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It was the Valkyrie who showed him the memory of the creek as she danced the drops of water to create the marking of the Einherjar. He watched me, us, as our hands lifted the stream to do our bidding. This time we needed more, so much more aether, to move the ocean.
The Valkyrie rushed forth, pulsing around the tendrils of Ales’ thoughts. The overwhelming urge to tangle into Ales’ mind and never leave was too much to handle. Charlie was slipping away.
I drew back.
Ales crept his hand over my palm, lacing his fingers through mine.
“No, not yet. Use my strength. Wield the ocean as you wish,” Ales said.
“How?”
He flooded my thoughts with the colors of the aether. The sharpest, most intense rainbows I could taste, and hear, and breathe in.
“Embrace the pleasure of the light. Breathe it into the ocean.”
I licked at the color pulsing in waves of energy, and I fed it into the ocean beside me. It was me, and it was Her. We worked as one, drinking the taste from Ales, and feeding it to the water.
It was ecstasy and searing pain. Not just in my mind… in my palms.
My eyes burst open to see the ocean swirling beside me like a whirlpool. It churned with a ferocity akin to a hurricane. The wind ripped at the waves, building the surge into a constant circle, hovering over the shoreline.
My palm was as white as molten lava where Ales touched it, glowing so bright I had to avert my eyes.
I should’ve been terrified, but the pleasure and pain were too intoxicating. I needed more… of him.
Before I could reach for his strength, he scraped his scarred palms up my arm, burning trails of light behind them.
More… please more.
It was the Valkyrie pleading.
He sank his fingers into my hair and pulled me to him. His lips were so close to mine, a snap of energy sang between us. It stung my mouth, and I longed to taste him like I had the colors.
Lightning streaked across the ocean, and I coaxed the waves higher.
His kiss would drive the aether beyond my mortal control. It would be such perfect bliss.
No!
I jerked back, out of Ales’ grip, and fell onto the sand. I wrenched back the light with a single rapid blow to the connection to Ales. The ocean sank in a swirl of light. I watched it, breathing in the energy from the water until the waves calmly lapped onto the shore.
“Holy Hell, Ales!” Together we were a thousand times stronger than my dreams. My aether, the Valkyrie, craned to be with him again. To connect again. That wasn’t going to happen. Charlie would be spun out of control, and an aether of chaos and water would ensue.
He crawled forward, reaching his palm toward my lips. “That wasn’t Hell.”
I dodged his fingers. “Don’t touch me.”
His touch could cause me to create a monsoon, a weird water vortex, a freaking tsunami. He needed to keep away from me.
“Why are you angry?”
I couldn’t look at him and keep the Valkyrie calm. It was bounding to the surface. We were way too infatuated with him.
“I need some space,” I yelled over my shoulder, running into the tide. I plunged my body underneath the water. With each stroke, I concentrated on prying Charlie apart from the Valkyrie. We both needed to cool off before we did something we’d regret.
I tried to find myself again.
The small bits that made me Charlie. They were there, just scattered, and twisted, and broken.
I missed my father’s overbearing, anxiety-ridden phone calls. I would give anything for one more of those. My home. My little bungalow where I could spend hours reading until the late hours of the night. Smooth chocolate and rich coffee. The California fog before the sun burned it away.
I missed my life, but I didn’t miss the solitude.
I would trade a hundred of those days for just a few more to get to know Lana, or to kiss Logan again.
I couldn’t keep doing this to myself. It was ripping me apart, splintering my soul, and risking Eir.
When my feet hit the shore of Eir, I decided tonight would be the last of Charlie.
