Page 111 of Our Radiant Embers

“A flair for the mysterious?” Liam repeated, a hint incredulous. “Is this like one of those wine bibles, with grapes plucked in the early morning hours of a new moon and the whole thing tastes like a fruit salad?”

Ah, humour as a defence mechanism. I recognised it because been there, done that.

I smiled. “Keep reading, will you?”

While he frowned at me, his heart didn’t seem to be in it. I pressed our bare knees together under the balcony table and turned back to the book.

‘Their magic, shrouded in layers of secrecy, adds to their allure. Considerable wealth underpins a network of political connections that extend into the corridors of power. Not ones to flaunt their status in the magical hierarchy, the Duvals maintain an elegant silence on their precise rankings, letting their influence speak volumes.’

“So there’s no way of knowing just how many times over they could kill us, is there?” Liam’s tone was dry. I skimmed the rest of the introduction that mentioned the fissure with the Blanchard family and called it a festering wound. Then I turned to face him.

“This might be one of those cases where ignorance truly is bliss.”

”Theirs or ours?”

”Both, I think.”

Liam was briefly silent, sunlight tangling in his hair. “I guess that explains the change in my magic, though. Doesn’t it? Like, what Gale said about how it can take generations for it to adapt to a new place.”

“Seems like it.” I glanced at the rest of the text and decided it could wait. “The same might happen to Jack and Laurie.”

“Yeah.” Liam leaned back in his chair. “I’ll have to discuss it with them. With my whole family, I mean.”

He made it sound like a natural conclusion, and it sparked a second of envy in me at how diametrically opposed we related to our families. Even with Gale, there were things we didn’t talk about. It was to protect him, of course, but—stop.

This wasn’t about me.

“Do you want me there?” I absently catalogued what Liam looked like with morning brightness shining on his shoulders and chest. Beautiful. “Not that I’ll be of much help, but silent support I can do.”

“You wouldn’t mind?” he asked.

Like I wouldn’t swim a fucking ocean for him.

“Whatever you need,” I told him, and there might have been something about my tone that made him gaze at me for a long moment.

“Thank you,” he said then, hardly loud enough to carry above the faint hum of traffic and the guitar of a street performer. “Also for your help in figuring this out. I don’t think I could have done it without you.”

“You’d have found a way.”

“Adam.” Fondness creased the corners of his eyes. “Just let me say thank you, all right?”

“Okay,” I said softly. I wasn’t sure why my lungs wouldn’t fit quite enough air.

* * *

We made it to Liam’s around lunchtime, where a lorry would show up later that afternoon to collect the first waste recycling unit. He’d be able to move it himself now, no need for an air mage to come along—but advertising his newfound powers deserved careful consideration.

“Family council!” Liam announced as soon as we set foot into the house. “Kitchen in ten!”

“Who died and made you king of the family?” Jack called from somewhere, while a few affirmatives could be heard from around the house.

“Someone needs to step up in times of chaos,” Liam replied as we both toed off our shoes in the entrance area. As soon as we were done, he snagged my wrist and pulled me towards his bedroom, our feet whispering along the patterned tiles. Once inside, door shut, we tripped onto his bed. The mattress bounced under my back as I fell first, the scent of fresh laundry rising from the soft-washed sheets. Liam followed me down.

After the heaviness of the morning, it felt like a brief respite, a sweet rush of longing shivering through me even though there was no space between us. I reached for a featherlight grin. “Making up for last time?”

Last time. When we’d fallen onto Liam’s bed together, me on top of him, hands all over—until Liam had told me he was no one’s secret.

He dipped his head for a gentle bite to my jaw. “I was so close to giving in even then. You’re bloody hard to resist, you know that?”

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