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“I’ve rhymed it with everything, baby,” I grin. “China. Designer. Recliner. You’re dealing with a lyrical genius.”
“I’m dealing with something,” she mutters under her breath, but I see it—the way her shoulders drop just slightly. Like the weight of what we are, of what she’s becoming, eases when we’re like this. When the world doesn’t feel like it’s clawing at her from every side.
I’d do anything to keep it that way.
She glances at the others. Riven still hasn’t moved from the fire, arms crossed like he’s trying to intimidate the night into behaving. Orin and Lucien keep their distance, shadows pulled tight around them. And here she is, surrounded by sins, and still so... human.
Too human.
Which is why I lean in, voice dropping just for her. “You know, Luna,” I murmur, “I’d write you the dirtiest, most tragic love ballad this world’s ever known. And you wouldn’t even need to bind me to sing it. I’m already yours.”
She blinks, caught off guard by the sincerity buried in my grin. Then—just like that—she looks away.
But not before I see the flush creep across her throat.
That’s the thing about loving her. You don’t win her in one go. You chip away at the armor, one smile, one eye roll, one terrible rhyme at a time.
And if I have to make a fool of myself a thousand more times just to see her laugh like that again?
Bring it on.
Riven finally moves off like the brooding boulder he is, all seething restraint and jaw tension. I wait until he’s just out of earshot—barely—and then sigh with the kind of dramatic flair that makes Elias visibly flinch. I kiss my fingers, raise them solemnly to the stars above like I’m saluting a fallen soldier.
“Rest easy, you absolute mood killer,” I murmur, voice thick with faux-grief. “May your abs remain sharp and your glares ever effective.”
Elias groans. “You’re such a fucking idiot.”
“Ah, but I’myouridiot,” I remind him sweetly, flashing a grin that would have most people walking the other way. Not Luna, though. She stays.
She always stays.
I shift closer to her side, bumping her knee with mine just enough to earn her attention again. She glances sideways at me, face still pale from whatever the hell that was back there, but there’s a flicker of warmth tucked behind her eyes. The kind that makes my chest ache in ways I’ll pretend are indigestion and not something real.
“That man has all the charisma of a feral goat,” I continue. “He shows up, glowers, says three words like he’s handing out death threats, and then disappears into the shadows again. Classic Riven.”
Luna stifles a laugh. Barely. “He’s trying.”
“Oh, sure,” I nod solemnly. “Trying to raise my blood pressure. Trying to ruin my shot at emotionally vulnerable firelight bonding time. Honestly, the war crimes that man commits against my romantic timing? Unforgivable.”
She shakes her head, but her smile’s blooming now. It’s slow, reluctant, and entirely addictive.
I lean in slightly, letting my voice dip low—not serious, but close enough to blur the line. “I just think, if the world’s falling apart and sin incarnate is pacing around with unresolved rage issues... you might want to cling to the only one here willing to make a fool of himself for your smile.”
Her breath catches—soft, barely audible—but I hear it like a damn prayer.
Elias clears his throat, cutting in before I can say something even worse. “Wow. Are you quoting yourself now? Was that fromSilas Veyd’s Book of Deeply Troubling Pick-Up Lines?”
“I was workshopping the title, thank you very much,” I shoot back. “I was going to call itSin and Sensuality: The Envy Edition.”
“You’re going to get murdered in your sleep,” Elias mutters.
“Not before she falls in love with me,” I whisper loud enough for Luna to hear—and yeah, that blush that crawls up her neck? Worth every single stupid word.
Still, I don’t push further. Not tonight. Something’s shifting in her. I can feel it in the bond, this strange hum just beneath my skin, like her magic is restless again. Stirring. Or maybe it’s the world that’s restlessaroundher. Either way, the fire’s not enough to chase off the cold brewing beyond the clearing, and I know this peace we’re pretending to have won’t last much longer.
Luna
This place is wrong.