Page 35 of The Illuminated
I rolled my eyes. “Kinda hard to eat in Lucius’s presence.” I winced when I mentioned Lucius, then quickly changed the subject, desperate to keep this reprieve of normalcy going. “When you said you’d been to France once or twice, I didn’t know that meant you’d become a French wine expert. Though you do have your own wine cellar.”
“You mean the one that you and Taryn apparently broke into and stole from?” He shook his head and crossed his arms when I played dumb, but a smile crept to his lips. He took a sip, his eyes alight with passion. “Wine is an art. And I think art is the closest thing humans can get to magick, so I find it fascinating. Wine is like bottled history of an exact point in time on an exact plot on Earth. The land iseverythingto wine. A bottle from one region will be vastly different from a bottle from another—even if the exact same production technique and blend of grapes are used. Even two bottles in the same region just miles apart are different. It’s the land itself that makes each vintage unique, encapsulating all the elements of the natural world—climate, precipitation, soil, geology, altitude—and they all come together to produce something beautiful, something that brings people together. Wine tells the story of its land and, by extension, the people who live there.”
I looked at him in awe, while taking another sip of wine. “You have no idea how sexy that was,” I said playfully. When he cocked his head with a shy smile, I added, in a more serious tone, “You’re incredible.” I gave my head a light shake, watching him all but blush. How many things had I yet to learn about him because of our precarious circumstances in the den of our enemy?
He reached over and took my hand, caressing my skin. “You’re the first to let me talk about it for that long. To the witches in the castle, humans are basically worthless. They don’t really see the value in anything from this realm.”
“Their loss.”
He leaned his head down and kissed the top of my hand as a server appeared, a man who appeared to be in his early forties with wavy graying black hair, a strong nose, and a tall, looming build.
“We’d like the bill, please,” Daelon said in French, then added, “And we’d like to gift the rest of the bottle to you.”
“Merci, monsieur,” the server said with a slight bow of his head. It looked like he was suppressing a gleeful smile.
“Do we have a company credit card?” I joked when the man stepped back to total our bill.
Daelon shrugged. “Well, yeah, actually.”
Chapter11
“You’re so excited.” Daelon looked at me adoringly, his gaze so intense that it made me blush.
I looked away, all but dragging him through the cobblestone streets and across the arched walking bridge on the Seine. “Because it’s my favorite, and I haven’t been here in years. Well, except one time in the astrals.”
When the tower finally came into view, glowing bright and golden against the dark city, I halted. I grabbed Daelon’s wrist and looked at the time on the small clock face of his watch. It was 9:45 p.m., which meant we had fifteen minutes to get to Champ de Mars, the patch of greenspace facing the Eiffel Tower. Every five minutes on the hour after dusk, the tower’s solid light transformed into glowing sparkles, and the sight entranced me more than anything else on Earth.
“Do you see it?” I asked, pointing.
Daelon just laughed.
“Walk faster.”
The streets became more packed with people as we neared our destination. Pushy street vendors shoved roses in Daelon’s face, asking him if he loved me enough to buy a bouquet. I could tell their aggression and proximity to us was making him tense, so I intertwined my fingers with his and tugged him forward.
When we made it to the gardens, they were filled with people sprawled out on blankets taking pictures of each other for social media or huddled together drinking. And in the distance, the tower danced with sparkles. The wine had flooded my stomach with warmth against the cool January air. Daelon stood behind me and wrapped his arms around my torso, leaning down to kiss my hair.
The last time I was here, I gazed up at the shimmering lights, hoping they would fill a deep, dark pit inside me—the empty space where my magick used to rest. As much fun as I was having with my friends in foreign cities, playing the part of a young human, a part of me understood that it would never be enough. That there was something more out there waiting for me, and I would never feel complete without it.
Now, magick coursed through my veins, and it made everything I loved about the city come alive in ways I never thought possible. I was whole now. I was magick, and the lights were magick, and Daelon’s love for me was magick, and everyone in this park had the miraculous, magickal spark of life. It was all a part of me, together in a web of connection that coursed through each realm. We were all in this together.
Daelon bent down again, and after brushing my hair back, he kissed the sensitive part of my neck. Then he suddenly tensed.
My eyes widened as the sparkling lights of the tower expanded and multiplied. Fiery orbs of golden light floated out into the air, slowly descending and spreading across the gardens as people gawked and pulled out their phones to take videos. They looked like stars plucked from a night sky unpolluted by city lights.
I straightened at the sight. I expected people to scream, but all I heard were expressions of awe and disbelief paired with nervous laughter.
“Áine.” Daelon spun me to face him. “Fuck. I can’t shield your power when you’re channeling so much. I need you to focus.”
I stared into his fearful eyes, and I heard squeals behind me. I looked over at a woman dodging one of the miniature stars as it glowed brightly in front of her.
“I hadn’t even realized I was doing it,” I murmured, lost in my magick like it was a drug. I was so whole—whole enough to contain the entire world.
“Close your eyes. Feel where the magick is.”
I took a deep breath and followed the current of power to my heart. “Why can’t they see it? Don’t you think it would help them? To make them feel whole?”
He sighed. “No. Come back down to earth. Close the channel. You’re putting us in danger.”
