Why does it have to be me?
I never asked for this or wanted it. The other champions Circe told me about—Ruby, Amber, and Sapphire—they’ve been doing this for years. They don’t kill their classmates with stray lightning bolts or create storms they can’t control.
Tempest needs to find someone else. Because I don’t want to save the world. I want to stay here, in this beautiful place where nothing hurts, with the only person who makes me feel like I’m not fundamentally broken.
“Logan.” I push myself up, and he steadies me, his hands warm on my waist. “Come with me.”
“Where?”
I look past him, into the trees. The forest is all golden light and soft shadows, the branches heavy with glistening fruit, the grass like velvet beneath us. I don’t know where we are, and I don’t care. All I care about is that I’m here with Logan,and that here in this paradise he brought me to, we can be happy together forever.
“Deeper.” I meet his eyes. “Where we can be alone.”
“You need to rest.” His thumbs stroke circles against my waist, and even that small touch sends warmth flooding through me.
“I don’t want to rest.” My hands find his chest, pressing flat against the sturdiness of him. “I just want you.”
The words come out true and simple. There’s no anxiety spiraling underneath them, no fear that he’ll push me away, and no wondering if he’ll eventually decide I’m more trouble than I’m worth.
“You’re not yourself right now,” he says, strained and rough, like he’s fighting what he wants. “You exhausted yourself with how much magic you used.”
I kiss him, and he stiffens against me, and I worry he’s going to push me away. But then his hands are in my hair, and he’s kissing me back, and it’s like every good thing I’ve ever felt condensed into a single moment.
“I want to stay here.” I breathe the words against his lips, not pulling back, not giving him space to think. “With you. Forever.”
“We can’t?—”
“I’m so tired.” Tears prick my eyes, but they’re not sad tears. They’re relief tears. Surrender tears. “I’m tired of being anxious and scared. I just want to feel good.” I kiss him again, softer this time. “And I keep thinking about what you told me after the sirens, about jumping back without me when we’re together… and I want you to feel good, too. For as long as you want, for as long as you need, whether you have enough strength to take me with you or not.”
For a long moment, he doesn’t move. He just looks at me, desire and pain crashing into each other behind his stormy eyes, like I’m a drug and it’s taking all his willpower to resist.
Then his jaw tightens, he takes my hand, and we make our way deeper into the forest.
The pinks and oranges of sunset filter through the canopy, soft and dreamlike. The grass is thick beneath our feet, cushioned like a bed, and the sweet, intoxicating smell of the golden fruit hangs heavy in the air, filling my head with lightand warmth and the certainty that nothing matters beyond this moment.
I find a clearing where the trees form a natural shelter, their branches drooping low, and Logan turns to me with that look in his eyes that turns my bones to liquid. The one that says he wants me, all of me, always.
Then he pulls me close, and his mouth is moving against mine, and my hands are fisting in his shirt, pulling him closer, and closer, but never close enough.
We sink to the grass.
His weight presses down on me, and I wrap my arms around his neck and arch up against him, desperate for more of him everywhere, drowning out everything else.
His lips trail down my jaw and throat, his teeth scraping against my pulse point hard enough to make me gasp. His hands find the hem of my shirt, and I lift my arms so he can pull it over my head.
He pauses when he reaches my bra, looking up at me like he needs permission he already has.
“Still okay?”
“Yes.” The word floats out of me, dreamy and distant. “Don’t stop.”
He unclasps my bra slowly. The fabric falls away, his breath catches, and even through the haze, the sound lands low in my stomach.
“You’re so beautiful,” he murmurs the words against my skin between kisses.
I thread my fingers through his hair and hold on. Not guiding him, and not demanding more, just... anchoring myself to him while the world goes soft around the edges.
His mouth moves down my stomach, pressing kisses against my ribs, my hip bones, and the soft skin below my navel. Hishands work at the button of my pants, and I lift my hips to help him, but that’s all I can manage. It’s all Iwantto manage.