that. She shouldn’t want anything to do with him. But should and shouldn’t had become so tangled over the past few weeks, and all she knew for certain were her instincts, the part of her that wanted to whisper secrets to him in the dark, the part that screamed at her to move closer and closer still, to tangle herself in him and let him swallow her whole.
Her heart beat so strongly that she could feel it in the back of her throat.
Everyone else had always said stop, but Finnegan said go. Fight. Rage. Think. Cry. Kiss. Be free.
Why should the one place she stopped be around him?
She leaned closer. His hair tickled her nose, and another strand caught the corner of her lip. She hesitated, lingering millimeters from his ear. His free hand shifted too, resting on her knee, pulling it closer.
She shifted again, her hand sliding upward to steady herself against his neck. The new wisps of hair there tickled her skin, hidden under the longer strands at the back, and she wrapped her fingers around them, barely daring to breathe.
Finnegan shifted his head toward her, so that his nose almost touched hers, his fingers digging into her knee possessively, but he did not move to kiss her.
Her lips brushed the corner of his, missing her target slightly in the dark. She giggled, unable to help herself, and shifted forward again, fingers pulling his head to meet hers. One kiss, quick and light. Undemanding. She pulled back. His breath warmed her lips. Her other hand wrapped around his shoulders, and she kissed him again, deeper, firmer, until one of his hands found her hair and the other pressed into the small of her back and she was clambering closer still, the certainty burning within her that any distance was too much, that she would combust if she stopped. She had never kissed anyone like this, her desperation and inexperience growing into something that was hot and clumsy and fierce and forever.
Around her neck, the dragon burned red.
TWENTY-TWO
THE DAWN SENT TENDRILS OF FIRE ACROSS THE SKY. Aurora had barely slept, not for the hours that she kissed Finnegan, the whole world forgotten, and not when Finnegan finally smiled and said that she should sleep. He kept watch, and she let him think that she slept, but eyes open or closed, all she could do was relive their conversation, all she could see were Finnegan’s eyes in the dark. Memories of the kiss blurred together, so that she could feel it on every inch of her skin. She never wanted to leave this moment, even if it meant never sleeping again. She had slept enough for several lifetimes.
But she didn’t let Finnegan know that she was awake. She wanted time to remember as well as to act, to relive every sensation and scorch it into her memory. The watch changed, and when she finally sat up and balanced her chin on her knees, Lucas did not comment.
She stood, stretching her legs. With a nod to Lucas, she strode away, back along the bank of the river. She needed a moment of privacy, at least. A moment to catch her breath.
They would face the dragons today, but she wasn’t afraid. It felt right to be out here, to plunge into dragon territory with little more than conviction, like those kisses in the dark. Ill-advised, but right.
She dipped her toes into the water, savoring the chill.
When she returned to the camp, Finnegan was awake, and all trace of their presence had already been packed away. Finnegan and Lucas were talking together in low voices, but when Finnegan saw her approach, he smiled. It was a mix between the softer look he had given her that last day in the library and the excitement that shone in his eyes every time he spoke of dragons. Aurora looked away. It was harder to face him and their kiss with the sunlight growing around them. It felt like it should belong to her now, to her memory and to the dark, and seeing Finnegan reminded her that it was his as well. It made her feel self-conscious, like her bones were too big for her skin.
She swung her pack onto her shoulders. “Let’s go, before the day gets too late.”
They walked in silence, for an hour, and then another, no one commenting on the death in the air.
The noon sun blazed overhead by the time the ground started to slope upward, loose stones skidding under