As if catching that thought, Byron turns back to me. His face remains lit up, but his attention settles on me like a straitjacket. “Did you get a sense of your glim?”
I soften my smile before it can stiffen and make a noncommittal gesture. “Apparently it’s shy. Or maybe it’s a very subtle one.”
To my relief, he accepts my answer, maybe because he’s so overjoyed to have his own innate power awakened.
He sends another current of sparks leaping from one hand to the other and then crouches down by the forest floor. “I wonder… So much of life is about energy…”
He brushes his fingertips over a plant that’s little more than a sprout poking from the earth. Its leaves tremble.
Tensing with concentration, Byron leans even closer.
The plant unfurls up from the dirt, its stem shooting several inches higher, leaves stretching toward the filtered sunlight.
Byron lets out another laugh. “I have to bring in other ephemera to help guide my glim, but it’s so much easier. Fucking incredible.”
He straightens up and spins toward me, radiating so much delight my heart aches in answer. “Because of you. You gave me this.”
“It was always yours,” I say.
Byron shakes his head. “You suggested we come out here. You took the risk of awakening it now. I can’t even explain how it feels…” He spreads his arms wide as if trying to embrace the entire forest.
It wasn’t much of a risk when I knew how his glim would manifest, but I can’t tell him that.
I just keep smiling back. “I’m glad you’re happy with it. That’s all I wanted.”
A furrow crosses Byron’s forehead. He raises his arm, halts with instinctive hesitation, and then rests his bare hand against my cheek. Giddy warmth floods my skin.
His voice comes out a bit hoarse. “I don’t know… How did we end up sniping at each other for so long, Elodie? I didn’t have the right idea about you at all. It wasn’t fair.”
In a lot of ways, no matter how much Other Elodie was hiding, his judgement of her probablywasfair. I’m not going to blame him for failing to realize she was replaced by a less snobbish version of herself.
“We were both figuring out a lot of things,” I say. “Do you think I can’t still be a terror?”
The affectionate gleam in my match’s eyes could sustain me for years. “Oh, I’d never underestimate you. Any scalder who comes for you is going to regret it. My precious little terror.”
His thumb strokes over my cheekbone. He trails it down to graze it over my mouth, more heat blossoming with the tender caress.
A quiver of elation runs through my veins. The ache expands, propelling me to him.
We both move at the same moment, Byron guiding me up toward him as he lowers his head.
Our mouths collide with the urgency of so many unfulfilled moments before. A low sound reverberates from Byron’s lungs into me.
I rake my fingers into the thick coils of his hair and tug him even closer.
We’ve both been waiting for this for longer than he could ever understand. And maybe we need to solidify our bond this way too for me to be sure he’s making fully informed decisions after.
He’ll no longer need to wonder what it’s like to be withme in every possible way. He’ll know everything I can offer him.
Well, everything I can afford to let matter. Everything he wouldn’t think is insane.
The slide of Byron’s mouth against mine sweeps aside any momentary doubts. He adjusts the angle of our kiss, his hand splaying across my jaw.
The sense of need resonates between us, but he’s taking control like the Byron I’ve always known, like he conquered his glim moments ago. His lips shift against mine with the most gradual, torturous movements, seeking out just the right slant and pressure to provoke a whimper from my throat.
He’s learning my reactions, mastering me like he has every subject he’s tackled at school, every challenge presented to him his whole life. He kisses me as if he won’t be done until I’m too weak-kneed to hold myself up, until I’m jelly in his hands.
I’m already halfway there. I wobble against him, and his other arm slips around my back, holding me steady.
