Page 29 of Steeling Light
A tingling starts inside me as I look at him. Never did I imagine someone caring about me like this. I’ve had men want me before, but they were short-lived flings. Moments of excitement and fun, but nothing real. When they looked at me, it was like they were looking at a new toy, and I looked at them the same way. This is a burning need that has torn at Rhion for a lifetime. An Immortal lifetime.
Maybe it’s his words or his intensity. Maybe it’s the pool or that I’ve felt something for him for as long as I can remember, too. I just couldn’t let myself act on it. I step closer to him, and I put my hand, not on his hand or arm, but on his chest. Through his undertunic, I press my fingers against the muscles that heave with his breaths.
“I’ve missed you, Rhion,” I say softly. “People have cared about me. I cannot tell you that you are my heart because I’d be lying, but no one has cared about what I thought like you do. No one has wanted me to be happy like you do. No one has been happy that I’m near like you have.”
And with the tentative movements of one who’s unused to the emotions that flow through the air, he leans down. The scent of forged metal that’s tinged with spring flowers fills the air. His scent.
It clings to me, becoming everything even as his lips press against mine. His lips are soft, but there’s a need behind them that’s anything but. The scent of the wildflowers becomes stronger, sweeter, and more detailed. I can pick out the individual scents. The milkweed and yarrow. The daisies and verbenas.
His fingers run through my hair, and he pulls me to him. Warmth flows from him to me like the sun to hard-packed earth, and I soak it up as if I’ve needed it all my life and never understood. My hands find his back, and my nails dig into the thin linen. He gasps, and I can feel him change. His power flows like water under my nails, rippling and making his skin move in unusual ways.
And yet, nothing changes. He doesn’t grow wings or a tail. He doesn’t become a monster like he’d described before. No, the only thing that changes is how hard he presses his lips to mine.
There’s so much need. It’s a lifetime of dreams and hopes that have been dashed too many times to count. What he’d finally accepted as impossible is coming true, and this kiss becomes something so much more.
It’s the end of one thing and the beginning of another.
I know all of this, and yet I can’t think. When his lips move from mine to the crook of my neck, I can’t contain myself. It’s not the Steel in me that takes control, though. Bright white shines from me like I’ve become a star in the night sky.
And Rhion pulls away, his breath coming out hard and fast. He doesn’t close his eyes against the light, and even though I’m sure it threatens to blind him, he keeps staring at me. “You are glorious,” he whispers.
My heart is pounding just as hard as Rhion’s breathing, and this time, I don’t control my emotions. I don’t want the way I feel to go away. I don’t want to hide the Light inside me.
“Are you just going to look at me?” I whisper.
Then there’s a cough from behind me. I whirl around to see someone wearing a quiet gray riding coat and matching gray pants, the colors of the House of Calm. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave, Lady. The other guests cannot enjoy the night sky with your…”
He pauses for a moment, and Rhion laughs. He leaps, wings sprouting from his back in an instant, and in two flaps of his wings, he’s standing in front of the man wearing only his underclothes, soaking wet. There is only one person in the world that could shift that quickly—the Prince of Steel. The man recognizes him for who he is immediately and says, “I apologize. I didn’t know…”
Rhion smiles at the man like he’s playing a game and doesn’t have a care in the world. “No, we understand. We’ll be on our way, but before we go, what was your name again?”
He blinks. “My name? Why would you need that?”
“You know what, darling?” he says, making his voice loud as if he were talking to me. “I think you’re right. This would be the perfect place to station a few hundred troops for a few months. The House of Calm would love to entertain a garrison of Steel soldiers, wouldn’t they?”
The man’s face turns grayer than his uniform. “I’m certain there are many better places in Selithar for troops to stay. I doubt…”
Then Rhion’s smile disappears, and he says, “I guess I don’t need your name. I know where you live. Lord Whatever-Your-Name-Is, I will give you a single warning. If news that I am in Selithar reaches anyone, I will personally come back here with a troop of two hundred men, and we will stay here for as long as I like. We will stay here, and at some point, I will find you. Do you understand?”
The blood drains from his face. “Yes, Prince. I swear on the Moon and…”
“Keep your oaths, Lord. And also, keep your word because I do not break mine.”
He nods, and Rhion’s smile comes back immediately. He claps the man on the shoulder hard enough that the man bends a bit from the force. “Excellent. Then we will be off. The water is wonderful, by the way. This place is like a dream, but sometimes dreams should be experienced less publicly.”
The man nods emphatically. “Thank you. I am glad you…” Rhion ignores his response and walks back to the pool. Like a lodestone attracts iron, my eyes immediately lock onto what was a bulge before and is now a tent, the size of which I’ve never even imagined.
And then I feel Rhion’s eyes burning into me, and I look up at him. The man from the House of Calm is gone, and it’s just us alone again. My Light is gone, but the pounding of my heartbeat is even faster as I stare at a man that I know cares for me more than anyone else in the world. Someone who would do anything for me.
“I’m sorry we were interrupted,” he breathes.
Water drips from him onto the stones under his bare feet. The soft splash of it is the only sound as a few seconds pass. I don’t know what to say. All I’m sure of is that I’m not ready for that kiss to be over. I’m not ready for anything to be over.
“It was an interruption, not an ending,” I finally say, and the tension that had been building in Rhion’s eyes disappears immediately. “But I don’t think I’ll be able to keep from glowing if we continue.”
I put words to my feelings, but deep down, I know the moment is over. Even though my heart is still racing as I look at him, it won’t be the same as soon as we leave. There’s magic here that won’t be present elsewhere.
He grins again, and this time, he seems to know what to do next. “Then let’s go somewhere that you can shine as brightly as you’d like and no one will bother us.”
