Then he stills completely, as if a notion has struck fast and clean.
“Zema,” he says.
I nod. “Your friend who was Awakened?”
“She had the power to bring back memories so vivid, so real that I felt as if I were living them all over again. It took away the noise. Can you…” Then he shakes his head. “No, you have already given so much of yourself.”
“And I will continue to give.” I straighten my shoulders and clear my throat. “Now…how do I do it?”
“I’m not sure. Zema just…did it.”
“Then kneel,” I tell him.
His brow arches, a slow, teasing grin curving his lips. But he obeys, sinking to his knees before me, gaze burning as it drifts down my body like a touch. His hands find the backs of my thighs, strong fingers curling against my skin.
I cradle his face between my palms, my thumbs brushing the stubble along his jaw before sliding upward. My fingers sink into his hair, silken and damp against my hands. “Stay still,” I whisper, though my voice wavers under the weight of his nearness. “And close your eyes.”
He exhales, the sound a low, amused rumble that vibrates against my palms. But he does as he’s told, lashes lowering, head tilting forward until his breath warms the inside of my wrist.
I focus, centering myself as the power stirs. My veins hum, threads of green light shimmering faintly beneath the surface. The moment my fingers touch his temples, it begins.
A prickling warmth races through me. Flashes of memory burst behind my eyes, blinding shards of Daed’s life.
Fire. Screams. Steel and blood.
A child’s cry cut short.
A kiss in a storm.
A battlefield of smoke.
Too violent. Too painful. I push them aside, weaving through the chaos until I hear a sound.
Soft and pure. A baby’s soft breaths.
The vision steadies. A bed of furs, pale light spilling through a porthole, and a tiny hand reaching from the blankets, a red ribbon tied around a chubby wrist. My heart twists when I see her. Estra.
Daed kneels beside her. His smile trembles as he holds out a finger, and their hands meet, his massive and calloused, hers impossibly small as she curls her entire fist around him.
“Yes,” I whisper. “This is the one.”
Daed flinches beneath my touch, and his whole body shudders as the memory floods through him.
I watch as color warms his skin, as the furrow in his brow softens. The corner of his mouth lifts into something bright, something unguarded. A breathless laugh escapes him, quiet but full, like sunlight breaking through cloud.
I don’t know how long we stay like that, lost in the memory, but when he at last opens his eyes and looks up at me, there’s something different in his. The storm in his eyes has quieted to a calm tide, and in its reflection I see us both as we were, as we might still be.
His hands slide higher, tracing the shape of me, the warmth of me, until they find my hips. Gently, he pulls me down, guiding me into his lap. His breath catches; mine follows. His fingers trace the bite marks on my neck before sliding into my hair, threading deepuntil his palm cups the back of my head, just beneath my ear. His other hand finds the curve of my waist, resting there as he pulls me closer.
And then he kisses me. A kiss that tastes of sunlight and sorrow, of love that has survived too many endings. For a moment, there is no war, no gods, no fate, only us, and the fragile beauty of the last dawn we may ever see.
Daed surges to his feet, lifting me with him. My thighs lock around his hips as he devours my mouth, hungry and unrestrained. He stalks backward until the back of his legs hit the edge of the table, then drops to sit, lips still claiming mine like he’ll starve if he stops.
I pull away for a moment. “I thought this isn’t what you needed?”
His canines lengthen and gleam, and my breath hitches at the sight of them.
“Only a fucking fool would not want this,” he says.
