Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

Cypherion

Those hot springs were some sort of Starsearcher magic, I was certain.

As I helped Vale from the water, and we forced clothes back onto our wet bodies, I wanted any excuse to stay there forever. And as we made our way to the small town we'd be staying in for the night, I was reluctant to leave that isolation, not knowing what waited for us in the capital.

"I suppose you'll be happy," Vale teased as the door to our room closed behind us. Our things were stacked neatly in the corner from when we'd stopped here earlier, but the space felt lighter. Like we'd stripped ourselves of the weighted memories we'd been dragging since Damenal.

"What?" I dragged a hand through my drying hair, tilting my head at her, a tired haze tugging at me.

Vale gestured to the room as she removed her cloak. To the two small beds on either side of the nightstand.

I barked a laugh, removing my tunic as well. Damien, I missed my leathers. "If you think there's a chance in the Spirit Realm that we aren't sharing a bed, you're going to need to ask the Fates again."

It came out like a threat, and Vale's lips quirked up at the sound.

"You seemed so inconvenienced by it before," she said, crossing her arms gracefully. Her hair dripped across her top, leaving sheer spots where it touched. Tempting.

"I was a fool." I shrugged, taking slow steps toward her. "You're not an inconvenience. Spirits, you're not a convenience either. You're so much more than that; you're fate, Vale. My fate."

Disbelief danced in her wide eyes, though, like she wasn't certain this was it. We were real, steady after battling the pain and refusals of the last few months. But the toughest battle had been avoiding her. The way she felt like she was inevitably mine , despite the distance I stuffed between us.

I'd been balancing on a thin line trying to keep myself away from her before she'd stripped down in the hot springs. Then, physically, she'd been irresistible. But once she'd admitted what she wanted, once I heard the damn words, there was no chance of me holding back.

Realization had slammed into me that perhaps she and I did want the same things. When she'd said that she wanted freedom from Valyn, from Titus—it was the first time I understood that maybe she didn't have to leave me.

She didn't want to be under his thumb anymore. I didn't know how we'd make that happen, but I'd figure it out for her.

Later. We would talk about all of those missed moments—unpack all the hurt and secrets so we could move forward stronger—later. We'd discuss what she wanted for the future, but right now, all I wanted was her between those sheets with me. And if the way her eyes were drifting closed said anything, I thought she agreed.

"Come on," I said, taking her hand and guiding her to the bed.

"I need to change," she argued.

"You seem to forget that I happen to be extremely adept at removing your clothes, Vale."

"Well, it's been so long," she said, feigning innocence. "I'll need a reminder course."

"I've been told I'm an excellent tutor."

Before she could respond, I tore off her top and skirt. Fresh marks were blooming across her collarbone and neck from where I'd been aggressive. I brushed my fingers across them, and she sucked in a breath.

"How tired are you?" I asked, partly joking, still studying those new bruises.

Mine , they said.

"More awake now." At the breathless sound of her voice, I tried to catch her eyes, but they'd dropped to where I strained against my pants, already desperate for her again.

Scooping her up, I placed her on the bed. "Something else this time," I commanded, guiding her to the pillows and working my way down her body with my mouth.

Gripping her knees, I spread them and looked down at her. "Beautiful," I praised, running two hands up her thighs. "So fucking perfect."

I wanted her to know how much I'd missed her when I was being a stubborn ass over her deceit.

Kissing the inside of her thigh, I ran two fingers over her center, gathering her wetness and circling her clit just barely. She squirmed beneath me. "As responsive as ever," I murmured into her skin.

"Hurry up," she begged.

"It's been months since I tasted you, Vale. I can't rush." I bit down softly on the inside of her thigh, her legs squeezing closed. "Are you so impatient?"

"As you said"—she was already panting—"it's been months."

I grinned, hovering my mouth in a teasingly slow pattern down her legs. Only light kisses, not leaving anything untouched but nothing touched enough.

"A little longer won't kill you then," I said, continuing the torture.

