Page 136 of Spark of the Everflame

A hand closed around my wrist and pulled.

The abrupt change in momentum jerked me back, crashing me into his chest as our paths collided. My muscles moved in a contradiction of training and instinct, one hand raising the knife between us while the other clutched onto him as my balance wobbled backward. Luther’s arm curled around my waist, tucking me securely against him.

A million angry words shot to my lips, then vanished at the press of his hand low on my spine.

“Five minutes, Diem. Give me that much.”

He was breathing too heavy—we both were, our chests brushing with every rise.

I masked my fluster with a withering glare. “I said you don’t get to call me that.”

His lips hooked up. “Then I guess we’re both bad at following orders.” He glanced at the dagger hovering near his neck. “Are you going to put that away?”

“Oh, I think it’s fine right where it is.” I matched his smirk, mine considerably colder. “A girl can’t be too careful. There’s all manner of monsters in this part of town.”

His eyes gleamed. “You have no idea.”

I tried to pull away, but he matched every step I yielded until my back flattened against the high stone wall. He arched his neck forward, jaw rising to allow the blade’s edge to brush the vulnerable flesh of his throat as the thrill of a challenge lit up his face.

I scowled and forced my hand to hold its ground. “If this is your apology, it’s a strange way to do it.”

“I didn’t come here to apologize.Of courseI suspected you. Can you blame me?”

No, I couldn’t—not really. Not when I’d even doubted myself.

“It would be an insult to dismiss you so easily, and I wouldn’t dare do you that disrespect. I recognize a threat when I see one.” His gaze roamed a languid path down my body, his assessing stare making me feel as thoroughly touched and as intimately exposed as the day he’d searched me for weapons. “And you’re as dangerous as they come.”

“Then whyareyou here, Luther?”

His eyes snapped back to mine, his lips parting, but he didn’t answer.

I could take his life in an instant. A single twitch of my wrist, and three inches of Fortosian steel would slice his most crucial artery wide open. A gruesome, messy death, but a quick one. Too quick for even his Descended healing to save him. On this isolated path where few had reason to travel, his body might not be found for hours, maybe days. By then, all trace of me would be long gone.

And yet...

The way he studied me with such fixation, riveted by my every movement, my every breath. The way his hold on me greedily tightened, even though the muscled barrier of his body left nowhere else for me to go. The way every time I blinked, his face seemed closer. Closer.Closer.

Even holding his life in my hands, I felt less like the predator than the prey.

“If you think I’m such a threat,” I said, the huskiness of my voice revealing more than I’d intended, “perhaps I should take you out now while I have the chance. Kill you before you kill me.”

“Do it,” he said, no trace of hesitation.

He lowered his head, forcing the knife’s honed edge into his flesh before I could stop it. My breath hitched as a trickle of warm liquid slid over my fingers.

Luther didn’t even flinch.

“You think I fear my own death?” he whispered in my ear. “Every day I draw breath is as much a curse as a gift. I’ve been living on borrowed time for longer than you can imagine. If you’re the way my fate finally catches up to me, I can’t fathom a more beautiful end.”

Though his tone was harsh with challenge, there was a raw kind of pain beneath his words, a wounded beast howling to be seen.

“Do it,” he said again. “Kill me, if that’s what you think I deserve. But if you do, give me one favor before I go.”

His pulse throbbed against my blood-soaked hand, his heartbeat racing to match my own.

“Favor?” I managed to ask, despite the heady fog clouding my thoughts.

Without pulling away from my dagger, he turned his face, hot breath spilling over my cheek as his mouth trailed the line of my jaw. His eyes rose to mine. “Let me die with the taste of you on my lips.”

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