Duality

part thirteen

Mila woke to the sound of a strong heartbeat. Not her own. Sitting up, Mila turned to find she'd used Ashton's chest as a pillow. A glance at the sky didn't reveal for how long, but the crick in her neck told her long enough.

To her surprise, Ashton's dark gray eyes watched her.

She looked at his lips and blushed. "If that wasn't a sign my virginity matters, I don't know what is," Mila muttered, standing and stretching her arms over her head.

"Your virginity was hardly in danger." Ashton tucked his arms behind his head and studied her from his spot on the ground. "But my sanity might be."

He eyed her breasts like they were the answer to all his questions. Turning from his gaze, Mila watched as—nothing happened. Flowers should have grown to fill the holes he'd created, but nothing grew. Mila stared at her skin in disbelief before everything clicked.

One hand pressed over her chest, Mila whirled to Ashton. "You have my powers." When he didn't disagree, she gave him a nod. "Fix my dress."

He took her demand as a request and laughed it away. "Why would I?" he asked, studying her leisurely. As her gaze darkened, he changed his answer. "I wouldn't even know how to grow something." He spread his palms wide. "That's not really my thing."

"So do you want me to kill you, or would you prefer to kill me?"

"What's your rush?" he asked, lifting himself up on one arm. "Besides, we seem to switch powers just by being around each other. No death needed."

When she saw he was serious about not fixing her dress, she turned away from him again and pulled her hair over both shoulders so it more or less covered her breasts. "It's not like we permanently die, anyway," she told him over her shoulder.

"I wouldn't call it pleasant, though."

"What would you call it?" Her hands hovered over her chest, afraid to turn and face him as she was. In a fluid motion she sat, crossing and folding her legs until she felt covered.

Silence had descended while she adjusted, forcing her to carefully turn halfway until she sat facing him. His expression had darkened into something contemplative, his eyes studying the woods beyond her. He didn't even look upset that she'd covered herself.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"That's not an answer." Taking a calming breath, Mila rephrase to, "Try me."

He traced a circle in the dirt. Blades of grass sprouted up until he moved his hand back to his chest. "I think this is happening... because of love."

Like he'd predicted, she didn't believe them.

"Because of if being right, then," he rushed at her speculative expression. "We're two halves of a whole. We're meant to be together. I think our powers switch because eventually, it's supposed to be flawless. We should essentially be able to function as one."

He wasn't kissing and touching her anymore to fog her brain, but she still found his words hard to process. "That sounds a lot like how one of us dies. Forever," she said softly.

In all the stories Anna told, that's how it had to be. They could both exist, but it would always be a fight: the moon or the sun? Growth or death? Light or dark? Even their powers seemed to realize that their presence together was toxic, knocking them out and giving one person a chance. Whoever woke first with their normal powers would win.

"We weren't made to have a corporeal form forever," Ashton said.

She wanted to believe him, but it was hard when there was no way to test what he said. At least, not without permanent consequences. "Or this is a sign we can't be around each other," Mila pointed out. "I don't pass out when we're apart." She had nothing to do, either, but he didn't need to know that.