The Second God by Pauline M. Ross Page B

part of it was not being able to choose, being forced into it by his blood. But if I chose to do it, if we both chose it, where would be the harm in that?
    So I waited, and paced, and watched in my mind the intense ball of magic that moved down from the roof and through the corridors of the Keep and into the apartment.
    The door opened and closed, and there he was.
    Different. My immediate impression was that something about him had changed. He wasn’t jittery or smiling oddly, he wasn’t restless, but the way he looked at me was different. He was smiling, but not the shy, hesitant smile I’d become used to.
    “You look well. You are quite better now?” Then, a frown. “Princess? Why do you not take it? My magic.”
    “Do you want me to?” I tried to keep my tone even, but it was difficult. So much magic in him! It called to me. I wanted it so badly, but I needed to know more first.
    “I… do not understand, Princess.”
    Time for a different approach. “There is a lot of magic in you – more than I expected.”
    “Yes. It is stronger than it was, I think.”
    “How does it make you feel?”
    “Good! Better than I used to feel. Before, I always felt… oh, as if the magic controlled me. That it made me do things, things I did not always want. Not just us – that was because of the way you are, with your need for magic that drew me to you. I feel that still. I could feel it pulling me from a long way away. No, I mean that my magic always felt like a foreign thing, something outside myself. But now…”
    He was pacing about the room, hands gesturing for emphasis. I’d never seen him so animated. He kept well away from me, though, staying on the opposite side of the room, with a low table between us. He knew as well as I did the likely consequences if we touched.
    He stopped pacing and turned to face me, a grin splitting his face.
    “Now?” I said.
    “Now I am in command,” he said softly, and the pleasure in his voice sent shivers down my back. But then the smile drained away. “But I do not understand why you do not take my magic, Princess.”
    I walked round the table to get nearer to him.
    He skittered away in the opposite direction, hands raised in alarm. “No, no, Princess!” His expression shifted abruptly. “Unless…?”
    “I thought it would be interesting to see if it is still the same.” I took a few more steps, and this time he didn’t back away. “What do you say? Do you want to try it?” A bit nearer.
    “You hated it before,” he said quietly. “And I hated forcing you. Do you really want to do this?”
    “No one is forcing anyone.” I stopped moving. “We both have a free choice. I’m curious about it, but if you don’t want to…”
    “I am curious too,” he whispered. “I have been thinking about it all the way back. Those times together, when we did not know what would happen, and later, when we did, and I made you – I could not stop myself. It appalled me, what I did to you. But then there was that time you chose to, and that was not so terrible, so perhaps if we choose this…”
    He took a step towards me, and then, lips parted, another. I could feel his breath on my face. His hand lifted, reached for me, dropped again. I was the one who made the final move, cupping his face in my hands.
    And there it was, the fire, reaching for me, ready to engulf me. But it didn’t. Ly was right – it truly was different. Even I could tell that, although I couldn’t have put into words what, exactly, had changed.
    For a long time we stood, almost unmoving, feeling the fire burn but not consumed by it. His eyes were fixed on mine, his breathing rapid but not panicked. With infinite slowness, we came together, closer, closer, until our lips just touched. More fire, hot but not burning, and the sweetness was there, too. We parted, then moved nearer for a longer kiss, so warm, so delicious. Then apart, not so much because we wanted to, but to show that we could. Despite the power