Page 160

A slow amble through the halls was one thing. Climbing the winding stairs was quite another. Silly to waste the energy just because she was dreading this encounter with every fiber of her being.

On the landing, their chamber door greeted her with sweet vines and a playful tug on her hair before swinging open.

This is it. It’s fine. You’re fine. Brand will be fine.

Lunara passed through his cage and found him on the balcony, as she knew she would.

It was why she made the others tuck themselves just so, to be certain he wouldn’t see them down there in the ring.

Shitting stars, she might be sick.

“Brand?”

He turned, a faint smile tugging at one side of his mouth. Until he saw she was alone. “Where’s everyone else?”

Right, you prepared for this. Lie like his life depends on it, because it fucking does.

“They’re coming,” she answered lightly. Too lightly, probably, but the nerves were eating her alive. “Fern and Magnus were mid-argument over something absurd, the twins were still questioning the rest of those who were in the hall when we, well…” She shook herself, not wishing to bring up Gaulnir and accidentally upset him. “And Lyriat promised to hurry their arses along as soon as he finished dealing with something mysteriously official.”

“Hmm.” A deep furrow carved its way between his brows, hazel eyes homing in on hers as he swallowed. “Fate is funny. I’ve done naught but think, little else to do within my confines, and one thought rose above the rest to plague me through the night and all of today.” He drew closer, as if in a trance. “Now here you are, as if the Sisters themselves have driven us together to create the perfect opportunity. To force me to act.”

It was so like what he said all those months ago, right before taking Lunara to see her first sunset, that she nearly fell over. “What w-was the thought?”

“I already know the feel of you. My body has been chasing the memory of it for weeks.” He ran a knuckle over his lips, up and down, side to side. “And I’m only a worthless fool if I keep making the mistake of being afraid.”

“Oh.”

There was hardly a whisper between them when Brand lifted a single finger to hook one of her curls. He brought it up and dragged the length across his open mouth—up and down, side to side—then down his stubbled chin.

“When I close my eyes, it’s there.” He did just that on a sigh. “Spilling over table and chair and floor. Trailing over my skin, both coarse and silken. Wrapping itself around my bare limbs.” His lids lifted, so much tenderness in his gaze. “And I know down to the marrow in my bones—in all my long years, I’ve never seen anything quite so magnificent as these wild, untamed locks.”

Lunara had no control over her ragged sob and gasp, the air tearing out and ramming back into her. To hear him speak like himself, recalling even that little detail, was either the cruelest or most wonderful thing that could’ve possibly happened.

“Someday, I hope to be as I was,” he continued. “I hope to be your Brand. But I realized last night that I don’t mind so much, having to live some of my life over.” Brand tucked the strand away, only hesitating the slightest bit before he ran his thumb along her cheekbone. “Who in the world can claim they kissed their mate for the first time not once, but twice? I would know the taste of you like this, as I am now, Lunara. It will be made all the sweeter when I finally do remember and have such a monumental moment doubly gracing me. I beg you to allow me the honor.”

So polite, almost rehearsed. So unlike their actual first time, and yet…

It was madness, and Lunara might be the world’s biggest fool for it, but there wasn’t a single particle in her body willing to deny either of them such a thing.

Not when it might be their last.

“Yes.”

“Thank the fucking sunstar.” Brand twined her hair around his wrist, pulled Lunara flush against him, and surged into her.

Blessed moons, it was home.

His tongue darted out and she met it, teasing, swallowing his shaky groan. Her long nails scraped along his scalp, the cropped ends strange against her hands, but the rest of him was exactly the same. Exactly right. His body engulfed hers, strong and solid. His fingers splayed on her back with the same possessive intensity that had always thrilled her. Owned her.

Except, he was holding back. He’d forgotten that the Sisters made them as meteors. That they’d already hurtled through the cosmos towards one another and collided in a spectacular display of sparks and heat and color.

If this was to be their last kiss, she needed to remind him.

Lunara hauled him even closer, tugged his bottom lip with her blunt teeth, and loosed a whimper—a plea—and he unraveled.

Finally.

Her arse slammed against the balustrade. Brand lifted her onto it, wedging himself between her legs. He dragged one hand down her side, sliding slow over the hills and valleys of her body. Gripping her thigh, he hiked it around his hip. With a tug on her hair, he broke away, tilting her head back to taste the corner of her jaw. To run his nose along her skin and breathe deep at the spot where neck met shoulder. To⁠—