Page 21 of Kiss of Fire

“Shade?”

“Oh. Sorry. It’s kind of my nickname for you. Because of all the shadows.”

“Nickname? What is that? Is it an insult?”

“No, the opposite,” she said hastily. “It’s what you call someone when you get to know them a little bit. It’s a good thing, I promise.”

“Shade.” He rolled the word around his mouth as if tasting it. “I like it.”

She sagged, relieved.

“Good. For a minute, I thought…” Her words morphed into a shriek as he scooped her up and leapt into the air, his wings appearing from nowhere and continuing his trajectory. They cleared the trees and kept climbing.

“What the fuck are you doing?” She peered down. The ground was now just a patchwork of green and white below them. Shade flashed her an unsettling smile.

“Testing whether fear is your trigger.”

And he dropped her.

She fell silently, her throat closed tight in a paroxysm of terror. His winged form hovered above her, getting smaller as she plummeted. The breath was torn from her lungs as her velocity increased. Tears squeezed from the corners of her eyes.

She hoped it wouldn’t hurt when she hit the trees.

He caught her after only a few seconds, but it felt like an aeon. And honestly, she hadn’t been convinced hewouldcatch her. Her fear had been genuine, turning her bones to jelly. She was just grateful she hadn’t peed herself.

“You absolute fuckingbastard,” she screamed when she recovered her breath. He held her loosely, lips twitching in mirth. “You think that’s funny?”

“It had a certain comedic element,” he told her, trying to keep his face straight.

“I’m done with you throwing me around like a sack of potatoes. This is the last time you pick me up, you hear me?”

“Very well. The experiment has served its purpose. You were right, fear is not your trigger. I should have known anyway.”

“What do you mean?”

He shrugged.

“You said your adopted parents died in a fire, yes?”

“Yes. Started by the demon. I told you.”

“I do not think that fire was started by the demon. I thinkyoustarted it, because you were frightened. And you were so traumatised by the consequences, you have buried it ever since. It is a subconscious thing. You have made sure fear can never trigger it again. We will have to find another way.”

Shade spoke matter-of-factly, and it took him a moment to notice the stricken look on Raya’s face. He ran back over his words in his head, wondering what the problem was.

Ah. He had basically told her the firewasher fault after all, just as she had been accused all these years.

He swore under his breath. Human emotions were a minefield.

“Suraya, I did not mean…”

“Put me down.”

Her voice was small but he complied immediately, landing softly on the snow and wondering even as he did so why he was pandering to her. She was half fae. She needed to be less sentimental about her past.

“I apologise for my insensitivity. I am sorry your carers died. But you cannot blame yourself for their deaths.”

“I want to be alone.”

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