Page 98 of Heart of Mischief

“No I wasn’t. I was having a telepathic conversation with one of the mermaids.”

“You were…” He blinked those long eyelashes. “What?”

“Yup. She’s going to do me a huge favor, actually.”

“What’s that?”

“Eat you alive.”

Elias let out a surprised laugh. “Is that so?” he asked once he caught his breath. “Because I had a chat with one of the Asgardian freshwater sharks earlier tonight, and—”

But before he could finish his fake threat, Charlie lunged forward and grabbed his shoulders, shoving him under the water.

Elias reemerged spluttering and shocked, arms splashing. For a long moment, he just stared at her, water running in thick rivulets down his forehead, along the bridge of his nose, and dripping from his chin. His eyes said,Are you really goofing around with me?

Charlie smirked.

Like the Cheshire Cat laying eyes on Alice for the first time, Elias’s lips spread slowly into a wide, dangerous grin.

Then he lunged.

Charlie screamed with glee as he tackled her torso, plunging them underwater in a tangle of flailing arms and legs. She wriggled furiously, but Elias kept a firm hold on her body. When her eyes popped open, she was baffled to find that, not only could she see Elias and the glowing fish and the weeds wriggling on the bottom, but she could see themclearly. The bulging black eyes of the neon bass. The crisp edges of the rocks. Elias’s hair waving gently in the current. It was as if she’d spent her entire life looking through dirty goggles underwater and someone had finally rubbed the grime away.

Elias’s eyes were already wide open, hands on Charlie’s sides as he watched her with acute focus. There was none of the shock orbewilderment on his face that Charlie knew was on hers. If she had to guess, he’d been able to see underwater since he first became a mare.

Charlie watched bubbles drift from her lips as she mouthed the words,How is this possible?

Elias mouthed nothing in response. Instead, he slid one of his hands down her side, coming to rest on her lower back. Charlie felt the trail he traced down her body as if it were carved in hot coals. A tightness pulsed just below her belly. Her skin sang, and älvor flapped madly about her stomach.

When he finally parted his lips, they formed the wordsYou’re so beautiful.

Charlie’s entire body caught fire.

Those mouthed words didn’t carry the same feeling as his usual “compliments,” the sarcastic little remarks he made about her being “gorgeous” or wanting to get her alone. No, these words felt different. Too soft. Too much truth in the bubbles of his lingering breath.

Truth.

That was just it. Charlie could no longer protect herself from the truth. The reality that stared her in the face and whispered at the back of her mind from the moment she awoke to the moment she fell asleep.

The truth was this: she was Loki’s daughter. Born for mischief. Born for mayhem. Born to make bad decisions and deal with the consequences later. Born to letgo.

So, she did.

She didn’t care that they were in public. Didn’t care that anyone could see what they were doing if they thought to look. She did what she wanted to. What her body wasbeggingher to do.

At last, she closed the distance between her and Elias.

At last—at long, long last—she kissed him.

34

Charlie had kissed Elias exactlytwicebefore: once in his bed while he was made of shadow, and once at homecoming, when she’d wanted to distract him from how she was prying for information.

The first kiss had been desperate, furious, and dangerous. Her body had felt like it was lifted from the earth, tossed about in the wind, and the wind had been fire and fury and longing. She hadn’t fought to stay on the ground, but she’d known that, when her toes touched the dirt again, she would regret the flight.

The second had been an act. She’d be lying if she said that no part of her had wanted to kiss Elias that night, but desire wasn’t the real reason she’d put her lips to his. She’d kissed him as a diversion, an attempt to replace suspicion with lust.

Their third kiss was nothing like the first two.