“I never wear one in bed,” he said and pulled the cover down over me. “You can’t sleep?”
“No. You left so quickly and didn’t even walk me to my tent.” Stop it. You sound insecure. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay,” I added, countering the other statement.
“I needed to get out of there before I ended up being the jealous boyfriend.” His breath against my neck sent shivers across my skin. The ball of light left his hand and floated above us.
“How did you do that?”
“It’s magic.” There was a light chuckle to his answer.
Oh gosh. Of course, it’s magic.
I rolled over to face him. “You were jealous?”
His left eyebrow rose. “You’re enjoying my misery, aren’t you?”
“Yep,” I said, nodding.
He quirked a smile, and his blue eyes sparkled under the light. “I believe my ego needs a kiss.”
“And exactly where is your ego?”
“Right here.” He pointed to his lips.
I leaned over and gave them a quick kiss. “Better?”
The corners of his lips turned down in a deliciously exaggerated frown. “That’s like licking a strawberry and not being able to take a bite. Definitely not satisfying at all.”
I pressed my lips together, trying not to smile. “You’re definitely demanding.”
“Only when it comes to you. To us.” He pulled me to him, arms tight around my waist. “Now, I might be wrong, but I believe this is a proper way to heal an ego.”
His lips pressed against mine, soft and tender with a hint of mint on them. Warm. I breathed in the smell of him: lake water, cut grass, and soap from his recent bath. His hands moved over me, up my waist and moving to my back. I slipped my arms around his shoulders and leaned into him as if I couldn’t get close enough. Lightly, his tongue brushed against my lips before parting them and slipping into my mouth.
The light globe above us busted. Little lights flickered overhead before going out.
We kissed.
In the dark.
Hands and lips exploring each other.
I couldn’t tell if the light moan came from me, from him, or from both of us, but it excited me, and I just wanted to let go. Let him take me to a place where there were no nightmares. A place where we never had to leave each other. A place where only love existed.
As our kiss deepened even more than I thought it could, I wrapped a leg around his. There was a catch in his breath, and it tugged at something within me.
His moan turned to a growl as he pulled back.
“What’s wrong?” I felt disappointment sink in my stomach.
He sighed, soft and deep. “I don’t want to be that cliché where we make love before going on a dangerous quest in case one of us doesn’t survive the battle. I want to have something to look forward to—something that carries us through whatever challenges lie ahead.”
“I see.” He had a point. I untangled my arms from his neck and fell onto my back. My head sank into the pillow, much like my disappointment.
He propped up on his elbow to look at me. “What are you thinking?”
What am I thinking? So many things. How scared I was about the future. How worried I was about Nick. And how frightened I was for Carrig and Sinead.
For a moment in his arms, caught up in his kisses, I’d forgotten all of that.
“Your brow is furrowing.” He steepled his hand with mine.
“I’m just tired.” I flipped onto my side, my back to him, and nuzzled my hands under my cheek. He scooted up behind me, draping his arm over my body.
“Sleep,” he said, his mouth against the back of my head. “I’m here with you.”
Moonlight seeped in through the thin membrane covering the only window in the pod-like tent. I watched the many unmoving shadows. Bastien’s breath tickled my neck until I finally fell asleep.
…
When I awoke, Bastien was on his back, an arm resting above his head. He looked peaceful sleeping. I pressed my lips against his cheek, a soft and almost unspoken kiss. His dark eyelashes flickered slightly, but he didn’t wake up.
I put on my boots, wrapped myself up in my blanket, and tiptoed outside. From the dozen or so fire pits in the camp, thin streamers of smoke rose into the early morning sky. I passed my tent and went to the second one from mine. It took several raps on the flaps of Lei’s tent before she answered.
“Good morning, ducky,” she said, her eyes taking in my appearance as she worked a braid into her long dark hair. “Why haven’t you dressed? We need to get an early start today. Jaran and I will be off after breakfast, and so should your group.”
I inspected my blanket-covered body. “I probably need another bath.”
“Hmm…you could use the showers. They’re heavenly.” Lei held the flap open and nodded for me to enter. “What’s bothering you that you came in your night clothes?”
“I need help with something.” I ducked inside.
She puckered her lips, her head bobbing slightly as she listened to me explain the issues of my newly obtained globes. Her fingers kept weaving her hair into the braid, seemingly without thought.
“What do you think?” I finished. “Can you give me some pointers on how to control them?”
She clucked her tongue and grabbed a hair tie off the wooden table by the bed. After securing the braid, she dropped onto the large pillows in the corner of her tent. “Have you forgotten our globe training with Sinead? It’s just as you learned with the pink one. You have to feel it in your core. Go deep inside yourself to pull it out.”
I sat down beside her. “I know how to do that, and I’ve been pulling the globes out of me, but I have no control over which one makes an appearance.”
“Oh,” she said. “It’s like you’re a beginner. We have the first years ignite their battle globes by using a charm until they learn how to make them appear at will. It’s much like creating a light one.”
“The light one has a charm,” I said under my breath.
The light one has a charm! Why hadn’t I thought of that? I’d also had to speak a charm to create my truth globe before Lorelle, an evil faery, hit me with an ancient spell that destroyed it.
“Do you know any battle globe charms?”
“Yes, it’s a formula. It’s one of the first things they teach us at the academy.” She stood. “Get dressed. We’ll have breakfast and then try it out.”
“First, I must go to the curers and give them Nana’s recipe and my blood before anyone else dies from the disease.” My foot was tangled in the blanket, and I stumbled a little trying to get up.
Lei chuckled. “Try not to hurt yourself on the way to your tent.”
“Funny. I’ll see you in about an hour.” I faked a scowl, hiked up the blanket, and shuffled outside.