Page 164

“It could be.”

“It’s not.”

Her hands slid up his chest, gripping him by the collar as he slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer. She smiled against his lips, and he went still as death. He knew this game as well as she did. If there was a body of water nearby, they both knew what the rules demanded.

“Shit,” was all he was able to say before she threw her arms around him and sent them both hurtling into the pool.

Taly surfaced a moment later, almost cackling with laughter as she blinked water from her eyes. Skye had always been bigger and stronger, and she never got to be the one to do the dunking. But the king had been dethroned! And he didn’t looktoo happy about it as he emerged a few feet away, shaking the water from his hair like a wet dog.

“You’re going to pay for that.” Mischief lit his eyes as he ripped his sodden shirt over his head and tossed it to the side. “And here I was being nice—”

“Oh please.” She let out a little squeal, backpedaling through the water when he lunged for her. “The‘sadness at the necessity of taking life’? You actually expect me to believe you came up with that on your own? You stole that.”

“Nope.” He tried again. Missed. “That was all me.”

“Yeah, right.” She splashed him, but he shielded his face. “You’re not that eloquent.”

A flare of aether was the only warning she got before he snatched her wrist—

And then she was gone, halfway across the pool.

Water dripping from his hair, Skye stared at her, slack jawed.

Shit.

She’d phased.

And she’d been doing such a good job of not casting in front of him. Knowing she was a time mage and seeing her cast were two different things, but now—

“Do it again.”

It was Taly’s turn to gape. “You’re not…” Frightened. Disgusted. The words seemed too silly to say aloud—this was Skye, after all. And he loved her. But fear wasn’t always logical.

He swam to her, that powerful body moving through the water with a grace she had always envied. A natural ease of movement that only a shadow mage could muster.

Strong hands slid around her waist when he was close enough, pulling her against him so she wouldn’t have to tread water.

“Show me more magic,” he commanded softly. He was grinning from ear-to-ear, almost giddy. It was impossible not to smile back.

Impossible not to give him exactly what he wanted.

So, lifting a hand, she let the water drip from her fingers between them. But instead of dribbling back into the pool, the droplets hung suspended, each one glittering in the flickering crystal light.

His eyes were wide, but she wasn’t done yet. Taking one of those droplets between her thumb and forefinger, she dragged it through the air. Then she took another and another, pushing them up toward the ceiling until—

“Stars,” he breathed.

She nodded. The explosions always began before sunset, and even when they ended, the smoke would obscure the night sky. She hadn’t seen stars in such a very long time…

So, she had started making her own. Using her magic to reform the shape of reality.

Skye squeezed her tighter, looking on in wonder as she continued to drip water in the air, forming starbursts and constellations and little comets that shimmered in the dark. And because he was a menace, he began to pepper soft teasing kisses along her jaw, then her neck. The spell shuddering when he would nip her with his teeth.

He found a place beneath her ear, and one droplet fell. Then another.

“Concentrate,” he murmured against her skin. The water did such wonderful things as he slid his hands along her body, over the swell of herhips and up her waist. His thumbs just grazed the undersides of her breasts before beginning their journey back down.

Such slow, wicked torture, and Taly was aware of every place their bodies touched, every bead of water he licked from her skin. And when he finally found his way back to her lips—he wasn’t gentle. The way he kissed her—it was a kiss that made a vow. That said he belonged to her and she to him, and that no matter what, she could never leave him behind. Not again. Not ever. Not even if this thing between them crumbled, and they spent the rest of their lives as just friends. They went together now. Into the future and into the unknown.