Page 91 of Waves
Her violet eyes lifted, and she planted her feet, refusing to back away even when I came close enough for our feet to touch. I was still inside the cell, but I’d never felt so free.
“I realized something tonight.” I spoke softly and slowly as my gaze traced over her lips. So soft. Hardly parted. The current wisping in and out as she breathed.
“That you’re a prick?”
“That you can feel when I touch my prick,” I countered with a dirty grin, trying to disarm her.
She tried to keep her expression flat, but a tiny grimace marred that amazing mouth for just a moment, and I experienced her heart settling.
Satisfaction rolled through me with so much force that I nearly purred.
“Did you know…in all my existence…I’ve never been able to trust anyone.” I let that thought linger for a moment, marinating the water around us. “My parents sold me at eight. My master tried to kill me on numerous occasions. My sons would have slit my throat at the drop of a hat. If I hadn’t stolen the wishes of millions, they would have risen against me. Trust has never been an option. Never been a reality. Not until now.”
Her derisive snort was expected. “You’re a fool if you think you can trust me.”
“I can feel everything you feel.” I lifted my mutilated hand and tapped my own chest. “And the fact that you’re down here right now means you can feel everything I feel too.”
This time Avia was able to keep her face stoic, but her heart started racing inside my chest.
“Look. Feel.” I reached for her hand, surprised when she let me lift it and place it over my own bare chest. With my hand atop hers we listened to our joint heartbeats for a minute. Neither slowed nor calmed. In fact, they both seemed to grasp the depth of this moment. The absolute magic that her spell had wrought as our two hearts sped up until their beats blended into a single, solitary drum.
“There is no lying. No hiding. It’s not possible,” I whispered against her silky hair. “And I absolutely love it.”
She leaned back then, eyes studying me, hand still over my heart as if she was trying to detect a lie. I waited, patiently, letting her slowly come to accept our reality.
When she swallowed hard and her tongue darted out to swipe at her lips, I knew she’d recognized the truth. But then her eyes darted down the hall, the flickering light of a mounted purple torch dancing across her delicate neck as she swallowed hard. As she blinked and those sooty eyelashes hid her gaze.
“My power is supposed to kill my emotions. The cost of my magic is supposed to turn me into a monster. Cruel. Soulless. Killing.” With each word her tone sank, grew more morose.
I reached out and took her hand from where it lingered on my chest. Slowly, I lifted her fingers to my lips and kissed her knuckles. “Well, every wish has a workaround. What if the price of your magic does too?”
That drew her eyes back to me.
“What if you circumvented the price by giving your heart to a monster?”
Her brow furrowed and she started to shake her head.
“Do you feel any changes? Since using your magic?”
“Fury and power…but…” she whispered the next bit. “I think that might just be me.”
I nodded at her vague acknowledgement of the shadows within us all. Of her own underbelly. But even with those pale gray shadows, this woman was my light.
“I’ve been dead inside for hundreds of years, Avia. Inhuman as they come. But it’s as if you’ve woken me from the grave.” The words are darker and come out with a solemn intensity that I didn’t intend, but one that nevertheless rings true. “I have your heart. And maybe you need me to have it. Maybe with me, you won’t be a monster, because your heart’s already within one.”
Hope flared in her eyes for a second before she doused it. “Or maybe you’re trying to manipulate me into doing what you want.”
“Am I?” My nostrils flared defensively as I rubbed my thumb across the blank band encircling her finger. “When you can wish away slivers of my free will at any moment? Remember, you have a failsafe. You could simply wish to keep your humanity.”
That made her stop and think.
“Who has all the power here, Avia?” I asked.
I sensed the burning flare of her confidence before she turned on the full, blazing look in her gaze. But when she did, she burned like the sun. And I could feel the heat, the life of her, phosphorescent within me.
Then I couldn’t help myself. The warrior-maiden expression on her face spurred me to lean down and plant a kiss along her cheek. A gentle, worshipful peck that made my pulse soar, my skin grow hot, pants grow tight all over again. It was supposed to simply be a promise, a pledge, a quick brush…but then she turned her head.
Avia turned her head and those lips of hers sealed against mine.
