The Federation can do everything in its power to destroy the bonds that tie family together, human decency, love. But it cannot break it. There is a level of power in this small, intimate moment that Constantine, with all his armies and his experiments, can never touch. Here, we are invincible.

Red kisses me again. I can feel the edge of my shirt sliding up. My hands run along his skin, feeling his scars from the traumas inflicted on him, sensing the human beyond that that the trauma couldn’t touch. He lets me slide his coat off before he tugs my own shirt up over my head.

He is so warm. I feel myself falling into his embrace, and then I realize that I am lying in the grass, and he is hovering above me, his face perfect and framed by stars, his hair brushing the side of my face.

I don’t know, really, if this is love. It is a feeling they have tried to rob me of for so long. But if this isn’t love, I don’t want it. Red here in my arms, the quiet of the world around us, the secrecy of this moment.

This is what I want.

Afterward, we are quiet. His fingers comb through my hair. His breath is warm against my cheeks. We stare up at the stars together, neither of us willing to speak, each afraid to break the spell. Soon we will have to leave this magical place, but for now, we stay enveloped in our private cocoon and try to imagine that this is the world we live in. I look from the stars to him. Red’s eyes are distant. Despite our link, I can’t guess at what he’s thinking. I wonder if he is imagining some future that has us in it. I’m afraid to think it, but I still dare myself to.

The Premier can conquer every nation in the world in his desire for power. He can try to erase who we are, our love for our families, our devotion to each other, everything that matters. After all, the Karensans care only about Infinite Destiny, their desperate quest to touch every inch of the land.

But there are some powers you can’t have.

37

TALIN

I don’t want to leave the thicket. I can’t even remember the last time I felt this close to someone else or savored the sense of security it could bring. Red’s breathing is even and light. I lie against his arm and stare up at the night sky, trying to memorize the constellations. Our limbs are still tangled together, the heat of him still rippling through me. He brushes an idle hand along my arm. I run strands of his hair through my fingers, wondering what it must have felt like before his Skyhunter transformation turned the hair metallic and brittle.

It used to be light brown, he tells me through our link.

It’s the first thing he’s said to me in a while, and I turn my head so I can see his face. And soft as feathers, I’m sure, I tease.