His questions needed answers. She’d had a peek inside him. Now it was her turn. Aunt Maggs would be horrified that she was about to break her childhood promise to never, ever tell anyone about what she could do. Sorry, Maggs—the worst had already happened. She’d been discovered, and now she had to learn how to save herself.
“I—” Damn it. She’d never talked about this before. She remembered what Adam had been through, took a terrifying inward leap, and started again. “For me, shadows have texture and…and substance. I can feel them. Even now, I can feel them.”
They were all around her—in the dark patches under the trees, the filtered light through the leaves, the cast of her and Adam’s body on the ground. If she wanted, she could reach for the darkness, tuck herself under its umbrella to look out at life from a safe refuge.
“How does it feel?” Adam’s tone softened.
Talia sighed. “Safe. And cold.” And lonely.
“Can we try it together? You’ve been in distress each time I’ve experienced it. I’d like to…take a look around.” He held out a hand. His expression was neutral, almost businesslike, so she didn’t trust it.
Talia looked at his outstretched palm, then at his face. She didn’t want to touch him. Feel him inside her again.
“Come on.” He wiggled his fingers. “We’ve done this before. Let’s just take it nice and slow. Go easy.”
But she’d been afraid for so long. It was past time to try something new. Talia braced for the worst and grasped his hand.
Sensations inundated her. His relief. Amazing control. Curiosity with, yes, a distinct sexual undercurrent that sent eddies of arousal to burn and buzz through her blood to her belly. Talia swallowed hard and tamped down on her reaction, fighting to think. She couldn’t be turning him on, that was for sure. Could be the anticipation of her trick with shadow that gave him a charge. Or fighting Spencer. Anything but her.
Only when she shoved that feeling away did she notice something darker, uncomfortable, even toxic within him that she couldn’t name and didn’t want to try.
“When you’re ready,” Adam said.
This was insane. She was certain she’d regret it later. Anxiety constricted her breathing, tightened her skin, but she pulled on shadow, softly.
She heard Adam’s intake of breath as she wrapped the veil around them, the day falling from sunny blue to a dreamy murk. They stood in layered fog, the veils of shadow sensuously lapping at their bodies. The trees, the meadow beyond, the hulk of Segue were all there, yet somehow appeared transient. As if one good gust of wind might carry it all away.
Adam’s hand warmed in hers. He filled her with his wonder, which was better than all the rest. Made her realize how beautiful shadow was, too.
“A little more,” he said.
Talia reached, and the day darkened to dusk, the orb of the sun shifting from blazing yellow to deep violet. The world turned to myriad purples and shades of blue and black. Sounds stretched so that the birds’ twitters and crickets’ chirps became high, eerie notes warped by darkness. Shadow settled on her shoulders and slid deliciously against her skin in welcome.
Adam’s wonder turned to awe and building excitement.
Talia glanced at him to see how much of what he felt could be read on his face.
He looked down at her, about to say something, but instead he stopped and stared. That sensation was back, a trickle in the sense of his discovery, then a flood blotting it out. Desire.
So he did want her.
She’d have torn herself away, but his gaze held her. His eyes lowered to her mouth, then forcibly lifted again.
She trembled, tension coiling in her deepest core, and Adam’s grip tightened. Tugged her toward him. She stumbled, but allowed him to enfold her, turning her in the circle of his arms so that her back was trembling against the wall of his chest, yet still holding her hand. He felt so good she let herself stay, and be, quivering in anticipation of what he’d do next.
“Do you have a name for this place?” His voice was a low caress at her ear, his breath in her hair.
Swamped sensations muddled her head. “Segue?”
“This isn’t Segue, not anymore. This is…”
Oh. “Between. Shadow.”
His mouth grazed her neck, temptation roaring across their connection. She could’ve easily lost herself to it. Wanted to lose herself. To feel everything his touch promised.
He shifted slightly behind her, lifting his head, surveying the valley again. She turned her face to catch the warmth coming off his body—so much better than the chill of her darkness.
But she caught a hint of that bad feeling again, bleeding insidiously into the desire.
“What would happen if…” his words cut off in a surge of longing.
“Yes?” her own longing answered.
“…if someone were to die here? Do you know?”
Talia tensed. Tried to pull out of his hold. “I don’t know what you mean.”
He held on tightly. “Jacob. If I killed him here, would he stay dead?”
The dark emotion grew dominant, pooling inside her. Viscous, lethal, like a poison, transforming his other feelings. She knew what it was now.
“Let me go.” She yanked harder.