We join the others at a table, and I take a huge piece of cake for myself.
“Why don’t you just take the whole thing?” Trina asks as I sit down beside her.
“I should have,” I reply, flicking whipped cream at her.
She shrieks, wiping it off her face and hurling a handful of sprinkles at me. I reach for the power that now lives in my soul, and the sprinkles all bounce off me, scattering to the ground.
“It’s totally not fair how you can do that,” Trina mutters.
“You could do it, too. You just have to practice.”
“Hmm, I’ve tried. I just don’t understand why you’re a natural at this.”
“It’s all the folklore I read,” I say, grinning as I stuff a bite of cake into my mouth. “You just need to study.”
Trina goes to throw cake at me again, but I simply raise my hand, reminding her that I can flip it straight back at her. She pouts and goes back to eating her cake.
The conversation flows around me, a happy rumble of voices discussing ordinary things like work or school. The lives of the packs had been on hold while they suffered under the curse. Now everyone is back to everyday activities, and clearly thriving.
When I finish my cake and put the plate down, Shane snuggles close to me, wiping a bit of cream from the edge of my lip and sucking it off his finger.
“Don’t go doing that out in public,” I whisper. “What are you trying to do to me?”
“Oh?” he asks innocently. With the same wide-eyed look, he drags his finger through the leftover cream on my plate, then sticks it in his mouth.
“That’s it,” I say, getting up. “You’re done.”
Shane shrieks like a maniac and runs. I chase after him, listening to the laughter of the others fading behind us.
There is no pain and no doubt at all anymore. For any of us.
Shane dodges a few groups of people, heading for the nearby trees. I chase him down, knowing full well he could outpace me if he wanted to.
As I reach the tree line, I slow down, looking left and right. Suddenly, Shane leaps out from behind a tree, wrapping his arms tightly around me.
“Aha!” he shouts. “The hunted has become the hunter.”
“Oh no,” I moan. “Whatever shall I do?”
“Whatever I tell you to,” he whispers against my ear.
A chill runs across my skin from where his breath touches my neck all the way down my arms, and back. I lean into him, wriggling just a little.
“And what is your will, then?” I ask in a low voice.
Shane turns me around and kisses me, wrapping his arms around my waist and squeezing me against him. I lean my head back, running my hands up his arms to cling to his neck as he deepens the kiss. He reaches down and squeezes my ass, hard enough to make me jump and let out a little yelp as I cling to him.
“I like those sounds,” he whispers in my ear.
“I do, too,” I giggle, kissing his cheek.
He pulls back a little, gripping my chin to look straight into my eyes. The deep pools of blue are barely inches from my own, and they move with living light. His eyes aren’t just blue—they seem to reflect the soul of the universe itself, portals into a far-reaching domain that only the chosen can enter.
“Are you lost in my eyes again?” he asks.
“If only you knew how deep they are,” I say.
“Yours swallow me, too,” he says. “Haven’t you noticed? You say infinity resides within me—but the great abyss lives in your gaze. My infinity is powerless against the void.”
