“She lights up the night,
like a lost drop of day,
a sunbeam gone astray.”
Tiago’s sensual voice unspools me.
Somehow, my feet deposit me on the cushion next to him, my movements minimal, unwilling to break his incantation. The infusion of his vocals is so perfect that I can’t believe I ever liked the song without them.
“She rearranges the stars,
paves new paths with her feet.
She makes my heart beat.”
He looks up at me on the last lyric, and my own pulse stalls.
“Ojos de oro,
Sos lo que adoro.
Te quiero en mis brazos,
Mi querida Solazos—”
The music cuts off abruptly. Like a cord got yanked out. Tiago sets the guitar aside and mutters, “It’s rough. I’m still working on it.”
His speaking voice sounds a-melodic now. English or Spanish aside, music is Tiago’s true language.
My pulse is racing too rapidly to speak.
“I started writing it the night we met.” He searches my face for a reaction. “I borrowed one of the school’s guitars and practiced in my room. Pablo wasn’t thrilled.”
“I-I love it,” I say, my throat dry.
The tension in Tiago’s expression eases. “I hadn’t played since Argentina. Music was something I thought I’d lost in the move, but meeting you brought it back. You helped me find my voice again.” He takes my hands in his. “I’ll do whatever I can to help you find yours.”
I feel the emotions stinging my eyes, so I push in and press my lips to his.
He kisses me back and slides my body onto his lap, his hand running down my spine. “There’s so much I want to show you,” he murmurs into my neck.
“Show me, then.”
I get to my feet, and he blinks. “Now? Why not wait until we’re back?”
“Because I got dressed up.”
I hook a hand on my hip, and a devilish smile curls his lips. “It would be a shame to waste that dress.”
“So you like me like this?” Now I sound less sure.
“I do.” He stands and takes me in again, only his gaze travels extra slowly.
“Do you wish I dressed more like a bruja?”
His eyes snap to mine, the blue no longer soft like the sea, but hard like a sapphire. “I can write you a better song.”
“What?”
“If I haven’t made myself clear.” He takes my chin in his hand. “I like you every way, Solazos.”
His arms close around me, and our mouths crash together. My heart races as a tingling sensation spreads across my skin—
“Carried away,” he says, breathless.
His eyes are aglow, and there’s a light stubble on his face. “Let’s get going.”
Now I would rather stay and finish what we started, but there’s no point in saying so because he’s already by the door.
I follow Tiago out of the house, and then I start to climb down the steps to the elevator, but he takes my hand and shakes his head. Instead, he transforms.
As his body breaks free of its form, I feel the tug in my uterus, and I rip out of my skin too. When the agony ends, he reaches for a low-lying branch and climbs up to a higher bough. He holds out his hand for mine, but I don’t take it.
I start backing away, then I break into a sprint and leap for the branch. When I catch it, I pull myself up the way he did.
We keep climbing, limb by limb, through the tree’s crown. I feel the bark digging into my skin and the leaves scratching my face, but none of it bothers me. This body was built to move this way, and the more momentum I get, the more confident I feel. I go from trusting my muscles to carry me, to feeling that I can take on anyone who comes at me.
In this body, I feel like I can do anything.
We break through the crown and pull ourselves onto a narrow wooden platform that extends across the treetops. Above us, the sky is infested with stars, surrounding an engorged moon that’s nearly round.
The platform we’re on is lined with colorful hot-air balloons. I look at Tiago, and even though he’s in wolf form, there’s something precocious about his expression. A sparkle in his gemstone eyes reminds me of the night we met, when we survived the lunarcán.
Jump!
He leaps off the wooden plank into the sea of treetops.
Tiago! I cover my mouth with my clawed hand in horror—
But he doesn’t fall.
He’s latched onto some kind of invisible netting, and he starts to climb up, like he’s trying to reach the sky. By now I’ve seen enough of the Septimus world to know that if I jump, something will catch me. So I take the leap.
I sail through the air, until fine, silky threads kiss my skin, and my fingers and shoes hook into webbing. Up close, it glints in the starlight.
Telarañas, says Tiago, and I look up to meet his face a few feet above me.
Spiderwebs.
Try to keep up. Then he’s off like a shot.
I reach up and try to move my arms and legs like he does, but I can’t get his speed. We’re not all Spider-Man!
He looks over his shoulder and doubles back. We don’t have eight limbs, so our power is in our hips. He thrusts his from side to side in an exaggerated motion.
I bark out a laugh, but I do what he says, and I swing my hips. As soon as I shift my weight to my middle, my arms and legs move more easily, and I pick up speed until I close much of the distance between us.
We keep climbing and climbing, and I make the mistake of looking down—we’re so high up that Rívoli is a forest enclosed in glowing walls.
When I look up again, Tiago’s gone.
Tiago?
I climb a few more feet, and a tingly barrier washes over me, as solid ground manifests beneath my feet. I’m in a landscape of silver grass that looks like Lunaris at nightfall.
Tiago is next to me, already back to human form. My own body caves in as I shrink.
“I-is this a pocket world?” I ask, catching my breath and looking around in awe at the glowing plant life surrounding us.
