STEVIE
After a scalding hot shower and the fastest blow-drying job in history, I’m finally settling into the one place that could possibly bring me comfort tonight.
My bed.
With Baz.
Naked beside me, he traces his thumb back and forth across my forehead, his smile as soft and sad as his voice. “What’s going on in there, Little Bird?”
“You mean, other than the fact that we’re balls-deep in a magickal apocalypse that’s probably going to destroy witch- and mage-kind as we know it?”
“Yeah, other than that. You can’t fool me, Milan.” A smile tugs at the corners of his mouth, and he presses a kiss to my eyebrow, still stroking my face. “This isn’t your pondering-the-apocalypse face. You’ve got something else on your mind.” He nudges my nose with his, a tiny spark of good-natured jealousy flaring in his energy. “You miss your Tower? The Devil’s company isn’t enough for you tonight?”
I smile back at him and offer a quick kiss. “Hmm. Sounds likeyou’rethe one missing him.”
“Keep dreaming.”
“Don’t worry, Baz. Kirin will be here as soon as he’s done reviewing those security protocols with Agent Quintana.” At his mock frown, I rush to add, “Don’t take my desires personally. You know your girl is insatiable when it comes to her mages.”
“Sounds like a challenge to me. You know that, right?”
“Counting on it.” I laugh, but it drifts away, quickly vanishing in the candlelit space.
“Seriously, Stevie. Where are you?”
With a deep sigh, I close my eyes and focus on his touch, each stroke as gentle as a breeze. Despite his delicious proximity, even the now-familiar warmth of his body isn’t enough to blunt the chill that’s held me hostage all night.
“I was just thinking about home,” I finally admit. “I mean—home before. There’s a place in the Santa Clarita called the Canyon of Ghosts. During the day, it gets so hot it’s nearly impossible to hike there. I tried it once—it was like breathing straight fire. But at night?” A wistfulhmmescapes. “At night it always feels like winter. Bitter, freeze-your-eyeballs kind of cold. But you deal with it, because when you’re out there under the stars, just you and the big world around you… Goddess, it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen, Baz.”
I tell him about the fairy lights in the sky, the way their ghostly glow illuminates the heavens. When the wind whispers in the canyons, it shifts through the sands and makes the dunes literally hum—a song as miraculous as it is haunting.
I never thought I’d miss the place so much.
“It sounds beautiful,” he says, and I open my eyes, meeting his gaze.
“Do you think I’ll ever see it again?”
“Stevie, I…” He cups my cheek and shakes his head, lips pressed together as if he just can’t bring himself to speak what’s on his mind. After another silent beat, he finally says, “I don’t know if we’ll even survive this thing.”
“Right. Not one for sugar coating, are you?”
“Figured that out all on your own, huh?” His sexy, cocky grin finally breaks through, but it doesn’t last. “Don’t see much point in it. Whether we’ve got another fifty years or fifty minutes, I’m here with you now.That’swhat matters. You and me, Kirin, the guys, all of the—wait. Are you seriouslylaughingat me right now? The world is teetering on the edge of annihilation, and you’re laughing?”
Without waiting for a reply, he rolls on top of me, pinning me beneath his lean, muscular form. His grin widens again, matching mine.
“I was just remembering the day we met,” I say. “Outside the Iron and Bone dorms. Goddess, you were so damn full of yourself. If someone would’ve told me I’d end up falling in love with you—”
“End upwhat?” He slides his hands into my hair and lowers his mouth to mine, just shy of kissing me. His warm breath holds a hint of whiskey and mint—a combination that makes me shiver.
“You heard me, Redgrave.”
“Say it again anyway.”
“Seriously?”
Nipping at my neck until I’m squealing beneath him, he says, “You wouldn’t deny the last wish of a dying mage, would you?”
“That’syour last wish? Wow. You could’ve asked me for just about anything, and you go with the love declaration?”
