparkling blue eyes met mine. “If you’re that worried about it, focusing on being here and there and everywhere, why not make a manifestation?”

“That just feels weird, intentionally creating a manifestation to follow you around all day.” Plus, I still hadn’t been able to summon one.

Not that my apparently obsessive magic stretching across the city to stalk him wasn’t strange enough. At least, I didn’t do it intentionally. Maybe subconsciously. Letting Milo back into my life, into my heart, being completely unaware of where or what he was doing, and the idea of losing him like I’d—no, we’d—lost Finn made it clear there was no maybe in my subconscious. My branch had grown and used the development to shield me from scars that’d never quite healed.

“I don’t mind you inside me.” Milo stifled a giggle. “In fact, I quite enjoy it.”

“Oh, shut up.” I pushed him back.

“Mmmm.” Milo growled. “Yes, sir.”

I rolled my eyes. His surface thoughts danced in a hundred suggestive scenarios and some brazen imagery on his mood for the evening. Milo often stirred in more dominant desires, but when hissubmissive cravings struck, he made a point to make it blatantly obvious what he wanted.

Ignoring his desires, I took his suggestion and amplified my telepathy. The kitchen transformed into a haze of colorful emotions, all permeating off Milo. His emotions wafted around like lingering perfumes, displaying his physical, carnal desires from the seductive pinks to the aroused reds. It was the violet haze radiating at his core that showed the coupled intimacy he craved above it all. Violet waves exuding desires for a simple touch, cuddling, hand-holding, romance. But, as much as Milo yearned for each of these now and always, his immediate intimacy shifted toward sex. With my telepathy at its peak, I summoned a manifestation to link to Milo, something to watch over him quietly, one I could recollect when time permitted.

Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

There wasn’t a single fiber of my consciousness I could scrape off and conjure. I stood, blinking away the confusion.

“There’s something wrong with my manifestation.” It’d been a few months since I last used them during the void vision investigation, but I’d gone years without summoning them and never felt this stunted when performing.

“Dorian, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you struggle to get it up before.” Milo coyly stepped forward, grabbing my hand. I grumbled but continued channeling. “Jokes aside, channel my frequency, and maybe it’ll help your manifestation latch on.”

Still, nothing.

---