Page 17 of The Spark that Ignites
When Emmery didn’t protest, Vesper said, “Brilliant. Now repeat after me.” He cleared his throat dramatically. “It will be done, so it shall be.”
Her quiet voice carved the irreversible path as she repeated it back.
He dabbed his forefinger into her blood and mixed it with his own. Studying it for a moment, he cocked his head and leaned across the table. Emmery’s eyes widened but she couldn’t retreat as the bargain spell took hold and her own fingers followed, pulled by an invisible thread as they dipped in each of their blood and reached for his neck. The moment his finger met her skin she inhaled sharply, though Vesper was gentle and merely dragged it in a series of strokes.
Their faces were entirely too close, so close in fact, she could make out a shallow scar on his cheek and that his eyes were not entirely white but contained slivers of the lightest grey like stolen fragments of the moon. He focused on his fingers, though occasionally his stare flicked back to hers.
Vesper smelled familiar somehow. Earthy and comforting. Floral but also ... masculine, though the metallic tang of their blood flooded her nose as her finger traced the same pattern as his. But his skin was warm and smooth and touching him was surprisingly not stomach twistingly uncomfortable as she assumed it would be.
His thundering pulse under his touch told her hewasnervous, just evidently better at hiding it than herself, though it provided little comfort
She retracted as the blood absorbed into his skin and a shooting star took its place, glistening an aged milky white unlike the rosy scars on their chests. Emmery flexed her already healed hand with only the blood remain-ing as evidence. How was that possible? It had to be the spell.
Her neck tingled like a cool wind licking her skin as the magic burrowed inside her, flooding her veins with an ember of something she couldn’t name. Heart sinking, she stretched her neck and squeezed her eyes shut until the sensation ebbed.
Vesper grinned and shrugged. “See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“Making an unbreakable bargain with a complete stranger?”
“I’m not acompletestranger. I did give you my name. And it’s too late now to regret.” He stood from the chair, his expression playful again. “We’ll leave tomorrow. I’ll be back here early morning. Try to stay out of trouble until then.”
She looked anywhere but at him, her fingers tracing the shallow indent of the new scar as the permanency sent a chill through her.
Vesper refastened his weapons, his fingers nimble as they snapped and buckled them into place, like he’d done it hundreds of times blindfolded, before he slipped on his cloak and hood. “It’s been too long since I’ve had such lovely company.” Heoffered her a smile, but Emmery fixated on her bloody palm. His eyebrows furrowed at her pale face. “Try to get some rest.”
He stalked to the door, his footsteps soundless as a ghost.
She didn’t look up. Didn’t watch him leave.
And the small shooting star branded into her neck tingled long after he left.
Chapter Six
Tossed in the turbulent waves, Emmery struggled to keep her chin above water. Her hands clawed for safety, but she couldn’t do it. Couldn’t keep above the river’s surface. Another wave shoved her down, another, and another—
She cursed herself for never learning to swim. For rushing in. For not thinking.
The edges of her hazy vision tunnelled as light flashed and ripped away with each roll. She surfaced long enough to gulp air, clinging to it like life itself but the water was everywhere. It burned, ravaged, consumed, and her bones chilled, yet a flame lit her chest. Her lungs begged for oxygen. Gasping, she stretched her neck, but it was useless, and the tumultuous waves crashed and yanked her under.
For an infinite moment there was no direction, and she tumbled like a lifeless branch in a hurricane. A silent scream tore from her throat and water flooded her mouth as silver strands of hair clung to her face, obscured her vision, and she gagged, desperate for one precious breath, but there was only water.
No, no, this couldn’t be happening—
The surface grew further away as exhaustion settled into her limbs. Unable to fight any longer, Emmery squeezed her eyes shut as the depths claimed her.
This was it. Maybe she would soon see Maela.
Death stretched for her.
She reached back.
And her hand settled in His, embracing the eternal night.
The endless sleep of darkness.
She faded in and out of consciousness, sinking, floating, not here or there or anywhere. But it wasn’t Death’s hand that held hers.
It wasn’t Death’s hand that pulled her up, her body slicing through the water like an unstoppable force. Her head breached the surface, the frigid air slapped her face, and by some miracle, her back found purchase on the cold pebbled river shore.
