Page 129 of Kingdom of the Two Moons

He doesn’t breathe. He can feel the magic of what he justagreed to weaving around them, pulling tight. He made a deal. He has to answer. Truthfully. He’s a fool.

“I don’t think this would be appropriate,” he says, his voice husky.

“I want to know.”

“Melody, I do not…” He closes his eyes briefly, desperate for a way out as the magic around him pulls tighter, thick and heavy and unbreakable.

“Do not what?”

“I do not want to scare you,” he admits, meaning it. “Please, ask me in another way.”

“No,” she says, her eyes never leaving his, the flames dancing in them relentlessly.

He reaches out to her, the magic making his throat ache to answer as he agreed to. “I want to have you in a way that erases all those who have touched you before.”

“Like?”

He clenches his teeth against the power of the bargain pulling tighter and tighter. She won’t let him out of this, and he cannot draw it out much longer.

“Don’t be cruel,” he says quietly, a plea in his voice.

But she just leans down, her beautiful lips only millimeters away. “Tell me.”

He looks away, unable to bear her face, the look in it. Unable to ignore the burning in his throat, in his ribcage, in his very core either. The magic, growing stronger the longer he doesn’t obey. It will burn him alive, from the inside out.

“Not the darkest, Melody. Anything but that—”

“That bad, huh?” Her voice is cold, but her eyes are not. They are wide and afraid.

“It is violent, I won’t deny that. And it might sound…” He bares his teeth against the pain of it, of resisting. Gods, it will kill him. “I’ll give you what you want, but do not force me to do this, I beseech you. I will go down on my knees and stay until they are raw if you wish me to. I will do anything, but not this.”

“Anything.” She ponders quietly, and were he not shaken by pain and fire inside, he would have chastised himself for this idiocy.

“You know I would never harm you in a way you don’t wish me to. I made sure I couldn’t, and even if I had not, I would not. Please,” he forces out, his mouth slowly filling with blood as the magic keeps killing him from the inside.

“Take me to Niavara the day after tomorrow then,” she says, her eyes going wide with shock as she notices the blood on his lips, more dripping over his chin.

He wipes it off with his dark sleeve before he breathes, “I will.” His eyes drift shut as he gulps down precious air as the magic eases and vanishes. The deal fulfilled.

Melody still kneels over him, but her skin has turned glassy and pale, her face unreadable. That beautiful face limned by the night, her full lips, her straight nose, her ears that look like the perfect mixture of elf and human, startled and alert.

“What… where did that blood come from?” she whispers, her heart fast.

“The magic of that bargain,” he cuts in, his voice rough, hard. “It would have killed me from the inside. Slowly bleeding me out.”

In one fluid and fast movement, Riven is over her, holding her delicate wrists with his hands. “You owemenow, if I’m not mistaken.” His voice has become almost a growl.

“A truth?” she asks coolly, but he can see her fluttering pulse under her skin. Hear it. Like the frantic wingbeats of a tiny bird.

“No, no longer a truth, since we changed the rules. A demand you will fulfill.”

Now she looks at him with real fear in her eyes. But she doesn’t yet know enough of the rules of this world. “Then tell me what you want.” Her voice has fallen very quiet, lost its edge. She turns her head away from him, as he did before.

He leans down to her neck, breathing in her scent, her silken hair brushing his cheek. He could do anything with her. Take everything. He whispers against her skin, “Do you see now how dangerous bargains are with my kind?”

She flinches. He lets go of her hands when he hears her heartbeat stumble. When her fear tinges the air, oppressive and heavy. He’s disgusted by himself.

He slides off her, lets her body free. She curls up on her side, still not looking at him, her hands clutching the sheets so hard her knuckles turn white as snow.

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