Xavier leaned back slightly, studying Calypso's face in the volcanic light. The golden sparkles that always accompanied her had settled into a gentle shimmer around her shoulders, like starlight caught in silk. Her wine-red hair cascaded around features that belonged to Lady Selene but carried Calypso's unmistakable spirit—the slight upturn at the corner of her mouth when she was pleased with herself, the way her eyes crinkled at the edges when she smiled genuinely rather than for effect. In this light, the subtle glow of her skin made her look both ethereal and tantalizingly real.
"You know," he said, his voice taking on that teasing tone she'd grown to recognize, the one that always preceded either brilliance or disaster, "I've been thinking about something."