Page 132 of Steel Heart Iron Claws

She lets out a relieved sob. Slowly, she tries to push to her elbows but winces from a bruised rib.

I won’t lie, we aren’t in the best position here.

We’re both soaked, dripping pond water, which will leave an obvious trail. Both bleeding, too. Wildfire is rapidly approaching. She can’t run on that twisted ankle.

And the sun? Shit, it isn’t even Eleventh Hour. Dusk is eight hours away.

You need to get her the hell out of here, idiot!a voice announces in the back of my head.

But I can’t take my eyes off her.

Tonight, I’ll die for her, happily putting the noose around my own neck, but before that light disappears forever?

Cupping her jaw, I capture her mouth with my own.

Warmth floods into me, laced with the taste of violets. My chest seizes up with so much damn love that it feels like I might float away.

She pulls back and gently wipes the blood from my jaw. “Basten.”

My heart starts pattering like rain on a tin roof. When this perfect woman says my name, I’m fucking lost.

She tilts her chin up for another kiss, and I’m only too happy to oblige. She lifts herself onto one elbow, sliding her hand around to the back of my neck, where her fingers weave in the hair at my nape.

Brushing my rough lips against her velvet-soft ones, all I can think is that this one kiss is worth giving up my life for. Its aching softness leaves me breathless in a new way. A waythat has me exploring every curve of her mouth, searing this kiss into memory so that when I die in a few hours, I’ll be remembering everything about this moment.

She lives in more than memories.

Breath shallow, I pull back to rest my forehead against hers.

“It might be madness, but I love you, Sabine.” I lock my hand around her arm, afraid to let go. “Screw the past. The future, too. We have right now together, this moment, and it’s all I want.”

She clutches my good shoulder, biting her bottom lip as though pained. “I love you so much, Basten. Now and forever.”

She vocalizes a soft moan as my teeth scorch across her bottom lip. She twists her hand in my torn shirt, instinctively grabbing on.

Thisis what my life has led to.

The chance to keep her light shining forever.

The heat from the wildfire toasts my left side. Though it kills me, I break the kiss and slowly ease my arm around her waist. With her twisted ankle, it will be slow going with me carrying her over my shoulder, so we can’t risk staying here any longer.

“Come on, little violet,” I coax as I help her sit up. “I’ll carry you back to the southern gate?—”

She interrupts me by slapping away my arm. Her eyes are clear now, powerfully fierce.

“What?” she stammers. “No.”

“No? Darling, there’s only one way this game ends, and it’s when I carry you to the finish line over my shoulder to claim my win.”

She shoves herself up to a sitting position, her wet dressclinging to her chest. “So Artain can slit your throat? Basten, I’m not going to let that happen.”

My eyebrows slide upward. I thought she understood that this kiss was our last.

The determination on her face is so damn adorable that I find myself laughing at the idea that she thinks this can end any other way.

But as soon as I chuckle, her face goes dark.

She pushes to her feet, not looking at me, glancing at the wildfire closing in. She tests out her ankle, winces, and takes a single hobble.

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