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The former general gives me his usual cocky grin. “I’m trusting that you like my face enough to avoid wrecking it.”
I can’t suppress a snort, even as my stomach twists tighter. But somehow having his permission—his request, even—makes the decision easier.
I scoot closer and rest my hand on the side of his face. The bristles of a few days’ growth of beard prickle against my palm.
Stavros watches me without a hint of hesitation or regret over his offer.
My gaze slides beyond the cart to the nearby trees and then the stretch of grassy field on the other side.
That should do. Take a fraction of an inch of growth from his face, send a patch of grass a fraction taller at the same time. A simple trade.
Inhaling deeply, I concentrate on both sides of the equation. I picture the tiny hairs shrinking down to his skin as the blades poke a little higher from the soil, gradually across his entire face.
When I lower my hand, Stavros’s jaw gleams clean-shaven. He touches it with his own fingers, and his grin returns.
“I don’t know why I ever bothered with a blade,” he says teasingly.
His casual warmth relaxes me even more. I crack a smile of my own and consider the simmer of magic inside me. “I think that should be enough.”
Casimir climbs into the base of the cart and sits next to me. “We should be sure, so you’ll be completely safe tomorrow.” He rests his hands gently on my lap, palms up. “The reins have left a little grit on my hands, and I’ve got nothing to wash it off with.”
A laugh tumbles out of me. It’s the tiniest of efforts he’s requesting. If he wants to be a part of protecting me too, I don’t see how it can hurt to humor him.
With a moment of concentration, I flick the dirt that’s dug into his palms with a whiff of breeze that’s echoed by an opposite puff up in the tree branches.
Alek hums and sidles close to me again. “I gave myself a papercut on my thumb yesterday. Only a shallow one, but it still stings a bit. If you’d be kind enough to seal it for me…”
A tickle of heat flows over my skin both at the increasing attention and the nearness of my lovers all around me. I take Alek’s hand in mine and find the tiny pink nick next to his thumbnail. “One more little thing. Just to be sure my magic is satisfied.”
I focus on his thumb and one of the boards forming the wall of the cart. As the skin smooths, the smallest crack forms along the grain of the wood.
That’s it. It’s done.
I hold myself still, alert for any disorienting thoughts or hallucinated sounds, but my mind stays quiet.
Watching me, Rheave gives a bit of a growl, but all I can hear in it is sorrow. “It’s sad that you can’t use your magic all the time like I can. When you do, when it’s to help someone, it lights you up.”
His tone is so tender in its frustration that it makes my heart skip a beat. I aim a smile at him and then around at the other three men who’ve given so much to stay by my side. “You light me up. All of you, just by being with me. I love you. No matter what happens to me tomorrow, I want you to always know that.”
If worse comes to worst tomorrow, which seems more likely than not, I may very well go mad. One of them might need to end my life before I destroy more than even Lothar has.
But it’s not tomorrow yet. We have at least this one last day together.
Rheave answers my statement first, dropping his bow and pushing across the cart to meet me. He cups my cheek and draws me into an emphatic kiss.
When our lips part, he nuzzles his nose against mine. His voice drops even lower with a heated edge that makes me shiver. “I want to see if my magic can make you happy.”
A tingle shoots straight to my groin. “What do you mean?”
Rheave trails his fingers down my arm, and a more concrete tingling races through my flesh. My breath catches.
He’s sent just the softest pulse of his conjured lightning into me.
A heated chuckle escapes Stavros. “I think our lady thief approves.”
Rheave beams and ducks his head to claim another kiss. As he does, his hand travels farther down to my hip.
A sizzling shiver darts from the warmth of his hand to the liquid heat pooling between my thighs.
