Page 7 of Queen of Serpents and Shadows

“What if I promise to tell you if you’re going too far?” He set his hand on my waist, the touch scalding. I could hardly concentrate on his words when all I could think about was the feel of his hand on my body.

I gritted my teeth and pushed away the increasing sense of need. “You have to. Or I won’t use it.”

“I will. I promise.”

I nodded, then tilted my chin, looking up into the swirling gray depths of his eyes. Since the moment we met, he’d captured me with those eyes. I should have known I’d be helpless against him.

He leaned down and my breath caught as I anticipated the kiss, but I felt a hand on my thigh a second before hegrabbed me and spun me, turning me so my back was against his chest and my blade was at my throat.

“You tricked me,” I hissed. “Rude.”

“We’re still training, Asteri,” he whispered, his breath hot against my cheek. Shivers went straight to my core. He had a knife to my throat and all I could think about was getting his clothes off. It was a good thing I didn’t have to fight him. I’d never win.

For a moment, I imagined using that knife to cut apart his tunic until the torn fabric was in a puddle on the ground. I gritted my teeth and forced the image away. “You’re a distraction, you know that?”

“Teach me a lesson then,” he said, his voice husky enough that I knew the closeness was getting to him too.

The blade was near to my throat, but he wasn’t letting it touch me. I’d felt the bite of that blade more times than I’d like to admit, and I was sure those memories were what had him recreating the situation now.

My arms were by my side, pinned by his other arm. Like my past opponents, he was so much stronger than me that I couldn’t just push my way out.

Magic it was.

I felt for the shadows, then closed my eyes. Taking a deep breath, I visualized the dark tendrils traveling up my body, staying tight enough that they wouldn’t be as obvious. I could feel the coolness of them as they stretched forward, pushing their way around Ryvin. Tensing, I ordered the shadows to twist around my captor’s arms, then I demanded the shadows pull. I didn’t realize I wasscreaming until I was stumbling forward, free of Ryvin’s grip.

The knife clattered to the ground, and he was left with his arms wide open, extended on either side of his body. Tendrils of darkness twisted around them, keeping his arms in place.

Grunting, he struggled against his confinement. I stared, watching in awe at how I’d been able to control the shadows with such precision. It wasn’t the big emotional reaction I’d created in the past. This made me dangerous. It made me powerful.

I dropped down and grabbed the fallen knife before slowly approaching him. Blade pointed out, I paused in front of Ryvin. “I think I won.”

He winced, finally dropping one arm to his side, then the other. “You definitely won.”

I slid the knife back into its sheath, then helped him brush away the last few clinging shadows.

“You’re getting better,” he said.

“It’s not too much, is it? I don’t want to leave you with nothing.”

He smirked. “Do you remember what I did in Athos?”

I swallowed hard. I didn’t let myself recall that battle. No, not battle. Slaughter. He destroyed everyone with precision. He left me and his men standing while those trying to harm him were brutally eliminated. The power he’d used then was beyond anything I could comprehend.

“I could have continued to fight after that.” He rubbed his thumb against my wrist comfortingly. “I told you, Ihave more than enough power for both of us. Unless you’re actively draining it from me like you did in the throne room, we’re fine.”

I nodded, still feeling uneasy. “What about my magic?” We hadn’t discussed the fight in Athos yet, but I knew we had to address it.

“Try to use my magic and avoid tapping into yours,” he said.

“Do you think that’s what I did? Accessed mine though you?” I asked.

“I’m not sure. It could be that, or it could be going back to you. Magic doesn’t like to be forced to be somewhere it doesn’t want to be,” he replied.

“Alright.” I think we both knew it was going to be a problem. But all we could do was add it to the ever-growing list of things we needed to address. If we survived the Fae King and Nyx, we’d figure it out then. Right now, I needed a distraction. Anything to get my mind away from how dangerous things were for us.

Ryvin’s hand was on my waist again, his fingers under my tunic, brushing against my bare skin. I stepped closer, then slid my own hands under his tunic.

“So naughty,” he whispered. “I thought we were training.”

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