Every inch of me is hot and alive and needy, and I tug on his hair, needing him closer but also needing more—more of this, more of him, more of this night. He stays put, worshipping me and murmuring his love and his desire until I’m finally flying over an edge like I never have before.
Flying and falling and not even a little afraid because I know he’ll catch me. I know we’ll catch each other.
When he kisses his way back up my body, I slowly settle back into myself. I’m breathless and sated as his mouth finds mine again, but I slide my hands down his sides and shove his pants down his hips.
He grunts approvingly into my mouth and helps me peel away the last of his clothes. When he finally settles back over me, I shift my hips, urging him to slide into me. Instead, he props himself on his elbows and studies my face. “I didn’t think I’d ever feel this again.” Dipping his head, he sweeps a kiss across my lips. “I didn’t think I could.” He pushes up and looks down at me. “I was fighting for my people but barely living. Until you entered the portal. Until you looked me in the eye and asked me to dance with you. Nothing’s been the same since. I hope it’s never the same again.”
I hook my legs behind his back and pull him down. “I love you, Finn.” I tuck my hips and find him between my legs, slowly leading him into me.
His breath leaves him in a rush and his eyes close for a beat. I revel in the feel of our connection.
There’s no room here for doubt or fear of what’s to come. No room for anything but hope. Anything but love—and I feel so much of it I close my eyes to revel as we move together.
“Abriella,” he breathes. “Abriella, open your eyes.”
I obey, and find starlight shining all around us, bright and luminous, as if the cave has become the night sky itself. As if there weren’t a storm raging outside. “Beautiful,” I murmur, but my gaze leaves the stars to lock on his eyes.
He slides a hand down my body, to my hip, squeezes, before he drives into me again, deeper than before. “Stunning,” he says, but he isn’t looking at the stars either. We’re locked onto each other in the middle of the mountains before the most dangerous day of our lives. We have only each other, and it’s more than enough.
“The stars are gone,” I whisper later. We’re tangled up together under the blankets, both on our sides, staring at each other. We’ve been in this position for so long, I’m not sure when the stars disappeared from around us.
Finn rolls to his back, and I watch him in the flickering light as he studies the rock formations that seem to drip from the cave ceiling. “I think they may have only been there while we were making love.” He smirks. “Which might just be the cockiest thing I’ve ever said.”
My laugh comes out in a snort. “But there’s no magic here,” I say. “Where did it come from?”
He gathers me against his side and smiles. I’ve never seen him look so happy. “I think we were wrong about this place. Magic isn’t gone here. It’s just different—detached from us.”
“Sometimes different is good,” I whisper.
“I’d have to agree.” He presses his lips to the top of my head and breathes me in. “We should sleep.”
My breath catches as I remember my dream of Lark. I’d planned to tell Finn about it this morning, but with the attack on the camp and Kane’s injuries, I’d completely forgotten. “Lark visited my dream last night.”
“She did?”
“She said something about a white-eyed monster saving me?” I shake my head, not remembering clearly. “Maybe it was metaphorical. What would a white-eyed monster symbolize to her?”
He hums. “I’m not sure. I’m not sure she thinks like that.”
“Maybe not. But that wasn’t the part of the dream that has me worried. She said she was tired, and she faded away from my dream before we were done talking. I think . . .”
“You think she’s going to fall into the Long Sleep?” he asks.
I hug him tightly. “I hope not.”
“Pretha hasn’t let herself think of it. That’s part of why she left Lark at Castle Craige. Being an Unseelie child is so dangerous right now, she wanted to focus on Lark’s Wild Fae blood.”
“Tomorrow we see Mab,” I say. “That’s the best we can do for her right now.”
He tenses for a beat, then relaxes again. “I think so. I know it won’t be easy, but I believe she’ll have the answers we need. I haven’t felt this hopeful in a long time.”