“For now?”
“I have an . . . adjacent subject to discuss.”
“Oh?”
“You shadowstepped.” She’d been too distracted by imminent death and whatnot in the moment, but now that she’d had time to reflect on what happened during the fight in the throne room, it was just another miraculous thing she didn’t quite know how to explain.
Cedric blew out a breath, pivoting on his feet to sit on the edge of the mattress next to Elyria. “I... think...Yes? Did you know that would happen?”
She let out a disbelieving laugh. “No, Sir Knight. Shocking though it may be, I don’t actually know everything.”
“That must be very difficult for you to admit.”
She smacked his arm. “This is all new for me too, remember?”
He grabbed her hand, their fingers entwining. “I know.”
“It’s not really very fair either, I will say.”
“What isn’t fair?”
“The fact that you can suddenly shadowstep, so soon after we”—she smirked at him—“well, you know.”
“I don’t think Icanshadowstep. Not exactly,” he said. “I doubt I have mastery over the shadows any more than you have mastery over my flame.” He cocked a brow. “You don’t, do you?”
“Feeling possessive, are we?”
“Over my magic?” Cedric scoffed. “If you wanted it, and were I able to give it, it would be yours.”
Elyria’s heart squeezed in her chest, and she wasn’t entirely sure he meant her to hear what followed, but she did anyway.
“I would give you anything.”
Their eyes met, the thread between them tightening. Elyria glanced down and, sure enough, Cedric was emitting the subtlest glow, the planes of his chest luminous.
She touched her free palm to his skin, just over his heart. “I don’t believe I can wield your light. It’s not like when we were in the Sanctum,when we merged power in earnest. I just...feel you.”
“That’s how it was for me too, when I did it. I felt you. Felt the bond between us and followed it.” His throat bobbed. “I didn’t think about it. Don’t know how I would even start trying to replicate it. It was like instinct. Like?—”
She kissed him then, firmly, solidly. A reassurance. Hope.
His lips parted for her, and Cedric unlinked their hands to slip an arm around her waist, drawing her on top of him. Elyria looped her wrists around his neck, fingers skittering over the barely there mark above his collarbone as she did.
He pulled back, just a few inches, those golden rings in his eyes blazing. “Are you ready for what comes next?”
“Is it possible to be, when we don’t entirely know what to expect?”
He closed his eyes with a sigh. “You and Nox will be doing the heavy lifting tomorrow. I wish there was more I could do. It never feels like enough.”
She cupped his face. “You are more than enough.” Feathering a kiss over each of his shuttered eyes, she added, “And your mastery over your power grows every day.”
“It’s still insufficient. It isn’t reliable.”
“You just need to keep practicing.”
He leaned in again, his teeth lightly clamping around Elyria’s earlobe. “I’d rather practice other things tonight.”
She shivered, her pulse fluttering. “We should rest. Dawn will be here before we know it.”
