Page 83 of Surfaces

Stavros yanked away from me, his confused expression morphing into one I’d never seen on his handsome face. His features slowly hardened as his jaw ticked and he reached for a black ring I’d never noticed on his left hand. As he twisted it, he muttered, “Oh, but you can.”

Epilogue

Raj

My chest explodedin pain for a second, as if a boulder was trying to break through. I gasped and grabbed Avia’s purple skirt as a vice squeezed my heart so tightly that my toes curled.

Then, just as quickly as it had begun, the pain stopped and instead, this utterly bizarre softness filled me as if I was a dandelion and someone had just set their lips to my soul and now it was scattered, swaying gently in a summer breeze, trusting this unseen, unknown force to carry it just where it was meant to go.

The wind inside of me whipped up harder and stronger…just like it used to smack across the sands in Cheryn, shifting them, moving them, reshaping them…

I blinked, startled, unsure how to react, when Avia’s face came into focus. Her pale skin, soft oval face, those violet eyes framed by thick lashes. Her brows were lowered in concern as she stared at me, trying to understand what had just happened, why I’d stiffened.

“Stavros?” she whispered, leaning forward, putting that soft hand upon my arm. Her touch was magnetic, immediately all of my cells realigned to point directly at her.

I flipped my hand over and linked our fingers as the heart in my chest gave a longing, plaintive thud.

Somehow…the wish she made had rebounded.

My heart was affected.

My mouth opened and I gaped in wonder as the shadows inside my spirit dissolved like it was dawn, the sun cresting over the horizon and bathing me in light.

I found myself madly, wildly, magically in love.

No.

NO.

NO.