Page 72 of Of Flame and Fury

From the way his gaze flickered to her lips, she knew her prayer had gone unanswered.

Coup stepped closer. He didn’t pause until they were just a whisper apart.

She couldn’t think about what she’d just said. Not as he leaned toward her and she felt his breath against her lips.

“I can’t make that promise, tamer,” he murmured. She was all too aware of him. Every breath, every small movement overwhelmed her. “Not when we both have too much to lose.”

“I don’tcareabout winning.” If he wasn’t leaning on crutches, she might have shaken him. “Just… promise me. Before I do something I’ll regret.”

Coup’s lips twitched with a smirk. “Like what?”

Kel’s lungs emptied. The overhead light stopped buzzing and her pulse silenced and there was onlyCoup, watching her watch him, the scarce space between them threatening to catch aflame.

Kel didn’t remember closing the distance between them. She didn’t see Coup move, either. Between one breath and the next, their lips collided.

It took everything inside of Kel not to buckle to the floor.

The kiss heated her blood more than his words ever had. They fought for control, stealing air from each other. Kel felt like she wasbreaking apart, taut and unraveling all at once. Their embrace was unyielding and—she hoped—unending.

Coup shifted closer, crutches clattering to the ground. He kept one hand pressed to the diamond, caging her. His other hand seized her hip in a calloused hold. Without thinking, Kel twined her hands in the curls creeping down his neck. Coup pressed tighter against her.

Their teeth clashed as he deepened the kiss. She thought her chest might explode as a low groan escaped his lips.

Her thoughts darted in every direction, desperately searching for the truth. She couldn’t wanthimlike this. Not Warren Coupers. He was arrogant, and reckless, and…

Kel didn’t care. The flames racing through her were too consuming. She arched into his touch and breathed everything she was into the kiss. All her anger, her fear, her fire.

His tongue traced her lower lip and she fisted her hands in his hair, tugging him closer. She wanted to feel every part of him. She’d kissed boys before, other CAPR racers, men who frequented The Ferret, but she’d never felt this heat in her belly. She’d never wantedmore.

Coup dug one hand into Kel’s hip and splayed the other across her lower back. He pressed closer, tighter, before shifting to trail warm kisses across her jaw, her neck. There was nothing gentle or tender between them. Just a desperate, aching need. His touch broke her apart and stitched her back together, all sharp edges and brutal warmth.

Kel forced him to spin around so his back was pressed to the diamond for support. Their lips fought and his hands roamed up her back, grazing the skin beneath her breast.

Kel knew it was wrong—now wasnotthe time to kiss him, or do the other things that her body screamed for. She needed to unravel more of him, first; to understand his recklessness.Thatwas more important than the feel of his lips against hers, his hands tracing rough circles on her hips, his chest pressed against hers…

A deeper groan escaped Coup’s throat and an ache settled in Kel’s core. His hands roamed her back, her sides, as if he couldn’t touch enough of her. Kel palmed the back of his neck, trapping his mouth against hers, wanting to feel every inch of him against her—

And then, Kel froze. A chill crept down her spine, replacing the heat from Coup’s touch. Her breath came out short and fast and she forced herself back. Her hands lifted from Coup’s neck.

Coup’s eyes flashed, dark and blazing, like gold beneath moonlight. He kept his hold on her for just a moment, before pulling back. A question filled his features.

But Kel couldn’t answer him. She couldn’t breathe. She could only stare at her fingers, which had brushed the diamond wall behind Coup’s neck.

Ash was smeared across her hand. Though black and gray, it caught the room’s refracted light and sparked to life. As if there was still magic inside.

She’d seen plenty of pictures to know what phoenix ash looked like. It was finer than ordinary ash, with small particles of orange and red scattered through it.

This ash contained enough red and orange to look like a tiny galaxy, gleaming on her trembling fingers.

Slowly, Coup bent forward and lifted a finger to the diamond wall, a miniscule crevasse still coated with ash. “Is that what I think it is?”

Dread doused every ember of warmth coursing through Kel. “Phoenix ashes.”

Coup straightened. He reached for his crutches and shifted closer to the wall.

Cristo had said that this room hadn’t been used. Had he lied? Or had a phoenix died and rebirthed within the last month?

No matter the reason, these ashes shouldn’tbe here. Every molecule of a phoenix’s ashes was swept up in a rebirth; they swarmed into a single pile, as if drawn by a magnet, from which a phoenix was reborn. There was never a single iota left.

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