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Arthur grins and closes his hand around mine. “I’m going to teach you a useful technique for the exam, remember?” A dark flicker flashes across his eyes and I swallow hard as his Shadow tugs viciously at mine. I sink my teeth into my lower lip to keep from moaning at the divinity of it. Stronger than Kallos’s, softer than Elias’s. Arthur’s lips twitch at the sensation, but he remains expressionless. “This is called Shadow leeching. It is the act of borrowing another’s strength by leeching parts of their Shadow.”
A dizzy spell falls over me as his Shadow siphons mine like a glass of water and I fall forward. It feels as if his Shadow has sucked the life from my veins. Arthur catches me, his hand still clasped tightly over mine. He lowers us to the floor in one fluid motion.
“I just leeched some of your time magic,” he says in a low tone. My blood chills. I feel so helpless like this. Amser doesn’t answer my call, as if it’s muted inside me. “Now, I want you to take some of mine. Draw it in, and once you can feel it building inside you, cut it off from the rest of me.”
I stare at him incredulously. “I have no idea how to even begin to do that.”
He chuckles and helps me stand back up. “Just think of it like sucking in water from a straw.”
My brows crease and I can’t help but smile. “A straw, huh?”
Arthur looks confused for a second before his eyes narrow at me. “You’ve been spending too much time with Elias, I see,” he says with an eye roll. “Go on, then, give it a try.”
I shut my eyes and focus on the sensation of our Shadows, trying to draw his into me but finding no luck. Letting out a sigh, I release his hand. “It’s not working.”
He stares at me in thought and then steps closer, pressing our chests together and leaning me back over a desk until I’m lying flat over the surface. The wood groans against the tile as he lets his weight burden me. Every fiber of my being lights up and I’m hyper aware of every inch where his body is against mine.
I study his beautiful face gazing down at mine. He tries to mask it with indifference, but a well of kindness and warmth he’ll never allow anyone to know peeks through.
“Try again. Focus, Terra. There will be worse things to distract you in the exam than me,” he murmurs against my neck. His lips are warm and a shudder spreads throughout my body.
Somehow I fucking doubt that. What is more distracting than your professor pushing you back on top of a desk in an empty classroom? My Shadow’s presence grows stronger with my increased heartrate and I take shallow breaths as Arthur’s warm ones heat my skin.
I try again, focusing on his Shadow and where it dallies around mine. It slowly draws closer and when I feel it entering my bones, I gasp, losing my hold on it.
Arthur straightens himself, quirking his mouth in disappointment. “I was sure that would work.” He presses his hand to his mouth in thought.
I lie back on the desk, staring at the ceiling as I relish in that sensation. It wasn’t like anything I’ve felt with Elias or Raine, nor Kallos or Finn.
How can something hurt yet contain so much subtle pleasure? All-consuming and not all simultaneously.
“Arthur, what was that feeling? Did you feel it too when you took my Shadow?” I lift my head when he doesn’t respond.
His eyes flick to me like he’s only now hearing me. “Hm? Oh, yes, I did.”
That’s not enough. I press him. “What was it? You’re not my mate and yet, every time you touch me, I feel… lonely.”
His eyes drift to the floor. “Lonely, huh? That’s not how I would?—”
“Not lonely in the moment we’re together, but all those that follow. In the seconds you touch me, I’m filled with longing and so much sorrow… but after we part, I’m utterly lonely. Is that how you feel too?” I ask, desperate to know I’m not the only one.
His weary eyes meet mine again and he nods.
“I told you, time and memory are old friends. Never together, never apart. Always lonely,” he mutters sorrowfully.
I sit up and take his hand. “That’s dreadfully sad. Who says that’s how they have to be? Why can’t they be in harmony?”
His eyes turn cold and distant, his lips paler than they were a moment ago. He mutters softly, “I say so.”
“That’s quite cruel, don’t you think? Who are you to force this tragic feeling upon us?” My voice is husky with the emotions building inside me. I can’t stand to be this close to him for this long. The desire to consume him claws at my soul. His presence alone is familiar.
Every inch of this man cries out to be touched—felt and kissed. It’s unbearable to breathe the same air as he does. I turn, needing to put distance between us before I do something stupid.
As I turn my head he catches my neck, hand sprawled out over my jaw as he pulls my attention back to him. His fingers dig into my skin and splay across my throat in a tight hold.
My heart skips a beat and I hold my breath, eyes widening. Before I can make much sense of what’s happening, Arthur’s lips are against mine. His scent of old pages and comforting tea spills into me. I whimper as he pulls me in closer, loosening his grip around my neck and sliding his hand into my hair. He kisses me as if he’s been thinking of my lips for a very long time—kisses me as if he has before.
Such a starved, carnal man. Lovely and lonesome.
