Page 132 of Our Radiant Embers

I dropped my arms by my side. “Remember when you told me you made a choice, and it’s me? Well, I made a choice, too.”

His eyes were wide and so, so blue. “What choice?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” My stomach was knotted up, heart trying to hammer a path out of my chest. “You, of course. I choose you.”

“And why should I believe you?” The same question as before but quieter now—less combative, a hint of desperation woven into the words. I met his gaze and drew a breath that tasted like salt even though we were nowhere near the sea, golden evening light clouding my vision.

“Because I’m really quite in love with you.”

His chest rose. “But,” he said, almost a whisper, “you walked away.”

“I was wrong.” Another step towards him, and another. “I thought I had to, I thought it was better for both of us. But I was wrong.”

“Nothing’s changed, though. Has it?”

I reached for his wrist and curled loose fingers around it, reached for him with my magic too and wound it around his other wrist. He let me.

“You collapsed,” I said, and even now, it still made my world grind to a halt for just an instant. “You collapsed, and I wasn’t there. I—It scared the hell out of me. I’m not going to lose you.”

He studied me, his pulse fluttering under my fingertips. “I’m okay. Although there’s something…I need to ask you something. Later.”

“Okay.” I swallowed. “Can I kiss you?”

For a moment, he didn’t reply, his entire attention focused on me. Then, slowly, he nodded, and my rib cage cracked open.

I pulled him into me, our bodies coming together like a meeting of two waves—my mouth on his, his mouth on mine, a waterfall in my head and radiant silence in my chest. I almost lost you. The thought flickered and faded because I hadn’t, I hadn’t. His fingers dug into my waist, drawing me impossibly closer. My feet between his, our legs slotted together.

Applause startled us apart.

Liam turned his head to shout, “Piss off!”

Jack whooped in response, Laurie calling, “Get a room!” They were hanging out of a window on the first floor, matching grins on their faces. Taking their cues from their brother, I supposed—if Liam had forgiven me, it was good enough for them. Although I fully expected a stern warning from Laurie in the near future.

“Come home with me?” I asked Liam.

He tilted his head. “Home?”

“The flat,” I clarified. I wasn’t sure when that had become my reference for home, much more so than my family’s manor. Around the time Liam’s things had started finding their way there, perhaps.

He glanced back at the house, then at me, reflections of evening light caught in his eyes. “All right. Let’s get out of here.”

“I love you,” I told him, simply because I could.

The line of his mouth softened. “I may need a moment to believe that.”

“That’s all right.” I sent my magic down his back in a broad, warm stroke. “I’ll be right here to remind you.”

“I may need a moment to believe that, too.”

I clasped his wrist in a hold that mirrored the bracelet on mine. “We’ve got time.”

Somehow, I believed it. I didn’t have all the answers yet—in fact, I didn’t have most of them. But I’d chosen him anyway because the alternative was even more unthinkable.

The rest would have to fall in line.

* * *

With the sun beginning to dip, street lamps already cast their diffuse brightness and outlined Liam’s profile. Silence hung between us. It felt bigger than the gap between our seats, further emphasised by the minimal noise of the electric car. Was he having second thoughts? I needed to say something. Usually, I was good at that—knowing what to say and how to say it. Right now, I was stranded without a compass.

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