Page 100 of Of Blood and Banes
I race for it, and he’s after me, hot on my tail. Snatching the torch off the wall, I spin toward him, swiping out with the fire to warn him off. A flicker of pride warms my chest when he letsout the smallest gasp, his eyes wide as he jumps back, the flame nearly catching the front of his shirt on fire.
He freezes with his legs shoulder-width apart, then flicks his eyes to me, a new grin twisting his expression into something sinfully playful. “Bravo.”
As I swing the torch at him, he ducks and lunges for my leg. I jump sideways out of his range and throw the sconce at him. His eyes flash as he somersaults forward and out of the torch’s path, then whips toward me. Sparks and embers scatter across the floor.
With a wicked smile, I reach a hand out and lock into the flame, curling my fingers to latch onto the fire and drawing it up off the tiled floor. Darian’s face looks like I smacked him as he watches me lift the flame from the torch up into a curling ball of fire waiting for me to release it. Up, up, up it floats, until it’s eye level with him.
Finally, he flicks his gaze to me. “Fuck.” He drops the plate fragments to the ground, shattering them into small splinters of porcelain. “You…you can pull?”
“Scared now?” I purr with a smile.Good luck fighting this.
He swallows, then takes a step back, eyes still locked on the flame.
“Tell me something about the King. Per our agreement.” I push the flame closer to him and chase him back against the wall.
He breathes heavy, his jaw working as he debates what tidbit of information he’ll share. “He can pull, too. Just like you can.”
“Why does he want the Blood Ring?”
He narrows his green eyes, the flame flickering in the reflections. “We agreed to one piece of information. You’ll have to beat me again if you want more.”
With a frustrated growl, I throw the ball of flame at him. He covers his head and ducks, the fireball missing his head bya foot and exploding onto the brick wall above him. He snaps his attention up to me as the flames disappear, leaving us in darkness.
After another half-hour or so of fighting in hand-to-hand combat in the darkness, he seizes me by the throat with mild pressure and forces me back until the edge of the bed bumps my hamstrings. As I fall back onto the mattress, my heart skips a beat when he presses himself between my legs.
His grip on my throat is steady, his forearm resting between my breasts. That long brown hair sweeps down and tickles my forehead as his eyes burn into me. Those irresistible, curved lips hover inches from mine. It’s too easy to picture how warm and soft they’d be, compared to the last time I kissed him on the brink of death. How could something so gently curved deliver words that cut and split and slice. Gods, does the lack of space between us stir some wild idea in my mind of wanting to?—
Don’t.
Sweat glistens on his forehead in the dim moonlight spilling through the windows. Even his breathing is laborious. I can’t help the smile pulling up at my cheeks…he’s tired. He’s tired because ofme.
His gaze flicks down to my lips, and he wets his own before he rasps, “What are you smiling for?”
I tip my chin up, staring down my nose at his mouth. “Are you letting me win?”
All he’d have to do is reach down a single inch. Just a stupid inch to touch me. To kiss me.
He leans slightly off me, but his hand is still wrapped neatly around my neck. “Is your definition of winning being choked?”
Fighting against the raging disappointment, in both him and myself, I smack his forearm off me and rise to my elbows.
He backs up off me. “I think we’ve trained more than enough tonight.” He grabs the shackles we left on the floor, clamps hiswrists in, and readies himself for another night on the cold, hard floor.
“Wait…” I whisper.
He whips his head to me like I screamed it—or he imagined it.
I stand, shaking my head. “Not tonight.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Get up.”
He snorts, his eyebrows pinching at the authority in my voice.
“Get,” I growl and thunder to him. “Up.”
Once I stop two steps away from him, his features fall still. A painful, long silence ticks between us. He finally grunts and rises to his feet, towering over me.
