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“I swear to the Sisters,” she snapped, pointing a finger at him, “if one more person asks either of us if we’re sure, I’m turning you all into worms. I’m quite capable of deciding whether or not I’d like to go on a walk, thank you. Brand?”

“A walk sounds lovely.” He rose and gestured in the general direction of the Serpent Sea. “There’s a gorgeous path on the far end of the Square that will take us down.”

“Lovely,” she repeated, glaring at Magnus when he started to protest. “If you could please inform the others that we’re not to be disturbed, we would be most grateful. You may start to worry if we haven’t returned within the hour.”

Brand said he wanted fifteen minutes, but there was no way she was having their time cut short. Not when that quiet knowing had clicked into place.

A shift was coming. Lunara only hoped it was a positive breakthrough, and not the final shattering of her already fragile heart.

It’s fine. Either way. You’ll make sure of it.

Weeping moons.

Brand and Lunara picked their way down a winding path in silence, sienna rock turning to crimson beach as they made their final descent towards the sea.

They left massive evergreens behind, the long, dense grass that clung to the dwindling cliffside taking their place. Already, the hammering pound of constant work was distant, replaced by crashing waves and the song of seagulls. And the smell—Lunara wanted to breathe the salt and pine forever, so like Brand’s scent that she nearly wept.

As they cleared the trail, she rubbed her fingers together, sending her boots and stockings to a pocket of the ether. She wished to feel every drop of warmth rising up between her toes. To experience every tiny detail of this stolen moment between them.

“I don’t suppose you’d do the same for me?”

Lunara wordlessly tucked his boots beside her own, riveted on his strong, bare feet as they sank into the sand.

He sighed, half a smile on his lips. “Thank you.”

The Serpent Sea stretched out in front of them, the majesty of its turquoise waters calling out to her. Lunara lifted her nose to the air and closed her eyes, breathing deep. In another life without the Shadow Prophecy and all its wretched struggles, where they were free, she would’ve stripped their clothes away and raced Brand into the waves, taunting him the whole way.

Someday.

For the love of the Sisters, let it be someday and not just a dream.

When Lunara opened her eyes, Brand was directly in front of her, his hazel stare so intense she was helpless against the gasp that tore through to her lungs.

“More and more, I find myself drawn to you,” he whispered, “as though my body remembers what my mind does not.”

Oh, that’s…

A surprise. One she wasn’t prepared for.

Lunara swallowed, mouth suddenly dry. “And what, exactly, does your body remember?”

Bold of you, to be sure.

A prickle swept over her sensitized skin when she realized how exposed they were. How vulnerable. That anyone might be watching them from the cliffs or edges of the city, witnessing their tender agony.

A furrow appeared between Brand’s brows and he glanced around. “There.”

He pointed down the beach, and Lunara followed the gesture to a rocky outcropping easily two stories high, the juts and crags holding all manner of hiding places.

A spark flared within her. Just a split-second flash, burning out as quickly as it appeared. Just…enough.

“That.” Brand nodded. “That is what my body sometimes remembers.”

Sweet Sisters, their bond.

The short walk was a daze of charged glances and turbulent emotion, the shadows of the outcropping enveloping them a moment later. Sienna stone rose up as they sank into its cool embrace, the passage shot through with rippling layers of crystal and obsidian. Patches of seaweed and tiny snails clung to the walls. Crabs peeked out from their burrows. Brine wafted through and tickled her nostrils.

In an instant, they were the only two creatures in all of Bordoroth, lost in a teeming oasis.