Page 15 of Weave the Dark, Weave the Light
They were human, though. Jonathan wasn’t. The welts and bruises and broken skin Ari left behind faded fast,sofast. Yet the impact lingered in Ari for much longer.
Still, Jonathanfitwith Ari, so much so that Ari brought Jonathan to Thanksgiving dinner. Their circle-mate, Matty, upon meeting Jonathan, looked him up and down and rolled his eyes. “Of course someone like you would fall out of the sky for fricking Ari Zydik. They have all the luck.” Then he’d sat down and included Jonathan in their circle. “You’ve got an altar or something, or do you just exist as a giant glowing thing?”
There’d been silence for a moment; then Jonathan had plopped himself on the floor next to Matty. “I’m, in fact, a giant glowing thing. But I also have an altar.”
That was true. After the second night Ari’d spent at Jonathan’s, they’d explored the house, with his blessing. In a small room full of art and books and plants stood an altar not too different from the one in their own room. “You ever afraid your candles will burn your books?”
“No.” Jonathan had appeared behind them and wrapped his arms around Ari. Warm. Soothing, especially here. A candle had flamed to life on the altar. “We’re alike, you and me. I can play with fire too.”
“A magnifying glass and a sunny day.”
He’d brushed his mouth along Ari’s neck. “Something like that.”
Ari had turned around and backed Jonathan against a wall, then set about harnessing his energy in an entirely different way.
* * *
Midwinter evening,Jonathan was waiting for them in the lobby of their office after work. He held out his arm as he so often did. “Shall we?”
Ari snorted, but took his arm anyway. As always. “It’s Midwinter.”
“Mmmm. A day for death, rebirth, and sacrifice.” Jonathan’s smile made Ari feel like tripping over the edge of a knife. “What does your heart want on this night?”
Ari exhaled breath like fire into the chilled night air. Possession. Domination. Someone who understood them. Held them. Let them be. “Let’s go to your house.” They were close to Gateway station.
They took the T to the familiar stop and walked the familiar blocks to Jonathan’s home. Like always, Jonathan hung Ari’s coat and scarf in the closet alongside his own, and like always, Ari climbed the stairs to the second floor. They stopped at the threshold of Jonathan’s study and gazed at the altar.
Jonathan’s energy wrapped around Ari before his arms did. They covered his hands with their own and leaned against him. “Do you have chalk and salt?”
They’d neverfeltJonathan go still like he sometimes did, that inhuman moment. For an instant, he was as hard as a statue. Maybe his heart stopped beating. Then air rushed by their ear, and his weight slumped against theirs. “Yes, of course.” Then words they’d heard on the first night. “Weave me a spell.”
That fire—all the fire they’d collected—sparked in Ari, born of earth and what they’d taken again and again from Jonathan. They moved like flame too, spinning in Jonathan’s arms, grappling him down until his hair was in their hands. He knelt at Ari’s feet a moment later.
Shock, fight, then sweet surrender. The barest hint of a groan.
“I’ll weave you a collar.” The words poured from Ari like starlight and night—cold and eternal. “Keep you. Own you. Use you. Be with you.”
Those beautiful eyes mirrored the fire Ari wove. Jonathan bent his body toward them. “Yes.”
They pulled Jonathan’s head back, exposing his throat. The sheer joy in his face nearly undid Ari. “Is that what you want? To be bound to me?”
“Please.” His word was a promise.
Sparks danced along Ari’s skin. They loosened their hold on Jonathan’s hair. “I’m mortal.” Ephemeral.
When Jonathan met their gaze, his eyes were nebulas. “You wouldn’t be. Not after.” He brushed his fingers against Ari’s. “Take me. Keep me. Bind me, fire witch. I’ll be by your side for as long as you wish.”
This was a gift and a curse. One that they’d had been given that first night, part of a spell Ari’d been weaving since then. Terrible things flowed through Ari. Wonderful things too. “Why?”
Jonathan’s brilliant smile flashed. “You saw me. Called me. You understand the spaces between.” He paused. “And youcare.”
“I care,” Ari echoed. Theydidcare for Jonathan. Deeply. There was power there, such energy waiting to be held in their hands. The absolute joy of hearing Jonathan cry and beg and weep. Tasting his skin and blood. Thrusting into his pliant body. Trust lay in Ari too. The willingness to give Jonathan what he desired, what heneeded. “You care too.”
Jonathan’s chuckle was a deep vibration Ari felt in their bones. “Very much so. Finish weaving me into you, Ari Zydik. Claim me as your own.”
They carded their fingers through Jonathan’s silver hair. “Get chalk and salt, and a knife. Lose the clothes.”
Jonathan’s energy whipped around the room until Ari gathered it, calmed it, and drew him in. That came as naturally as breathing, taking what Jonathan gave. Controlling the power. As Ari tugged on Jonathan’s hair again, realization cut through, shifting their life into singular clarity. “I’ve never been a fire witch. It’s a fluke that I can manipulate fire.”
