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I laughed and pushed off him. I padded toward the long thick curtains dancing across the floor at the window.
“Guess you will just have to find out,” I said, swaying my hips ever so slightly to tease him.
By the time I parted the curtains, allowing the moonlight to cast a glow inside, Samkiel was behind me.
I turned and looked up at him, placing my hand on his chest. “The Celebration of the Fall is coming up.”
Samkiel made a noise deep in his throat that told me exactly how he felt about it. He had plenty of reasons to hate it, which was just another reason I’d done this.
“And,” I said, pulling his attention back to me, “tradition dictates that you exchange gifts. Mostly to celebrate life as a gift, blah, blah, blah, but Gabby and I always got each other something, even when I was a million miles away from her. There was an outpost where she’d send me stuff every year. I mostly hid the gifts or lied and said I bought them myself, so I wouldn’t have to listen to Kaden. Anyway, like I said, it is tradition.”
He brushed back a long strand of my hair, his touch soothing the pain that came with the memories. I pulled out the box Neverra and Imogen helped me get. Imogen—thank the old gods—distracted the council while Neverra and Logan snuck out. I opened the box, took out the layered silver pendant necklace, and held it up.
“What is that?” he asked.
“I know you kept those pictures from the festival, and I burned them. So I asked Neverra to go back to the festival booth and get another copy. They keep them on file for years. She got another copy and had them pressed into this pendant.” I held it a tad higher. The flat, dark green images shimmered in the moonlight. “It’s from a jeweler outside of Veistran near Naaririel. He can make anything into jewelry, press photos or carve words. I always wanted something from there. It was where lovers would go to purchase items for each other, but I….” I trailed off and shook my head. “I just thought if you’re going to keep them, at least now they won’t get lost.”
Samkiel stared at me and then at the necklace I held between us. He stared so long my heart quickened. I rolled back on my heels, wondering if I’d made another mistake. Maybe it was too much? Maybe I was too much.
I pulled it closer to me. “Well, if you hate it—”
“No.” Samkiel snatched it from me as if I was about to toss away a precious jewel. He clasped it around his neck, his eyes never leaving mine. The small, flat silver pendant rested in the dip between his collarbones, covering a tiny scar. He placed his hand over it, and power radiated beneath his palm. Small pulses of light ran along the chain, coating it in a bright silver glow.
“There, now it shall never come off.”
I beamed and reached out to touch the pendant reverently, relief and that warm emotion burning away the rise of insecurity.
“Well, unless I am decapitated, I suppose.”
I smacked him on the chest. “Samkiel! Oh my gods, why would you say that?”
He rubbed the spot on his chest as if wounded, but he beamed at me.
“I am merely stating.”
I narrowed my eyes and stepped toward him, but he dodged. I countered, reaching for him again. He grabbed my wrists and locked them in one big hand, pulling me into him, my chest flushed with his.
“It’s perfect,” he whispered, releasing my hands before he cupped my face and placed a kiss to my forehead. “I was unaware of the tradition. I did not get you anything.”
“You don’t have to get me anything.” I placed my hand against the broad wall of muscle of his chest, his heart beating beneath my palm, the rhythm seeming to match mine. “This is priceless to me.”
“Dianna being sweet. Who would have thought?”
“Right? I am absolutely terrible,” I said with pride.
He leaned down, stopping a hair’s breadth away from my lips. “Absolutely maddening.”
A feather-light kiss brushed my lips, one barely there. My entire body swam with heat.
His eyes turned molten as he pulled back. He cupped my face, his thumb caressing my cheek, the slow, tender motion more searing than any kiss or intimate touch. When Samkiel looked at me, it was as if he saw into my very soul and cared for every single part—the good, the bad, the ugly, and the cruel.
A cord inside me snapped, one that existed behind a wall of stone and flame.
And a lock on a door in a house rattled.
“I’m sorry I left,” I said. His thumb stilled against my cheek. “I promise to stay if things get bad. I won’t leave you ever again.”
Samkiel studied my face, relief filling his eyes as if he’d been waiting for me to say it for a while now. It was a comfort that I hadn’t known he needed, but I would make sure he didn’t doubt my commitment in the future.
