Page 52 of King of Fire and Flames

One. Two. Three. Then four, five, and six.

Still nothing happened.

At the count of ten, I felt it, a disturbance in the air, my human’s scent peaking—a little different now. The notes of sweet apples and midnight-flowering auron roses were tinged with something darker. A little bitter. Fear. Anger. Desperation.

Whipping around, I reached out blindly and latched onto her wrist, hard, so it would fucking hurt and stop her in her devious little tracks.

She hissed, and I wrapped an arm around her, crushing her body to mine as I searched for the knife hilt, seized it, throwing it across the floor while she bucked against me, like a trapped, unbroken filly.

I backed her against the wall, sliding my hands up the familiar paradise of her curves until my palms braced her face. “If I could only see you, little Leaf, this moment would be perfect,” I whispered. “Instead, sadness fills my heart.”

A bolt of pain struck, and I spat a curse, my body jerking against the agony.

“Poor Arrow. Are you sad that you couldn’t see my knee strike your groin?” she growled.

“I’d very much like to see any part of you touch me.”

Capturing petal-soft lips, I pressed into their moist heat and kissed her. My body shuddered as if the power of a thousand storms rolled through me. She opened to me, sighing, and then, gold save me, moaned like she’d missed my touch. Missed me.

With each desperate kiss, her invisibility cloak flickered, and parts of her body became visible. Tonight, she wore a black tunic embroidered with flames and a Fire Court cloak. Not my cloak. Not the one I’d given her before I left Mydorian.

I caught a glimpse of her lashes fluttering like moth wings on the dusky hills of her cheeks, the shine of her skin, glowing with health. She’d been paler on that terrible day I left her in the Mydorian forest.

I’d wanted her so badly. Longed to take her with me. To never let her go. But instead of following my heart’s desires, I’d listened to the voices of caution—Raiden and my Sayeeda.

A moan wrenched from my chest, so loud I almost missed her command to stop. Although it nearly killed me, I stepped back, still gripping her shoulders as her cloak flickered on and off, like a malfunctioning glamour.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“The invisibility is wearing off. I must go before someone finds me here.”

Wearing off? That was an odd way to phrase it.

I nodded as my thumbs twitched on her collarbone, my fingers curling tighter. “It’s probably for the best.”

“Arrow, stop squeezing me like a Mydorian forest python. Let me go. I’ll come back another night and have a third attempt to murder you.”

“Third? I’m certain your count is higher.” I gave her a wry smile and forced myself to take another step backward. “You must be disappointed to find me still alive, then.”

“Yes. And sad to learn a knife to the chest couldn’t kill you.”

“Mm. Must strike the heart, I’m afraid. Right in the center. And very deep. You’ll need to use all your strength for the task.”

She walked to the door and opened it, then glanced over her shoulder as I called her name in a plea, a prayer for mercy. “Leaf, wait a moment. Please. Are you all right? Have they hurt you?”

Green eyes widened in surprise or annoyance. “I’m fine.”

“Then expect me in your room tomorrow night,” I said, hoping I’d see a flash of something other than hostility in her features.

“Why?” she asked, frowning harder.

Pain worse than when she’d plunged my knife into my chest tore through me.

“Why? Because I’m trying to help you. Please, listen to me. I must—”

“I’ll never believe another word you say, Arrow,” she said, the door clicking shut with such fuck-you finality she might as well have slammed the damn thing in my face.

I slumped on the bed, resting my elbows on my knees and clenched fists tugging my blood-streaked hair.

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