“Sort of. It’s a midnight garden,” he explains, and as I watch, a ray of moonlight hits a purple flower, and it blossoms open on the spot. “But it’s not exactly ours.”
“I don’t understand,” I say, falling into step with him as we follow a narrow trail between long-stemmed plants.
“Lunaris likes to keep her realms separate. Septimus interact very little with insects and animals. We’re omnivores, so the whole predator and prey thing still applies, but we each have our own domains.”
We arrive at a wider area, where rivulets knot together and roll through the silver grass, and I admire the glimmering foliage of this garden. Just one of the many secrets the moon keeps from the sun.
“There’s a theory that Lunaris does this so the killing doesn’t get out of hand.” At my expression, Tiago clarifies, “Like brujas using pesticide potions to keep bugs away from their plants, or wolves being tempted to hunt animals for fame or fur or fun.”
We go down a shadowy path that winds through a patch of reedy trees. “But are we even allowed here, then?” I murmur. I start to feel whispers of webs on my skin, and I run my hand over my face.
“If we respect one another, we can coexist. Don’t you think?”
I answer him with another question. “Do you think that about Septimus and humans too?”
“I don’t know.” He takes a moment to consider it. “The closest we get to the human experience is childhood, before we have our powers. But part of the fun is knowing we’ll inherit them one day. To grow up surrounded by magic and know you’ll never have it … That’s different. I can see many humans not being gracious or understanding.”
I think of how I felt when I first arrived at the academy without any abilities, and I know he’s right.
We step into a colorful meadow surrounded by copper-trunked trees with cotton candy crowns. Their shedding has coated the fiel
d in a quilt of puffy pastel clouds. I look at Tiago in awe, and he laughs at my expression.
I break into a sprint across the cottony ground, remembering the crystal marketplace of El Laberinto where Tiago and I shared our first kiss. Only instead of ice-hard, this field is so plushy that my feet sink down, and I feel like I’m bouncing along the cloud tops.
After a while, I look for Tiago, but he’s vanished.
“Tiago?”
My voice hangs in the air, but there’s not a stir of movement.
“Cut it out.”
The silence grows thicker the longer it holds.
“Seriously, don’t—”
A flash of sapphire and teeth vaults from behind yellow and aqua clouds, and I shriek and spin away.
But Tiago is faster, and he takes me down in a burst of pink and lavender.
“Never run from a predator,” he growls, pinning me beneath him, his lips grazing mine. “You only tempt us with the chase.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re losing it.”
“Blame the moon,” he says in a low voice, as his mouth softly, slowly, traces my jawline. “She comes more near the earth than she was wont, and makes men mad.”
“Well, you know what they say about that,” I murmur, my breath snagging as his lips brush my collarbone. “Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.”
Tiago pulls away, and I wish he wouldn’t each time I think we’re about to get started. He did ask me to be his girlfriend after all.
“What’s this?” he asks, tugging on the thin gold chain around my neck until the locket is in his fingers. I’d buried it in my cleavage, but it spilled out.
“A gift from Zaybet,” I say as he inspects the sun and star etched into the gold. “Open it.”
When he does, he stares for a long moment at the ice as it keeps altering its form and displaying my symbol.
“I never knew how powerful my sister was,” he says, like he’s talking to the locket. “That’s why Saysa was acting out. She knew I couldn’t see her as a Septimus in her own right. She was just my little sister to me. But Zaybet saw her. She saved her life—more than once.”
He looks otherworldly with his dark skin haloed in moonlight. “If Zaybet had been born a wolf, she would have had the world at her feet. It’s fucking wrong.”
His blue gaze grows blustery, and I circle my arms around him, until our breathing is in sync. When Tiago tips back to meet my eyes, I know from the gravity of his expression that he’s finally going to say whatever it is he’s been trying to tell me.
“In Lunaris, wolves can only track their own bloodline.”
I’m confused. Then I remember—
“You never said how you found me in the stone mountain.”
“There’s one exception to the family rule.”
His accent resurfaces slightly, making his voice more musical. From the way he’s looking at me, I’m struck with the certainty that this is about to become a core memory. A moment that will bloom within me forever.
“I’m in love with you, Solazos.”
Tiago’s eyes hold mine in their beam, and when I reach for an inhale, there’s no air to suck in.
Then his mouth captures mine, and like his song says, we light up the night.
A tingling sensation extends through my veins, like I’m plugged into el Hongo. I feel as rooted to the earth as these cotton candy trees.
I exist.
I am seen.
I am loved.
“Estoy enamoradísima de vos,” I say, my voice trembling. I’m so in love with you.
Tiago’s breathtaking smile raises the tempo of my pulse, and I know now, more than I’ve ever known anything, this is what I want.
Saysa and Zaybet would be disappointed, but my heart isn’t in their revolution—it’s in Tiago’s hands. I want to read novels with him every night, and maybe even attempt to write one someday. I want to visit Lunaris every full moon and explore that world the same way I once longed to explore outer space. I want a life among the Septimus, with a family and a manada and a purpose—and I want my parents safe and by my side.