When she was nearly bucking her hips, I pushed two fingers inside of her and finally swept my tongue over her, working into a rhythm that had her hips grinding against me and my name falling from her lips.

She'd been ravenous in the springs, and I thought it stemmed from that rejection she'd admitted. Not from me, but from so many circumstances in her life. Now, all I wanted was to remind her how fucking magnificent she was.

And as she tangled her fingers in my hair, more of that anguish I'd been living with slipped away. As I felt her skin beneath my hands, heard how I made her feel, it was like those pieces of myself I'd felt incomplete without didn't matter.

Because I had her. This. I could live without the rest, but I could not be whole without her.

I tugged her legs tighter over my shoulders, gripping beneath her ass to angle her better to my mouth. I kept up the pace with my fingers, hitting all her favorite spots and savoring each breathy sound.

"So good," Vale barely moaned, and fuck, I could come again at that sound.

She tasted like secrets exchanged under starlight—all sweet temptation and promises. I didn't know how it was possible for every inch of this girl to be starlight, but she was. Her voice, her scent, her taste. All of it was born of midnight magic.

I swirled my tongue around her clit with added pressure. A flutter around my fingers told me she was close but not quite there yet.

So, I demanded, "Let go, Stargirl," and she did, coming around my fingers and on my tongue until her limbs were limp and her breathing ragged.

I crawled back up her body and tried to prop myself on my elbows over her, but she pulled me flush against her, taking all of my weight on her small frame, and she kissed me so deeply, I forgot where we were and every damn threat outside of this room.

Senseless. That was the word for how Vale made me. And for someone who spent every day worrying about others, senseless was a damn good place to be.

Breaking the kiss, I dropped my forehead against hers and caught my breath.

After cleaning ourselves up, Vale fell back onto the bed. "Now I'm exhausted," she said, her voice that unburdened, chiming bell again.

"Let's sleep." I stripped down to my undershorts and climbed in beside her.

"This bed is truly made for one," she joked as I made myself comfortable.

"Now it's for two," I answered, no room for argument.

Vale laughed, but I thought there was a grateful spark in her gaze. Truthfully, I felt it, too—relief at dropping that aggressive front I'd forced. She settled down against me, my arm around her, hand stroking her hip, and her head on my chest.

"I never told you this in Damenal," she began, voice already thick with sleep, "but one time I saw you in those hot springs."

"You saw me?" I asked, still drawing aimless circles against her skin.

"In a reading." Her voice was drifting further. "I didn't know it was you then. But I was maybe fifteen, and I saw you as you were when I first arrived in Damenal. Strong. In a training arena, with the friends you loved, surrounded by the power of the cypher trees."

I swallowed the weight of that confession. "Cruelty and Adoration," I muttered. We'd experienced both at each other's hands. Had the Fate been warning her? "I think I saw you," I admitted, "during my Undertaking."

Vale shot up, alert. "What?"

"During the part that challenges our emotional being," I explained, keeping it vague since I wasn't technically supposed to share anything of the ritual. "I saw you."

Vale searched my face. Those eyes. It was those olive-green eyes I saw in the Spirit Flame, a stranger then. "What do you think it means?"

I shook my head. "I don't know."

After a moment, she settled back down against me. "Maybe the Fates wanted me to find you."

In the wake of her words, her voice from the springs floated back. You're one of the battles I'm fighting.

Perhaps it was a useless battle on both ends, the stars always writing a story greater than us.

"Cypherion?" she mumbled.

"Yeah, Stargirl?"

"What happens when we get to the capital?" Her eyes drifted closed. "I think…I think I'm scared to be back there."

Her voice was a touch broken, vulnerability piercing through. Like what we'd done tonight had loosened the last resolve she held on her secrets, and now she was bearing them all to me. The need to reassure her was a desperate heat in my chest.

"I don't know what Valyn holds for us," I began. "But it's you and me. We'll figure it out."

"Thank you for being here." She yawned. "It makes me less afraid."

"Go to sleep, sweetheart," I said, running a hand down her back and resting my cheek on her head. "I'll be here in the morning."