Page 31 of Terragnata and the Heir of the Earth

He softened at my answer, and I lunged. He was on his back foot, and I took advantage of the poor stance, whirling myself around him. I had to stand on my toes, butmyblade found his throat this time.

He stilled.

I could have asked him a million things. Should have. But what popped out of my mouth was beyond my control.

“Why did you lick me?”

The body in my grip warmed, chest heaving.

“I suppose I thought you would taste good.” His voice was so low I almost couldn’t hear him.

“And did I?” I breathed, not daring to move a muscle.

He disarmed me with ease, in a blink, throwing my sword to the ground and twisting out of my arms. “Not your turn,Bellatori.”

I picked up my blade, but before I could raise it high, his blade clashed with mine.

“Why,” he huffed, “do you insist on putting yourself through pain?”

I hit back harder, gritting my teeth. Sweat formed on my brow, threatening to impair my vision. “I. Do. Not,” my breaths and blows separating each word.

“Yes, you do.” Ezren struck my blade with such force that my weapon flew from my hand. Irrational rage poured over me,at his better fighting or his patronizing words, I wasn’t sure. Although he paused to let me retrieve the blade, I placed both hands on his wrist and slammed it into a nearby tree. His sword fell to the ground.

We were close now, and I tilted my head back to see the shock register on his face. I sent my fist towards his jaw, eager to land another blow and keep my advantage. But he caught my hand, his grip tightening around my fist. In one swift motion, he turned us, and I was the one pinned to the aspen, my hand pressed into the tree above my head, his knee jammed between my thighs, and our gazes locked on one another.

He dipped his head so that I could better see him as he towered over me. What almost looked like a sliver of guilt flashed across his emerald eyes. “You’ve built your strength, that much I can see, so a part of you must want to live. You have to learn to control your power,Bellatori. If you deny it, if you deny who you are, its hold over you will only grow.”

Something white-hot—maybe anger, maybe not—flared in my chest. “You say all of this as if—as if you care,” I spat. “Yet you have no reason to.”

Conflict wore on his expression. “Terra,” he whispered. There it was again—my name like a prayer. His eyes darkened, scanning my face, lingering on my lips, falling to my necklace. “A Dragon made of silver,” he murmured. “Why?”

“My mother made it. They called mefirebreather.”

Ezren’s fingers tightened around my wrist possessively, his entire body a bow loaded with tension. I squirmed in reaction, feigning escape from his grasp, pretending like a small part of me didn’t revel in the friction.

“Is that why you’re always so damned flushed?” His voice was a graveled heat wave, flaring across my skin.

Words evaded me; I could only breathe in desperate gulps of air, my body screaming for him to be closer. He cupped mycheek with his hand, his other still pinning my wrist to the tree. His thumb raised my chin, brushing it lightly, and I trembled at the silvery tingling that ran like lightning through my veins. My heartbeat grew so violent I thought it might jump from my chest.

I will turn to ash in this man’s arms.

Unable to bear another moment of building, raging fire, I raised my free hand to his cheek to pull his face towards mine.

But when I did, I heard a loud and somewhat angry “Ehem” from Leuffen, who stood several yards away, ripping Ezren and me from our delicate little world. He pushed himself away, and my arms dropped to my sides. I looked at him, but he turned his gaze to the brush in the distance, his expression cold and removed. It was like I’d been punched in the gut, and redness spread even more across my face—down my neck. I lingered like that only a moment longer before I straightened, and Leuffen said, “Jana requires you, Terra.”

I didn’t look away from Ezren as I said, “Understood.”

And then I sprinted back to camp.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

EARTH DAUGHTER

Heat pricked my eyes as I ran towards my tent, which, praise the gods, had not yet been taken down. Leiya was still in the small space when I stumbled in. “What’s the matter with ye?” she asked.

I shocked myself by half-yelling at her. “What doesBellatorimean?”

She looked genuinely confused, so I continued, choking on my words. “You make all these comments about Ezren and me or my smell, but half the time, he won’t look at me, and the other half, he is calling meBellatori, whatever the hell that means. I can’t help, well mybodycan’t help reacting whenever he’s around, and I have tried to ignore it, and him for that matter, believe me?—”

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