Page 99 of Heart of Mischief

Their third kiss was soft. Sweet. A tentative question, a brush of skin on skin with scattering bubbles and a thin layer of water between. It was intentional, an admittance of the strange thing that ran between them, even if she couldn’t quite name what that was.

And they fit. They fit so well. His mouth molded perfectly to hers, as if they’d been made to be together, two halves of one whole.

When her lips first touched his, Elias froze. His back tensed. His arms and legs went rigid. Charlie laid one hand gently on the back of his neck and knotted the other in his floating hair. He seemedstunned into stillness. He seemed, briefly, like someone who wasn’t sure whether they were awake or in a dream.

She increased the pressure of the kiss just slightly—searching but certain, both a question and an answer. She wanted to touch every part of him. Their bodies were floating upward. Rising slowly, like comets climbing the night sky.

They were halfway to the surface when Elias seemed to realize that this was not a dream.

One hand found her face. The other stayed at her lower back, but increased its pressure, pulling her flush to his chest. Their bodies were weightless in the water. His lips moved on hers, hungry, desperate. He wanted this. He wanted her. And the knowledge of that, the confirmation that her hunger was not one-sided… it was like a thousand cannons firing in her stomach. Setting her entire body ablaze.

Their heads broke the surface of the water, and they broke apart only for long enough to take one deep breath before crushing their mouths back together. Elias kept Charlie clutched to his chest. His hands were somehow both gentle and possessive at once. He didn’t want the kiss to end. She didn’t, either. In that moment, she could think of nothing worse than for there to be space between them.

Charlie felt like she was thirteen again, being kissed for the first time in her life. The newness was overwhelming. The pounding of her heart, as if it were about to implode. The buzzing in her toes. The knot of her insides, somehow both smooth and warm as peanut butter and tighter than a rubber band. She wanted to be even closer to him. She wanted to climb into his body, to wrap herself in his skin, to see what the world looked like from his eyes…

Elias pulled away first. His hands stayed on Charlie’s cheeks as their eyes fluttered open, blinking away droplets of water. He had pulled away just an inch, only enough that they could finally inhale and exhale in long, ragged breaths—but still so close that Charliecould make out every fractured line weaving through the pools of brilliant green.

“Forest,” he said, voice hoarse. “Now.”

She didn’t need him to say it twice. She nodded without looking away. His left hand slid down her cheek, whispering along the side of her body until it found her palm. His fingers twined with hers as he pulled her gently toward shore.

Charlie didn’t care that it was impractical to swim holding hands. She didn’t care that the entire school was probably watching them. She could think only about the current running from his fingers into hers, as if she were holding on to an electric fence instead of a human being, as if her whole body had become a live wire.

When they made it to shore, Elias dropped her hand. He raised one eyebrow, tilting his head toward the trees. She nodded that he should go first, that she would follow. Not a word was exchanged, but they understood each other all the same.

As he slipped off, Charlie took several deep breaths, trying to steady her pounding heart. She knew it wouldn’t work. An army of fireflies were whirling through her stomach, tickling her center, lighting her up from within. There was no calming herself down now.

From beside her feet came a familiar squeak.

Shit, she thought.I forgot about Henry.

She looked down at her vätte, who was staring up at her and projecting colors of confusion into her mind. “Hey, buddy,” she said, crouching down next to him. Her clothes were sopping wet, dripping onto the sand. “I’m going to go into the forest for a bit. Okay?”

I COME?

Charlie had to smother a laugh.

“No, bud,” she said. “Not this time.”

WHY NOT?

“Because I need you here to keep watch over everyone in case Rattatosk shows up. Got it?”

Henry nodded vigorously, before he spun around and waddled away.

Charlie stood, her heart thumping wildly. She looked over at the trees, spotting a slice of pale skin and dark hair disappearing into the shadows. He would go far enough into the forest that no one could see or hear them. If she didn’t want to lose him, she’d have to follow now.

She took off at a run.

As she sprinted up the sand, a smile broke out on her face. This was what Charlie was meant to do. How she was meant to live. No more rigid rules and secret desire. She had finally let go of her vice grip on the stone of life, finally let herself be swept down the rushing river. She hurtled over a log and slipped into the trees. Elias picked up his speed, weaving through the trunks, leading them farther and farther into the forest. She didn’t care. She knew he wasn’t going to hurt her. She knew it the same way that she knew Henry was safe down on the beach—could feel it in her bones, like instinct, like muscle.

At last, maybe a half mile from the party, Elias came to a stop. They were in a small clearing lit by moonlight.

Charlie skidded to a halt behind him.

Slowly, so slowly, Elias turned around to face her. For a long moment, they just stared at each other. A squirrel darted up a tree. A will-o’-the-wisp swung its lamp one clearing over. An owl hooted in the distance.

“Admit it,” she said suddenly.