Page 24 of The Iron Flower

“You feel so warm,” Lukas whispers in my ear as he sweeps me around, breaking my eye contact with Yvan.

“It’s hot in here,” I say, my flush deepening.

Lukas’s laugh is low and suggestive. “Yes, it is.”

He tightens his hold on me, his lips brushing my neck, and my sense of Yvan’s heat abruptly flares, then fades away. When I catch sight of Yvan once more, his attention has turned to Iris. She’s talking to him and smiling flirtatiously as she sets down a platter of pastries stacked in the shape of a Yule tree, then reaches up to playfully tug at his shirt.

I’m seized by a flash of jealousy so strong, I lose track of the rhythm and almost stumble.

Yvan’s gaze meets mine again, his expression hardening with conflict as his green eyes narrow in on Lukas. Then Iris takes Yvan’s hand in hers, and he turns away from me as she pulls him with her into the kitchen.

Of course, he’s leaving with her.

I fight to regain my outward composure, but the sting of seeing them leave together reverberates.

Let him go,I roughly urge myself. He’s made it clear he won’t give in to...whatever this is between us. You can’t have him. So, let him go.

Suddenly defiant, I slide my arms around Lukas and draw him closer.

Lukas responds immediately, his hands encircling my waist, pulling me in as his lips find mine.

I don’t need Yvan, I console myself, swallowing back the hurt as I fall into Lukas’s heated kiss.

But the palpable feel of Yvan’s longing resonates and lingers inside me.

CHAPTER SEVEN

WATER HORSE

I push through the wilds, gripping the handle of a lantern and following the overlapping boot tracks in the snow. The hem of my Ironflower dress peeks out under my cloak and illuminates my steps in a circle of glowing blue light.

The dance is long since over, the hour approaching midnight. I clutch at my Snow Oak pendant, my breath sounding loud against the weighty silence of the dark forest as I glance anxiously around and wait for the trees to stage another phantom attack.

Nothing.

Just a tremor of unease, and a sense that the trees are drawing back from me. But beneath their cowed submission, there’s an undercurrent of something else.

They’re waiting. Waiting for something to come for me.

Stop it, Elloren,I firmly tell myself. Don’t let the trees unsettle you. They can’t harm you. They’re just trees.

I glimpse firelight shining through the branches up ahead, and relief floods through me. I let out a long, shaky breath. It’s Trystan’s night to stand guard as Ariel and my friend Andras tend to Naga’s injuries in the cave we’ve been hiding the dragon in. Andras’s position as the University’s equine physician affords him some limited skill in caring for a dragon, as do Ariel’s animal husbandry studies. I hope Jarod is there, too—worry for him has pricked at the back of my mind all evening.

But when I step into the clearing, I find only Yvan there. He’s sitting on a log and staring at the impressive bonfire with searing focus, his long form stilled but seeming rigid with pent-up tension. An uncomfortable flush rises on my cheeks at the sight of him.

He doesn’t look up as I hang my lantern on a branch, but I get the strong sense that his attention is wholly on me. I sit down on the side of the fire opposite him and hold up my hands to warm them, my emotions cast into turmoil. Small sparks fly out from the bonfire in every direction, like fireflies in the dead of winter, and I strive to ignore how achingly handsome he looks, washed golden in the firelight.

“I thought it was Trystan’s night to stand guard over Naga,” I say, breaking the tense silence, keeping my tone as casual as I can.

“ItisTrystan’s turn to watch over her,” he says, his green eyes locked on the flames. “I felt like visiting her.”

“But you’re out here.”

“She’ssleeping,” he replies tersely as his eyes meet mine, blistering heat in his gaze.

“Then why stay?” I ask, trying to hide how much it hurts when he shuts me out like this. “I’m sure you could find other things to do.”With Iris.

“I like starting fires.” His tone is caustic as his eyes flicker hot on me. “I felt like burning something.”

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