AllFreeNovel
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“Did you come to tell me how I did it all wrong? How I fucked up something as simple as asking Gabe out?”
“Yeah, gloating’s, like, my favorite thing.”
He scrubs his hand through his hair. “I’m getting it wrong with you again, too.”
“You’re zero for two today, mate. Want to try for a hat trick?”
He huffs. “We come from the same country and I still don’t understand half the things you say.”
“Sweaty-land isn’t just its own country, it’s its own universe. And you don’t know what a hat trick is because you play the wrong kind of football.”
“You don’t play any sport. How do you know what it is?”
“Boxing’s a sport. I just don’t do it competitively. And I’ve been forced to watch footie by every man in my life since birth. I’m surprised you haven’t.”
He shrugs, his shoulders rolling against me. “My father’s not interested in sports, mortal or otherwise.”
“Did you play American football to impress him or spite him?”
A weak chuckle leaks out of Darwin. “Probably both, but he didn’t even notice when I was benched, so impressing him didn’t work.”
I rub my hand up and down his chest, enjoying the warmth that suffuses my hand from his skin.
“When you’re cleared, will you be able to play again?”
He shakes his head. “You don’t know anything about American football, do you? Regular season’s over. Bevvy didn’t make the play-offs, which isn’t a surprise.”
“Pre-season?”
He shrugs. “I was thinking of skiing instead. There’s a regional team. My suspension from school sports wouldn’t matter to them.”
“You should.”
“Would you come to watch me? Be my snowbunny?”
“I’ll be your number one fan.”
“My emotional support snowbunny?”
“Better than your teddy bear.”
“Come here.” He twists and pulls me around until I’m in his lap. He takes my hands between his and warms them with a flare of his magic. “You can’t keep yourself warm?”
“If I go into the Earth, I can. But pulling from deep in my Element for warmth is dangerous.”
“You conjure pyroclasts, don’t you? Like that day in Necromancy.”
“I hadn’t conjured one before that day, but I’ve always known that if I reached too deep or poured too much power into it, bad things could happen.”
“Have you found any limits to your power?”
“Before? Yeah. Now, I don’t know. I feel this well in me. I don’t know how deep it goes, or even if there’s a bottom.”
Darwin opens his hands to kiss the tips of my fingers. “I’ve never found any limits to mine. I’ve been constrained, like when you and Gabe enclosed me in that double-sphere of Water and Earth. I’ve been bound. But I’ve never found a limit.”
“Scary as hell, huh?”
He nods. “I’m afraid. All the time, Teddy.”
