Page 89 of Immortal Game

A quiet thrill went through Shea. “What, are you going to conjure a board?”

“Do you want me to keel over from exhaustion? No, we will play blindfold chess. Take white.”

“Fine. c4.”

“You never play the English,” Ciara said, almost accusatorily.

“Today, I do.” Shea rested her elbows on her knees and leaned toward her. “I’m experimenting.”

Ciara’s eyes lit up. “E5.”

They dragged each other through the middlegame. They hadn’t played like this since that tournament five years ago. Itwas artless, trading blows and pieces like kids brawling on the schoolyard. Her heart soared with the thrill of it, the simple joy of pitting her mind against another. For the first time in a long time, she did not think about losing or winning, but only playing. Shea did not look at Ciara. She kept her gaze fixed on her own mental chessboard, shimmering like a mirage out in the fog. The sun continued its slow descent, and all those soft pinks reflected on the water’s surface deepened to streaks of bloodred.

When Shea took Ciara’s queen, she let out a soft grunt as though she’d been struck. “Pawn to g5.”

Shea closed her eyes and focused, reconstructing and reconfiguring the position in her mind. When she saw it—a forced mate in three—she couldn’t help it. She grinned. “You’re in trouble.”

“Yes. I have been for a long time.”

Shea flushed at her reverent tone. “You’re not going to resign?”

Ciara smiled, almost indulgently. “It’s a very pretty checkmate. Play it out.”

And so they did. It was, as Ciara said, a beautiful mating pattern: a queen sacrifice, a rook sacrifice, before mating the king in the corner with her two bishops cutting down the diagonals of the board. Neither of them moved. The wind stirred the water and sent the loose strands of Ciara’s hair fluttering.

“Well done,” said Ciara. “You’ve earned it.”

It was so… genuine. She sounded pleased, proud. All these years, this was what Shea had wanted: to be recognized by Ciara. There was no vicious glee, no surge of ego. Just the quiet glow of mutual respect and a deep appreciation for a game well played. The simple, brutal elegance of that checkmate was asawesome as the dying sunlight lighting up the mist with gold. She felt like she was falling in love with chess all over again.

And Ciara, too.

“I think I know what I want.”

Surprise flickered across her face. “Is that so?”

“I want to keep playing,” Shea said, “if it can feel like that again. I want to keep playing with you.”

“I want that, too. It’s all I’ve wanted for a long time.”

The intensity in her face made Shea’s heart leap. “I’ll age, you know.”

“As will I, for a time.” Ciara leaned forward. “But it is the finiteness of mortal lives that make you so fascinating to me. I do not want unchanging beauty. I do not want immortal jadedness. I cannot become mortal, but I think you might make me human.”

Shea felt as though she were floating somewhere above herself. Never in her life had she imagined anyone saying such pretty words to her. “I’ll die.”

“Eventually, I’m sure.” Ciara’s eyes were aglow with amusement. “You are so concerned about the distant future. What exactly are you proposing, Shea Fury? I thought we were talking about chess.”

Shea felt oddly flustered. She didn’t know what to do with this mood Ciara was in. For once, she wasn’t being mocked butteased. She wasn’t sure she liked it. “We are. Partially.”

“You speak as though I will be free to go where I like.”

Shea could feel her pulse beating in her throat, her wrists, her temples. Somehow, they’d gotten closer. Their knees brushed together. “I don’t know. Maybe you will be. I haven’t made up my mind about my wish yet.”

Ciara’s lips curved into a smirk. Mischief danced in her eyes. “Shall I offer you a bargain, then?”

“Let’s hear it.”

Ciara underwent a transformation Shea could not describe. Only that at one moment, she was looking at her longtime rival—and the next, a faerie princess straight out of a ballad: wild eyes, lips like honey, both promising danger and delight in equal measure. “I make no vows of everlasting love or life. Only be with me right now, and for so long as we are happy.”