Chapter 252

• I hoisted myself up onto one of the smooth, glistening stones lining the lake’s edge, my body nearly soaked
• through with sweat. I wasn’t sure if it was the lingering fire-magic or Leonardo’s soft, insistent words that had set a flush of heat racing through me. Seeing Leonardo awestruck, with a wonder I'd never witnessed before, was something new. To be the source of that awe, that silent reverence—it was a feeling I hadn’t realized I craved. Like my soul was finding its missing half.
• “Don’t even think about it,” I warned, eyeing Leonardo as he swam toward the stone beside me.