Page 60

I look at him then, meet his eyes without hesitation. “It’s not a trap when you want it.”

He goes still beside me, like that admission winds him tighter.

I lean forward, bracing my elbows on my knees. “You think I don’t know what’s pulling at you? You think I can’t feel it too? Thatneedto have her tied up in us, to finish it so this ache in our bones stops gnawing? I do.”

I pause, then add, voice softer but no less lethal, “But it’s not the bond that will kill us, Lucien. It’s what we’ll do to avoid it.”

Lucien exhales like he’s been stabbed, gaze flicking back to the others across the pond. I don’t press him further. He doesn’t need my comfort—he needs my honesty. And the truth is, when I bond Luna, it’ll be a match tossed into dry kindling. The kind of burn we won’t walk away from.

But I’ll do it anyway.

Because I want to.

Because I need her enough to raze the entire world for it.

I stand, rolling my shoulders. “We can’t outrun it, Lucien,” I murmur before turning away. “And the Hollow knows it.”

The pond ripples when I slide in beside her, the cool water lapping at my skin as if it, too, wants to know how close I can get without touching her outright. I don't look at her immediately—I let the nearness speak louder. My thigh brushes hers beneath the surface, deliberate, and I feel the way she stills. It’s a small thing, that stillness, but I feel it all the way down to the marrow.

“Relax,” I murmur, voice pitched low enough so the others can’t hear. “It’s only me.”

She exhales like I’ve touched her with something sharper.

Across the pond, Silas’s voice slices through the quiet like it always does—loud, irreverent, brimming with chaos. “I’m tellingyou, you haven’t lived until you’ve tried the meat pies at Della’s. They’re sinful. Literally.”

Elias groans, floating lazily on his back, arms spread like he’s being martyred. “Silas, you say that about everything you can shove in your mouth.”

Silas flips water at him like an overgrown child. “I only say it when it’s true.”

Caspian, who’s been sitting at the edge of the pond, bare feet skimming the water, shoots Silas a look that’s equal parts exasperated and fond. “You’re easily impressed.”

“I have standards,” Silas argues, swimming backward now, practically grinning at himself. “Low, sure, but standards nonetheless.”

Luna laughs quietly beside me, the sound slipping from her lips like something she doesn’t mean to give away. I catch it anyway.

I lean in, close enough that when I speak, my mouth nearly grazes her ear. “You’re humoring them,” I say softly. “But you’ll come, won’t you?”

Her head tilts, just slightly, like she’s trying not to lean into me. “You sound so sure.”

I don’t smile, but it’s there in the shape of my voice when I answer, “Because I am.”

Silas pops up from the water, flinging droplets everywhere like a drenched dog. “Let’s go! I want meat pies and ale and to see if the tavern girl still wants to sell her soul to me.”

Elias smirks, still half-lounging. “I’d sell my soul just to not have to listen to you anymore.”

“I’ll take it,” Silas shoots back.

Lucien, who’s been silent and brooding by the bank, finally lifts his gaze. “Fine. But if anyone starts a brawl tonight, it won’t be me cleaning up the mess.”

“Famous last words,” Caspian mutters under his breath.

Luna looks between them all, something soft flickering in her eyes before she glances back at me. I can feel her question even before she asks it.

“You’re coming too?”

I meet her gaze fully now, letting her see the weight behind my answer. “Where you go, I go.”

She swallows hard enough I can see it in her throat.