His green eyes had a new, golden glint despite the hazy light. “I’m listening.”
I wound my hands into his dark hair, ignoring the lingering pain in my back, to lift my lips to his ear and murmur, “I think I might love you.”
He gave me a smile I’d never seen on him before: bashful and crooked, and big enough to wrinkle the corners of his eyes. “I thought you were going to tell me a secret. I’ve known that for ages.”
I laughed with tears in my eyes, and then I kissed him with all the force I could muster. It hurt—?oh! How it hurt—?but in that moment, caught between the ruined city and our unknown future, I felt my blood begin to stir with a new kind of magic.
“How is this possible?” Zan asked fervently, twining his fingers into mine. “This?”
“Blood and sacrifice,” I said. “As it is with all power.”