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‘I’m all right.’ I grasped his nape, trying to slow my breathing. ‘Just stay there.’

‘Be assured,’ he said, ‘that I am not going anywhere.’

‘No, I imagine you’re not.’

Over the course of a year, I had endured more than I would have once thought it possible for one person to survive. The needles, the aster, the knife, the betrayals – all those memories had sunk roots in every sinew, as well as in my dreamscape. Now my body was braced for another incursion. It was locking the doors, reminding me to defend the fort.

I willed it to accept that Arcturus posed me no threat. His touch was gentle on my face, brushing my curls back, gracing my lips and cheeks. I closed my eyes as he kissed me again, soft and tender.

And then I let my sixth sense overpower the others. I pressed our foreheads back together, so our spirits were as close as I could bring them without dreamwalking. I tuned into the tiny vibrations of the golden cord, reminding myself that this feeling was mutual.

‘I have you,’ Arcturus said quietly.

And finally, my guard dropped.

That first moment of his entry was like nothing I had ever felt, lacing my skin with chills and goosebumps. He searched my face every time he moved deeper, only continuing when I nodded, once my body had accepted his presence. I hardly breathed as he settled, eyes flaming.

We stayed like that for some time. I came to the distant realisation that I was shaking.

‘Well,’ I said, ‘the world still hasn’t ended.’

‘Let it.’ He cupped my cheek. ‘Are you comfortable?’

‘Yes.’ He waited for me to adjust to the feeling. His solid heat was more than physical, like I was holding a numen inside me. My dreamscape was ablaze, the cord pulling tight. Gathering my courage, Ifollowed my instincts and made the first small move. I could only assume I had done something right, since my name escaped his throat.

‘Paige.’

Hearing that loss of restraint bolstered my confidence. I rocked against him, finding a cadence I liked.

‘I’m here.’ I kissed him. ‘I’ve got you.’

In answer, he cradled my hips, holding me like I was his deliverance.

We both tried to be slow at first. Arcturus was as attentive as ever, careful with my human frame, rising to meet the pace I set so we could move as one. The firelight played across our bodies. Every moment, I expected the pain that had struck me before, with the amaurotic, but it never came.

All the while, I watched for any sign of discomfort. I found only clear-eyed resolve. One of his hands was between my thighs, while the other returned to my cheek.

More than once, his body did stiffen. I framed his face when it happened, letting him know he could take his time. After a while, the tension eased under my touch.

At some point, I lost all sense of anything outside us. We had wanted each other for a long time, and my body was demanding as much of him as he would give. Soon our duet was a rhapsody, and both of us were on that cusp, barely holding on. Arcturus kept his brow on mine, his sarx as hot as my damp skin.

‘Paige,’ he said, soft as a prayer.

My spirit dislocated. I dug my fingers into his upper arms to ground myself, forcing it back into place with all my strength. He dabbed the blood from my nose.

‘You can dreamwalk,’ he said against my ear. I shivered. ‘Move in me, as I move in you.’

I was tempted, when he put it like that. My spirit was reaching for him, wanting him the way my body did, but he couldn’t want me in his dreamscape.

‘Not yet. I want—’ My head fell against his shoulder. ‘I just want this. This is enough.’

With each surge of his body in mine, sweetness blossomed inside me, calming the headache. It faded as we reached the brink. He clasped my fingers to his chest, so I could feel his heart as well. I was soaring too close to the sun, but I trusted him to catch me as I fell.

In the end, we fell together.

I slept for a while, wrapped in his arms. When I opened my eyes, the fire had died out, but the shutters were open, letting in the lamplight from outside.

Arcturus lay beside me, stroking my dishevelled hair. I hadn’t expected him to be awake. I nestled against his chest, so the heat of his sarx ran all the way along my skin.