like a heartbeat drives you mad, in the stillness of remembering what you had, and what you lost
The warmth of his smile is enough to cause a stirring in the pit of her belly and a pulsating jolt in the deepest part of her chest, and she is barely able to swallow it before his dark eyes are searching her own – but the slightest smile tugs at the corner of her own mouth; impossible to suppress. Words need not be spoken – such a simple, fleeting exchange is all that is needed between them, and quietly she wonders how he had managed to so easily burrow into her core, interlacing with her wild heart and fierce and furious mind.
Finally, she averts her eyes, instead studying the soft lines and delicate ridges of the dark, sooty female standing near to her, watching as her already saccharine smile somehow becomes sweeter, and her voice exudes a silky warmth that almost finds its way beneath her own skin. A flicker of amusement can be seen in her gold-flecked eyes, which move between the two, studying the hard, strong features of one and the feminine, mellow attributes of another.
A chuckle is stifled, poorly at that, upon seeing confusion wash over his handsome face – but it is brief and ephemeral, and soon the same slow, burning warmth is restored within his simmering gaze, as the broad grin worn along the darkened line of his mouth reaches his eyes. Kena, he utters with recognition lacing through the two syllables, and the very same breath is suddenly against her own neck as his whiskered lips press gently against her golden skin – it burns there, stirring memories of another time, another place, distracting her from the moment.
”I wouldn’t go so far as to say she found her way here,” she muses with a soft laugh, ”I had some small part in it.” A pause, and her own lips press affectionately along his withers, tasting the salty brine of the sea and the musk that lingers on the surface of his skin, where beads of sweat dissipated beneath the sweltering sun of day.
”It is warmer here than it ever was there,” and she can hardly bring herself to say it – Heaven, where Magnus’ heart has always laid – a distant memory, now. ”but the sky is often bare and bright with color, and the sea is a shallow relief when the heat gets to be too much. The volcano is active – be careful near it, there is cooling magma in patches all around it.”
A pause.
”It isn’t what we once knew, but it is home. I think you might come to like it, Kena.”
