Page 87 of A Veil of Gods and Kings

I rolled my eyes. “I’ve danced. But not sober.”

He smacked his free hand against his shorts, dusting odd bits of grass off, and swept it out towards me.

“Yes, it’s clean. You did a fine job.”

He scoffed. “Dance with me.”

I leaned back, tugging him with the motion. “What?”

“Come on. You’re sober. And you said you were up for new experiences.”

I hesitated before accepting his outstretched palm. He pulled me up, drawing me into his arms, his hand sliding down to the small of my back. He drew me against him, our hips brushing, his heart pounding in rhythm with mine.

I swallowed, a sound that seemed to echo over the water, drowning out the night sounds for a moment. Hyacinth smiled and whirled us through the field, causing moths to flutter out of the brush and trail into the sky.

Hyacinth led, his movements sure, his gaze never leaving mine.

And in that moment, something tight and sharp within me unhinged. I took a deep breath. A new space, like a vast well, opened in my chest—large enough for all the planets, and the full moon, and the roiling fires that made up the sun, and the millions of peppering stars flinging through the sky.

Like the whole universe.

Every universe.

Could fit there.

And it wouldn’t be enough.

Hyacinth’s lips parted into another smile. He drew his face closer to mine. Our noses brushed as wind whirled around us, and I trembled.

He leaned in but then hesitated. His eyes widened, a question sweeping across them. His movements slowed, and the confidence that had carried us into each other’s arms seemed to slip off of him, tucking down into the mud with the frogs.

I breathed in his jasmine smell.

And closed the gap.

Our lips brushed.

We stopped moving.

The whole swelling world around us seemed somehow larger and smaller, there and not there, important and pointless all at the same time.

Hyacinth peeled his lips away, his forehead resting against mine. He released a breath, and it trembled against my flesh.

His fingers traced over my ear and across my cheek like he could map the constellations on my skin with his touch. He swept his hand into my hair and pulled me in, kissing me hard.

And I pushed back, let my hands glide along his form, curled my fingers around his hips, jerking him closer to me. He gasped, our mouths snapping apart.

That flame that had started between us exploded.

An inferno.

That would burn me alive.

I found the hollow in his neck, pressing my lips against it.

He groaned, his breath gliding over my skin, the noise vibrating into my bones.

Gods, what I wouldn’t give to hear him make that sound a hundred more times, a million. To find all the different noises he might produce in a moment of release.