Nash and I awoke from our forgotten dreams lying together still. I pushed up, looking down at him with the memory of him being hardly more than a stranger fresh in my mind. If I showed our life to that version of myself, I wouldn't believe it.

  "You're a dirty flirt," I said.

  He ran his hand along my back. "A dirty flirt? You're just mad that I always win. In every life, we fight, and in every life, I make you fall for me."

  I pinched his side. "Don't antagonize me."

  His arms wrapped around me and he pulled me against himself. "Do you know how badly I wanted you?"

  I smiled, nestled against the warmth of his skin. "How badly?"

  He chuckled low. "You just want me to say it." He rolled me onto my back and held himself over me only enough for his gaze to glide down me. "From the moment I saw you walk into that temple all by yourself, looking so fierce and beautiful, I wanted you desperately. When my power was killing me and you drew so close, I didn't need to try focusing. You consumed me." Lips pawed at mine and I returned his kiss eagerly. "I'd never felt anything like that. You were all I saw."

  "I didn't take my shot," I whispered. "The day you got your power, I could have taken a shot, and I waited too long, because I didn't want to kill you." I arched to give his hands room to roam. "We really need to have that tunic you wore at the tavern made for you here." I trailed my fingers down his chest and sighed at the memory while letting myself touch him.

  "We get to have each other. I can do every single thing I wanted so badly to do."

  "What things did you want to do?" I whispered in a dare.

  He murmured against me while his hands circled my wrists and he drew them down against the bed, body pressed against mine. "This when we fought." His tongue roamed my mouth, holding me in the position we found ourselves in the first time we fought in the temple, our bodies smashed together now as they had been then. He released my wrists, hands smoothing slowly down me, treasuring the contours of my body. I no longer needed to fight myself or question what I wanted. I gave myself over fully to the wonder of being with him. We had time to continue exploring our past lives, but discovering what we once lost and reliving our earliest days together filled me with longing. I didn't want a day to pass without relishing how lucky we were to have one another.

  We shared our old lives together and indulged in our love and our connection. I felt myself buried deeper in his soul than I thought I ever had been, the pieces of myself I didn't even know I was missing filling in each time we traveled. Each time I loved him.

  We were nearly to the valley and Nash still couldn't control his power.

  "We need to find my friend," I whispered while the others slept. "He trained at the Sacred School."

  "The Sacred School?" Nash asked. "Why has he not killed the Prophets himself?"

  "He's a healer, not a warrior, and he doesn't believe in killing."

  "So he believes in allowing powerful Prophets to torture and kill their own people?"

  I sighed. "They hurt him at the Sacred School. It's hard for him to use his power now. He just has limitations."

  It was hard convincing Leif and Wren to continue the journey without me, but I needed for them to cover for me with the Prophet while I traveled to Piercey.

  He hid away in the mountains a few hours away from the nearest Fjellfolk villages. It'd been almost a year since I saw him, and when I saw him, he looked like he melted.

  "Max." He drew my into a hug, holding me close. "You're okay."

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  I hated that he always worried about me. "I am."

  "Good." When he noticed Nash, he paused, the look in his eye making my chest hurt. "Oh."

  "This is a warrior from the Flatlands," I said. "We're allying to kill our Prophets."

  Piercey clenched his hands together nervously. "This isn't the answer you think it is."

  "Please," I said. "We've talked too much about this. We'll never agree. I came because we need your help."

  Even if Piercey didn't want to help, I knew he would. He'd do anything for me. After I told him the story, he looked even more leery.

  "This stranger, do you think the gods sent him?" Piercey asked.

  "It seemed like it."

  "We don't know how gaining power as an adult affects someone. It may be dangerous." Piercey never used to jump from topic to topic so frequently. Guilt ate away at me for leaving him there at the Sacred School. I should have forced him to leave with me. Instead, they beat away at his mind and spirit, reducing him to a healer too scarred by power to fully utilize his healing power.

  My friend agreed to train Nash even though he disagreed with us trying to assassinate the Prophets.

  "I can't believe I'm agreeing to this," I said with a groan a few days into their training.

  "You'll do it then?" Nash raised one brow, looking at me like I'd agreed to something completely different than what we'd just talked about.

  Lips pursed, I raised a hand to him. "I'll stay to help you train with Piercey as long as Leif and Wren can cover for me."

  "Why do you say it like I don't know what you're talking about?"

  "Because I just want to be clear on the deal we're making so you don't get the wrong idea."

  "Huh." I didn't for a moment believe the faux innocent look he wore. "What other deal might we make?"

  I jabbed my finger against his chest, ignoring how my stomach fluttered when I moved too close. "The kind that has you jesting right now."

  He flicked my finger away and smiled knowingly. "As my trainer, I don't think it's right for you to flirt with me like this. We have serious business to attend to."

  My fingers curled and this time it wasn't a finger I jabbed him with but a fist. Except he caught it, and we each lingered for just that extra moment that left him holding my hand in his. The look in his eye changed subtly and he released me, his fingers grazing my skin softly as he did so.

  "You know," he said softly. "I'll let you kiss me."

  "You'll let me?" I snorted. "I would rather die than kiss you."

  "You must be very desperate for death then," he whispered close to my face. "Because you're dying to kiss me right now."

  Heat fluttered in my core at how easily I could do it. If I just barely shifted, he'd dip a little more, and I'd know the taste of his lips.

  I could not stop myself from glancing quickly down his face as my body almost moved on its own. "I'd still rather die. You stole the power I needed to save my people and you're failing to wield it properly. I'll never forgive you."

  "How was I supposed to know you knew how to use it?"

  "It doesn't matter. I resent you for it. You've fooled my body is all."

  "Have I?"

  Were his lips closer or was I imagining that? The tension made me squirm. I turned him away that night, and I did so other nights, even when I was the one drawing close to him.

  Until I saw Nash draw his power into a glowing ball in his hand, and I watched how his amber eyes lit with rapture. The excitement rushed over us both, an overwhelming sense of victory. He clasped me against him in a hug and I returned it, hopeful for the first time in a long time that we might be free.

  My cheek was pressed against his hard chest and his hands were smoothed against me. I peeked up at his face, my head spinning with the unyielding pull of his body. We only hugged, and then my hands were climbing up his shoulders. He was bending and I was pulling myself up to him. Our bodies plastered together when I never planned for them to be. Nash gripped my hips and for the first time his sweet lips met mine. I learned the taste and scent and feel of him. The utter intoxication of his kiss and his nearness.

  I no longer convinced myself of enough reasons to push him away. Not in that moment. His kiss felt so amazing, I couldn't bring myself to stop. Soon we were lying in the grass and my lips melted against that torturous kiss of chest that his tunic showed–the same one he wore in the tavern that always distracted me. He smoothed against the curve of my sides beneath my shirt and finally we stopped only because the sudden flight of birds dragged me back to reality.

  What if Piercey saw?

  I lost myself with Nash, unable to find my way back. So I did my best to shield my friend from the way Nash made me feel, but I thought he knew even though he didn't say. To his credit, he faithfully trained Nash, kind to him, befriending him. Trusting him in ways I refused to allow myself. For months, I left the two of them to train while I returned to my duties with my Prophet. After his long absence, Nash didn't have the choice to return home. His Prophet would kill him. Though Piercey was still as shaky as I'd ever seen him, he taught Nash to control his power, and finally, one day, he was ready.

  But I still worried he couldn't do it alone and that without my power we were destined to fail.