~LYRA'S POV~
He kissed me back.
For a moment it was just that, his mouth on mine, his hand still over mine on the stone, the bond between us finally doing the thing it had been building toward for longer than either of us had acknowledged. Warm and real and nothing like what I'd expected, though I wasn't sure what I'd been expecting exactly.
Then he stopped.
He pulled back, not far, just enough. His forehead didn't quite touch mine but it was close.
"We shouldn't," he said. Quiet. Almost careful, the way Kael was careful about things that mattered.
I looked at him. In the dark garden light his expression was open in a way I'd only seen a few times — the composed surface still there, but something underneath it that wasn't being held back for once. Something that had decided to let itself be seen.
I nodded once.
Then I kissed him again.
