Page 148 of Lady for Embers

“You realize I could just leave your ass here, right?” Cassius retorted, getting to his feet.

He bent to retrieve the swords. “Leave them,” Cyrus said. When Cassius glanced at him in suspicion, he added, “It will make your magic surface sooner. It will sense how defenseless you are.”

“You really know how to make a guy feel good,” Cass muttered.

“I most certainly do,” Cyrus said wryly, and he did not miss Cassius’s eye darken. He’d taken the eye patch off because, hopefully, if this worked, he’d be able to see perfectly out of both of them shortly. “But I also know how to make you feel threatened.”

Flames encircled Cassius, creeping closer, as Cyrus continued to prowl around him, searching for any sign of his magic. The momentit appeared, he would back off. He needed Cassius to memorize how it felt, where it came from.

Small embers leapt from the ?ames, singeing Cass’s clothing, and Cassius cursed again, noticeably getting agitated.

“Come on, Cass,” Cyrus said. “You have to work with me here. Don’t hold your magic back.”

“I’m not,” he growled.

“You are,” Cyrus insisted, ?re snaking closer. “You need to lose control in order to learn to control it.”

“I already told you this is not going to work,” he retorted. “I do not believe for one second you would actually harm me.”

Cyrus stopped mid-step. That was a fair point. He would never allow his ?ames to do any actual harm. His ?sts, however...

He leapt across the ?ames, tackling Cassius to the ground, a ?st slamming into his side. More curses ?ew from Cassius’s mouth.

“What the fuck are you doing?” he demanded, blocking the next blow with his forearm.

“Fight back, Cass,” Cyrus ordered. “Better yet, let your magic do it for you.” He struck again, a punch to his ribs, and Cassius grunted.

“I am not going to hit you,” he gritted out.

“You are,” Cyrus said, this time his ?st connected with his jaw, and Cassius’s head snapped to the side. “Pretend I am someone else if you need to. Pretend I am Alaric. Pretend I am Razik. Pretend I am your father who can’t be bothered to come and fucking meet you. He could bother to save you, send his pet dragon, but Daddy can’t ?nd time in his busy schedule to meet the son he didn’t even know he had.”

Cassius caught his ?st as it came for his face, a cold sneer on his lips. The next moment, Cyrus was rolled, his back hitting the dirt hard enough to drive the air from his lungs.

“Enough, Cyrus,” Cassius snapped, hands on Cyrus’s shoulders, holding him down.

But his eyes were glowing an amber-red, pupils shifted to vertical slits.

Cyrus’s hands clamped around Cass’s forearms, and he sent heat to his palms, burning him just enough to make him lurch back and release his shoulders. Cassius stared down at him in shock that he had actually burned him. And as Cyrus prepared to deliver a blow that he knew would push him over the edge, something twistedin his gut. Forcing the words past his lips was like trying to speak underwater.

“You were so worried he wouldn’t approve of what you have become, but it hurts more that he cannot be bothered to show up and ?nd out if he approves at all. You could handle his disapproval, but you can’t handle the obvious indifference to your existence,” Cyrus said, his voice softer than he’d intended, knowing how much these words were going to sting, were going to cut the deepest part of him.

But they did what they intended.

Wings ripped from Cassius’s back as his ?st came ?ying for Cyrus’s face, wreathed in black ?ames. Cyrus scrambled to get a shield in place, gasping when it took everything in him to hold it in place when Cassius’s ?st connected with it. Cass’s palm ?attened, black ?ames slowly breaking down the shield.

“Cassius, stop,” Cyrus grunted, pouring every ounce of power into holding that shield as it melted a little more with each passing second.

He’d seen that ?re disintegrate a seraph on the spot. He knew he would feel the burn of those ?ames if they connected with his ?esh.

Violence and rage danced in glowing red eyes, black wings arching over Cassius’s shoulders, wicked sharp talons at the top of each one. And yeah, Cyrus recognized he’d gone too far, pushed him too much to get to his magic. Now Cassius was lost to the call of his power, and Cyrus wasn’t entirely sure he was going to be able to reach him until it ?ared out.

“Cass,” he pleaded, beads of sweat running down his temples as his shield fractured more. He could feel the intense heat of those black ?ames. “Cass,” he rasped again, his eyes screwing shut as he braced to feel the pain of the burns that were sure to come.

His shield buckled completely, but it wasn’t the heat of ?ame on his skin he felt. It was the heat of lips on his, ?erce and insistent, and forcing his mouth open. Hands framed his face, holding him in place, and Cyrus gripped the back of Cassius’s neck, tugging him closer as their tongues met. He’d kissed others since Thia’s death, had taken a few Fae to bed a handful of times, but it had never meant anything. No kiss had made himfeelsince Thia.

But he felt this one. Felt the desperation in it, of a male who was trying to ground himself. Felt the glide of his tongue against hisas they fought for dominance, Cassius ?ghting to gain back a shred of the control he’d lost. Felt the rumble of his chest when Cassius growled low, the sound vibrating through him where Cassius still straddled him in the dirt of the arena.

He felt it all. It was as intoxicating as it was terrifying. And as the ?ngers of his other hand dug into Cassius’s side where he gripped him, he suddenly realized Cassius had been right. He wasn’t sure he was ready for this. Tofeelsomething like this again. Because they were about to head into war, and neither of them were guaranteed to survive.

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