Page 49 of Too Dangerous To Die

“I won’t lose you to them,” he says. “Not again.”

I don’t know who moves first.

Maybe it’s both of us. Maybe it’s the storm. Maybe it’s the bond that’s always been there, waiting for us to give in.

But then he’s kissing me.

And I’m kissing him.

It isn’t soft.

It isn’t sweet.

It’sdesperate. Furious. A collision of grief and fire and everything we’ve never said. His mouth devours mine like I’m the only thing keeping him tethered to the world, and I clutch at him like I’ll shatter if I let go. His claws bite into stone just beside my head as I arch into him, the heat between us so violent it turns magic to flame.

A blast of energy erupts from my spine, slamming into the wall behind us.

Stone cracks.

A section of the ruin collapses with a roar.

We break apart, gasping.

The sky screams with thunder overhead.

I stare at him, breathless, lips swollen, heart racing.

He looks wrecked.

Like he wants to say something, but the words won’t come.

So he does what he always does.

He turns and walks away.

And I’m left in the broken remnants of our storm, hands trembling, lips burning, magic pulsing through my veins like lightning.

Wondering what the hell we’ve just done.

22

RHAEGAR

The ruins are quieter after the storm—but it’s not a peaceful silence.

It’swatchful.

Like something has noticed us.

I linger in the shadows of a half-collapsed wall, my body still humming from the kiss I should never have given her. From the taste of her magic. From the ache it left in my teeth. She’s inside me now in a way I can’t strip free, her power nesting where the void in my chest used to be.

And Protheka knows it. The magic does.

The wind has changed. It carries no scent, no chill—only stillness. A waiting.

Then I hear it.

A softclickon stone.

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