CASSIAN
The moon was full, a harsh white plate in the sky that turned the world into shades of silver and bone. It did things to the ordinary.
It made the brickwork look like ancient stone and the checkers of Julian's shirt look like armor.
His hair moved slightly in the night air, soft and brown. His shirt was open at the collar, and the jade pendant he always wore caught the moonlight, glowing like a cat's eye against his skin.
Something about the combination of the light and the silence made me feel like I was looking at something that shouldn't be this beautiful.
It was a physical ache in my chest.
Julian turned his head. He found my eyes already there, waiting for him. He read my expression, the one I had spent years learning how to hide.
For the first time, I wasn't hiding anything. I let the hunger and the love and the desperation sit right there on the surface for him to see.
Julian let out a breath that was half a laugh.
