Cassie nods, but Cameron stares longingly toward the landing.
Oh well, she can keep him in check.
Creeping up the steep staircase of the west tower as I am brings back memories. Back to that first night when I saw the incubus; when I bathed Atlas and felt that first instinct toprotect, tocherish.
The closer I get to him, the higher I climb, the more I am certain that this was the right choice. I am meant to be here—with him.
The door to Atlas’s room is unlocked, surprisingly. The light from inside is bleeding into the dark corridor, and as I push the heavy door open, I spot him immediately.
In a white silk sleep set, Atlas sits on his bed, staring up at the skylight. At first, he doesn’t look my way.
“What do you want?” he grumbles, eyes watery as he watches the stars.
And my chesthurts.
“Oh, baby,” I murmur, taking a step toward him.
Atlas’s head whips in my direction, his big eyes widening. The blue looks so deep tonight, as if he’s drowning. As if he’s miserable.
I find it quite romantic how I can read his emotions through the variation of blue in his eyes.
“Julian?!” he whisper-shouts. “What are you doing here?”
“I had to see you,” I tell him, shutting the door behind myself.
He’s off his bed a moment later, meeting me in the center of the room.
With his bouncy little curls and high cheekbones, Atlas looks just like an angel. So pure and precious for me.
“B-but you can’t! If they find you, they’ll freak out. And you’re not safe.” He shoves at my chest. “Leave. Leave now!”
I take his face in my palms, doing my best to memorize every inch of his face, just in case I never see it again.
The feeling of his warm skin pressed to mine, his hands reaching up to grip my wrists, has me feeling weak in the knees. I want to swallow him up; I want to take him far away from here.
“I needed to know you were safe. I felt like I was going crazy without you in my sight,” I confess.
Atlas’s eyes overflow, tears soaking his cheeks as he watches me. He presses the length of his body to mine, as if he simply cannot resist, and shudders.
“Julie,” he whispers. “Are you still in pain?”
I can see it in his expression that he blames himself. That he believes he’s some kind of burden to me. I am almost certain that he spent most of his day on his knees, praying for forgiveness.
“Nothing that has happened to me was your fault,” I tell him. “Nothing. And I would choose this same path every time, even knowing the outcome… I’m not in any pain. Not when I’m with you.”
Warm, trembling fingers lift to run lightly over the gauze covering my eye. Atlas looks as if he’s on the verge of falling apart.
Then, right as I’m about to demand he stop looking at me so miserably, he says something I never would have expected.
“I… I love you.” His lips tremble as he speaks, his fingers falling to rest on my collarbone. “I think I am so in love with you that my body and soul no longer belong to me. I belong to you now.”
My lips capture his, my tongue slipping past the seam and meeting the warmth of his own. And as soon as I taste him, as I can feel the heat of him so thoroughly and he makes that soft keening noise he’s made so many times before, I know forcertain that I like him more than I’ve ever liked anyone in my entire life.
That I would risk my own life for his. That I might very well be falling right alongside him.
I kiss him senseless. In long, deep kisses and short, sweet pecks, I take his mouth.
I could do this all night, I think. I could stay right here, licking inside of him until I die.
