Love is a Losing Game

LIALG - Chapter 23

The first thing I registered was that there was still sand beneath me and a warm body flush with mine. I must have fallen asleep on the shore while Evie and I were relaxing, watching the clouds roll by and identifying shapes in them. The second thing I registered, now that my eyes had opened, was that the sky was red. Like, literally red, with little ember-like flakes floating about. I sat up so fast my eyesight blackened for a bit, and my abrupt movement caused Evie to follow suit.

"What? What's wrong? Did you have a nightmare?" She inquired worriedly.

My eyes were darting everywhere, trying to figure out the source of the...storm? Fire? I wasn't really sure what I was looking for, to be honest.

Her head turned to follow my gazes, and her expression relaxed all at once. Then she began to chuckle. "Sorry, M! I know I've done it with you before, but it must have only been while you were asleep!"

Suddenly, the sky was blue again, and ominous red flecks were gone. Then, as quickly as they disappeared, they reappeared.

I didn't think I could be more confused, but here we were.

"It's my magic. When I manipulate time, the zone I'm manipulating looks like this to me and anyone else I include in that zone. All the world outside of the zone sees is me either moving unnaturally fast or slow. Sometimes, I'm so fast, people don't see me at all," she revealed, her eyebrows wiggling.

Now that I thought about it, the magic wards I had seen her conjure a couple of times now did look very similar to the red, sparkling sky. "Huh. So," I drawled. "Are you speeding up time or slowing it down?"

She chuckled again and pointed to the sky. The clouds above were completely still, like a photo.

"Slowed down it is," I remarked, laying back in the sand and taking position on her bikini-clad chest once she did the same.

After a while of relaxing and cuddling, her hand tracing patterns along my arm, she spoke softly. "I just wanted this moment to last longer."

It was the last day of our spring break vacation, and I felt the same way. It had been amazing to live with my core four, getting to do whatever we wanted with no outside obligations. It had been an exciting, terrifying, sexy, and peaceful journey. I'd live here forever if I could. "You're in luck," I said offhandedly, considering she could, in fact, stretch out this moment until she was sick of it.

Her body shook beneath mine as she laughed. Long, tan arms tightened around me, and lips pressed a kiss to my head. "I sure am."

* * *

"I have such a fun idea for your birthday, that your pants will melt right off," Evie boldly claimed.

I let out a single chuckle. "It doesn't take much for you to melt my pants right off."

Evie rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but this is your twentieth birthday! The big two-oh!" She exclaimed.

"E, we grew up on an island full of criminals and murderers. Every birthday was a big deal," I reminded her.

"You're not wrong, but neither am I. It's going to be special."

"Every moment with you is special," I quipped, smirking up at her from my seat on her bed.

She approached the edge of the bed and leaned down, taking my jaw in her hand and kissing me. As she retreated from the kiss, my lip was between her teeth. "Keep talking like that, and my* pants will melt right off," she husked.

"Good thing you're wearing a dress, then," I replied, gripping her hips and easily pulling her into my lap.

She hummed in agreement, her hands holding either side of my face as we reconnected in a heated kiss. Before long, her hands were in my hair.