Page 123 of The Spark that Ignites
She sighed against his lips and like he had waited his entire life for this moment, he answered with a pained groan filled with endless nights of saving her and craving her touch.
Her heart battered her ribs, singing the words she knew to be true—she loved him.
This couldn't be a dream.
No, he felt too real. His body, his mouth, his tongue as he gently parted her lips.
The kiss spiralled into a frenzied need as his hand tangled in her hair, his body flawlessly moulding to hers.
She melted for him. And gods, she craved him as the desert craved rain. As flowers stretched for the sun. As the sun chased the moon.
Shade’s hands skated down her back, his fingers teasing her exposed skin, memorizing the curve of her spine, and he gripped her thighs, hauling her up with ease as if she were weightless. Her legs wrapped around his waist. She gasped, her heart leaping from her chest and body flushing.
And he was everywhere, saturating her senses, his delicious smell, his incomparable taste, and his kind heart she held in her hands. His lips traced hers, like he could capture this kiss and put it in his pocket to savour. To never forget.
Emmery kissed him without regret, without hesitation, without abandon—surrendering herself to him. If he’d asked, she would have torn her heart from her chest. And in a way, she already had. Because it was and had always been his.
Something solidified in her mind, igniting something within her, the permanency of it promising she would find him even if it took a year or three hundred years, or forever.
Somehow in the hollow parts of her, she knew they belonged to one another.
Shade pulled back, his laboured breath stoking the fire in her blood. He whispered against her lips, “I would save you from a million nightmares, chase all your terrors away, and never wake again, if it meant I could dream just one more dream with you, Emmery.” But then the dream slipped away, and her feet met the ground as this strange reality frayed.
No. Her heart ached. She didn’t want this to end. And he had made a vow to her.
“You promised you wouldn’t leave,” she said, her voice catching. “You promised.”
Placing a hand over his heart, his lips moved with no sound. His eyes widened and he clutched his throat. The word ‘until’ was all she could make out. His body faded into the backdrop of the night sky and Shade vanished—dark mist floating on the breeze.
Her voice whisked into the Divide as she begged him to come back—her heart stolen as if he took it with him.
EMMERY WOKE IN THEnight, a strange calm settling in her chest and she stared into the darkness. Her mind raced, searched, and found. The fragmented memories hit her like a flash storm.
Shade. The kiss. Her promise.
Pieces of dreams before. Dancing and laughing and talking.
She lay in bed, blinking rapidly. But it couldn’t possibly be anything more than a series of dreams, right? It had feltsoreal, he felt so real—
She flitted restlessly, sleep no longer within reach. Emmery rose from bed and searched her bookshelf for a novel to pass the time until sunrise. She knew the titles like the back of her hand and after staring in a sleepy daze, she wandered into Vesper’s room.
It felt cold, his warm presence stolen from this castle. Strewn papers in large messy lettering covered his desk, important documents he had cast aside. She made a mental note to sift through them later. A few books sat on his desk, covered in thick dust.
Except one.
It lodged something loose in her chest. The black binding, the smooth leather, and the tiny tear in the spine. It was the book Fionn had given her.
The nameless book.
But itcouldn’tbe.
She had lost it all those years ago. And why would Vesper have it?
With shaky hands, she pulled it from the desk, the cover buttery soft against her fingertips. Her copy contained a message inked into the inside cover in the same careful, cursive the novel was written. Slowly, she cracked open the book.
Her heart skipped. It was hers. Inside was the same message inscribed on her ring. And the same words Shade had said before he faded away.
Until my last breath, I will wait.
