Page 89 of Destroyer

“You’re not taking me seriously,” she said, frustration flaring in her.

“I’m perfectly serious. It’s just that you’re giving off a distinct…energyat the moment. I think I’m better off letting you ride it out before I start sharing opinions.”

“Listen, Fen,” she went on, completely ignoring his comment, her vision slightly blurred. A strange sense of unfocused power had sprung up in her, from an ember to a roaring wildfire, and now she grasped in vain at threads of reality.

What had she been saying? “As of today, the artifact belongs to me, not the Tower. Its fate is up to me. You’ll help me protect it from anyone who interferes with that.”

Fen remained on the settee, seated as obediently as a trained attack dog. His expression was unreadable to Ru. He tilted his head, hair falling away from his eyes, to fix Ru with a clear gaze. “You don’t think that might go over a little… badly?”

“With who? Inda and her minions? I don’t care.” Ru couldn’t take her eyes off Fen’s mouth, his full lips slightly parted, the stubble along his jaw.

“You don’t care,” he repeated.

“All I care about is the artifact,” said Ru.And you. She wanted to say it, yearned to say it, but the artifact, its boundless energy, the power of it, was threatening to overtake her. “You promised you would protect me and my little rock. I’m asking for that now, again.”

Fen rose to his feet, ever so slowly, his gaze never leaving hers. By the time he stood to his full height, he was looking down at her with hooded eyes. “And if I refuse?”

The fire in Ru roared forth, filling her with desire, defiance, and rage. She was intoxicated, drunk on the artifact that burned alongside her, its voice in her mind. Telling her she could do anything, get away with anything. That Fen was hers.

As if through a break in the cloud of smoke and flame that raged inside her, Ru peered out at a night sky, a clear world, and she was frightened – it was so far away.

“I hardly even know you,” she said, reaching up and tangling her fingers in the hair at the base of Fen’s neck, as he had done to her last time he was in her room. “I have no qualms about threatening you.”

For a moment his eyes fluttered shut. “Ru,” he said, his voice a warning. But she heard a raging fire behind his words.

Practically on tiptoe to keep hold of his hair, she pulled him closer, pressing herself against the length of his body. He tensed, his breathing shallow. She had been so angry when he apologized to her before, after he ran his thumb along her jaw, after his fingers pressed against her, his arms around her. As if it had meant nothing to him, as if he regretted it.

And she had been hurt. It hadn’t been passion, desire, or the burning need she felt. He had done it because of the artifact, a mistake. And now… now, she realized, staring into his eyes, clear and gray like a winter sky, he was unaffected. His gaze held no reflection of her own raging fire, of the artifact fanning the flame of her emotions. He was free of it.

“Fen,” she murmured, burying her face in his chest.

“Don’t,” he said, breathless.

“Don’t what?” Her free hand moved to grasp the back of his jacket, holding him to her, the fingers of her other hand still tangled in his hair. He could have pushed her away if he wanted — he was strong enough, and she wouldn’t have stood a chance. But he stood motionless, submitting.

Her mouth was level with his perfectly formed neck, where dark hair curled against his skin. She felt almost as if she deserved, she wasowedthe kiss she pressed against his throat.

The groan this elicited from him made her burn even brighter. She wanted to throw him onto the settee, to see what else he would submit to.

“Ru, stop,” he said, and each time he spoke his voice came from further away.

“Why,” Ru said, pressing her nose against his jaw, inhaling him, the inferno inside her railing against rational thought, burning it away, consuming her until she could hardly think. “So you can leave me here alone again? So you can hurt me?”

“God, no. Listen to me.” Strong hands grasped her arms, gently. “You said you hardly knew me. But youdo. Because I know you. I understand you. Every twitch of your mouth, every light in your eyes, every joy you feel, your face when I make you laugh… it’s part of me. I’m part of you. I know you’ve felt it. We’re entwined, you and I. What you’re doing now, whatever you’re feeling, it’s not the Ru I know. Come back to me, now.”

Come back to me.

Why did his words feel like home? How could he, this man she found at the Shattered City, hold her heart in his calloused hands? But her emotions ebbed and flowed like a hot sea, and she fought him, her thoughts scattering.

We’re entwined, you and I. Come back to me, now.

His fingers tensed around her arms, firm and unrelenting. He was an anchor, the eye of her storm. Gradually, through the overwhelm of the artifact’s noise, came a slow clarity. A speck of light, cutting through a thick fog.

“Doesn’t make sense,” she mumbled, her face still nestled in the space between Fen’s shoulder and chin. She was on fire, but the flames flickered and subsided, pulling in on themselves. “Agree with me. Do what I say.”

“I will,” he said, sounding infinitely sorry for it. “I will ifyouask. Come back to me.”

Hot tears streamed down her face. The fire inside was eating at her, it was too hot, too painful, too much. But with every moment it lessened, pulled away, returning to the darkness.

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