I looked away, not really wanting to be caught staring at his chest again. Sometimes I wished he would just put on a shirt. It wasn’t like he looked terrible or anything. His figure was almost perfect; it was just distracting. Of course, I knew why he did it. I could feel the shadows of pain that drifted over from him, the way his chest burned when fabric rubbed against the scars.
My magic flowed through the ?tít as I moved to take away the pain, surging comfortably as I trailed the burn of Black Water and numbed it. It was something I was sure only I could do—equalize the painful burn of the water flowing through him. His thoughts tumbled over to me as the sting left, a million thank yous swelling his gratitude. They all rushed through me at once and I smiled.
You’re welcome, Ilyan. You owe me nothing, I answered his thanks before he was able to put words to them. His eyes widened in surprise as I did so, the movement ever so brief before his smile returned.
“I knew you could hear me,” he said, his accent deep as he leaned toward me, his fingers weaving through mine as he grabbed my hand. “I knew it wasn’t just me when you sang with me earlier, your voice in perfect time with mine. I knew you could hear me as well.”
I could feel his love surge before his thoughts started flooding mine—images, questions, memories, emotions, they all blended together as they drowned me in a suffocating mass that pushed away the peace I had captured. The apprehension that had been kept at bay crept in, my shoulders knitting together as my heart started pounding in my chest, a groan escaping my lips.
I fought the need to curl into myself as the flow of Ilyan’s consciousness continued, my chest constricting until I couldn’t breathe under the pressure. I crumpled beneath the weight until every muscle in my body was ironclad. A torrent of pain pressed against me and I began to rock back and forth, my hands moving to claw against the tender skin above the ?tít.
Ilyan moved closer to me as my frantic movements increased, his arm pulling me into his chest as the flow of his thoughts evaporated.
“Fight it, my love,” he soothed as he ran his other hand over my damp hair that hung down my back, his magic flowing into me as he calmed me, giving me enough relief so that I could push some of the tension away. I could smell the strong scent of the flora on his skin, the scent mixed with the familiar smell of his magic, and I breathed it in, letting it take away the last of my anxiety.
“I am sorry, Joclyn. I didn’t know it would do that.” His voice rumbled through my ear as I lay against his chest, my hand moving up to run against the smooth, white lines of the thin scars that peppered his warm skin.
“It’s okay,” I whispered as he shivered under my touch. Just don’t get so excited next time, I spoke into his mind, the feeling of his excitement still pulsing through me.
His eyebrows rose a bit, that familiar smirk of his pulling at his lips. His enthusiasm surged as he tried to understand what I could hear from him, what I felt from him.
“I can’t hear you word for word,” I explained, answering his unasked question again. “I only hear pieces of your thoughts and feel pulses of your emotions.”
“My emotions?” he asked, his voice even more surprised as his mind ran over similarities that I didn’t understand.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“So tell me…” Ilyan’s wide hand moved over my hair, his fingers gentle as they pulled through the strands. “What am I feeling right now?”
My stomach tangled around itself as I heard the answer. It was something that I had felt a million times before, something that I had even told him. For some reason, though, this time it felt weird to sense the emotion so strongly from him, knowing he wanted me to experience it and to tell him what he felt for me. The heavy sound of his heartbeat echoed in my ear as my own matched his beat for beat, the comfort of our heartbeats taking away my embarrassment.
Love. I sent the word into his mind, my breath catching as his emotion swelled.
“Not quite…” He chuckled, my nerves heightening again. “It is more than love; it is astounding, all-encompassing love.” He sighed into me, the last of my stress leaving as he pulled me away from his chest, his hands warm on my shoulders as he looked at me.
The chilled air swirled around us as I gazed into his eyes, and the deep pulse of his passion moved through me. I had no desire to look anywhere else.
What is going to happen to us, Ilyan? I asked as I placed my hand over his heart, thunder rumbling at the contact as if the earth were reacting to the feel of my skin against his.