In a fierce whirlwind of excitement, Aurora found her arms flying as Kiran broke her tender hold, then she was flying too, up into his arms as he lifted her. His mouth met hers moments before he guided her legs around his waist. Aurora wasted no time being tentative, instead pouring every moment of longing and doubt and fear she had experienced into the kiss.

Every sweep of her tongue, each gasp of breath passed between their open mouths, every indent left by her clutching fingernails on his neck was another lesson she meant to teach him. The world could get no kinder, unless you made it so. Life could get no easier, unless you had something worth outlasting the hard moments. And hearts were always more likely to be broken if you assumed it was inevitable.

“I love you,” she whispered between frantic, needy kisses. “As you are. I need no other version of you.”

Kiran slowed their kisses, pulling away, and he lowered her feet to the ground. She squeezed his shoulders, worried she had said the wrong thing, going back over her words to determine what might have upset him.

Kiran cupped her face, waiting until she looked him directly in the eyes. “I love you. Every version of you.”

A small breath escaped her lips, and her mouth trembled into something like a smile. She laughed as a tear escaped her eye, and then swatted at his hip, still clad in wet clothes.

“Then take those off, and make me warm.”

He dropped a short, soft kiss on her mouth before doing exactly as she commanded.

Witches of air can vary widely with regards to intensity of power. Some were only observed to make minor manipulations in wind, while others have the power to affect air enough to create immense damage, stop someone from breathing, or even fly.

—An Examination of the Original Magics

17

Aurora expected everything to feel different when she woke the next morning. She thought the world might look entirely new after her experience the night before, but when the sun rose through the trees and the warbling song of a flurry of birds in the forest woke her, she found the world unmoved, unaltered. Her body too was the same, albeit a bit sore, though it was honestly hard to tell where the soreness from their journey through the river gave way to the soreness from their other activities.