If I can just convince the tribunal I’m not a threat, maybe they’ll allow me this much—just the right to live a quiet life with Tiago, nothing more. I’ll never claim the spotlight again or violate any more of their laws.
“How did things work out for that guy in The Chocolate War?” I ask, thinking of Cien Años de Soledad and how lately I don’t seem to finish any book I pick up. “Was disturbing the universe worth it?”
Tiago hesitates, and I already know.
Nothing changes.
“Solazos, you’re crying,” says Tiago, taking my face in his hands.
“I’ll miss you,” I whisper.
“It’s just three nights. I’m the one who’ll be miserable without you. You won’t even notice—you’ll be Sleeping Beauty, and I’ll wake you up with a kiss.”
Tiago’s fairy tale ending is tempting, but late. I don’t believe anyone else can secure another’s happily ever after anymore. Not a prince, not a parent, not a pack. I have to slay this dragon myself.
“Tiago, I don’t want to lie to you anymore, so when I say what I’m about to say, I need you to listen and respect my wishes. Okay?”
I can feel his entire body tense. “What is it?”
“I’m going to turn myself in.”
His eyes fill his whole face, and I can practically see the explosions going on in his mind, the battle between supporting and protecting me that’s constantly taking place within him. The alpha mentality that’s ingrained in him facing off with his gentler nature.
“That’s a death sentence,” he says at last.
“I’m dead either way.”
From the blank way he’s looking at me, I know he’s never had to wonder about his own life’s worth, or if there’s a place for him in the world. How can he hope to understand how it feels not to be given any choices, when all he’s ever had is an abundance of them?
“Everything we’ve done.” He sounds like he’s out of breath and each word taxes him. “What was it for if you give up?”
“I’m not giving up. Running away would be giving up. The Septimus system needs to change. You said so yourself. We can’t keep waiting for someone else to come along and make the sacrifices we aren’t willing to make.”
I hear Saysa and Zaybet in my voice, and I realize my desire for a humble existence with Tiago isn’t entirely true. That’s not all I want. I also want to force the system to see my friends and me and make real changes.
I want both a family and a revolution.
“I’m not trying to control you, Manu, but if the roles were reversed, you wouldn’t want me going on a suicide mission either!”
“You’re right,” I say, trying to guide us in a more productive direction. “But some risks are worth taking. I mean, you walked away from your life to go on the run with me. Some would qualify that as a suicide mission.”
“I ran with you because when I fell in love with you, I saw a future for myself for the first time. I know everyone thinks I have all these doors open to me, but what good are a million choices when none of them are what you want?”
“Then you understand what I feel,” I say softly, “because none of the options open to me are what I want either.”
His face falls, and I know this will hurt for him to hear, but it’s the only way I can explain myself. “Do you know that while we were at the duelo today, all I wanted was to sit on your family’s blanket? But when I picture that blanket, it’s not just us I see on it. I also see my parents. And Saysa and Cata and all our friends. If you and I were to have children, I would want to bring them into a world where they can grow up to be whoever they want. That’s why the options open to us aren’t enough. I want more.”
Tiago looks so forlorn as he exhales, and tonight feels like it’s slipping through my grasp. This isn’t how I wanted it to go. I need this last night with him.
“You’re going to Lun
aris soon. Let’s not spend tonight sulking.” When he doesn’t say anything, I try something else. “Why don’t you show me how you were planning to awaken me from the Anestesia?”
I lie back on the soft ground and shut my eyes, arms limp at my sides.
My senses sharpen as I await Tiago’s touch, his quiet stealth alerting me to every millimeter of my body. And when his mouth brushes mine, I inhale sharply.
The air is perfumed with Tiago’s tantalizing musk. His tongue parts my lips, and I arch into the kiss as his arm slides around the small of my back.
I hook my fingers around the hem of his shirt, and I tug until I’ve freed him of it. Tiago’s eyes are soft as he strips off my dress’s straps. With my period almost here, my cups are fuller than usual, and he reaches back to unhook my bra—
But something flickers in his dreamy gaze, like rational thought trying to break through. And before he can pull away to do what he probably deems the “right” thing, I yank my bra off myself.
Tiago’s eyes widen as he looks down, all logic gone from his gaze. I hear a hurried echoing sound that I think are footsteps, but then I recognize his heartbeat. Racing.
I take his hand and place it on my knee, then I slide it up my thigh, shocking myself with my own assertiveness. I don’t feel insecure. If anything, I feel … empowered.
Tiago’s fingers are warm on my skin, and I let go as he takes over, tracing higher and higher, until I gasp and press against his chest, pulling him in for a kiss. The moment our tongues touch again, I feel a rumbling in my blood.
The shift is coming.
“Solazos,” murmurs Tiago as his fangs file down and his stubble grows in. “Are you—”
Claws curve from my fingers as I pin him down and clamp my mouth on his. Pain and pleasure battle inside me as we make out while the transformation takes hold, until neither of us can speak out loud again.
We should slow down, he says into my head as our mouths clash. Once we give ourselves over, we won’t be able to stop—
I don’t want to stop.
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