Page 72 of The Madness Within

She slept in my arms, breath soft, her cheek pressed to my chest, and for the first time in centuries, I let myself believe

I could have somethinggood.

Something mine.

But that peace didn’t last.

A sharp pain stabbed behind my eyes. A flash of heat seared down my spine. And then, darkness.

A vision.

Flames licking the sky. Screams echoing through the woods. Ember,my Ember, on her knees, blood pouring from her mouth, her body shaking as hands dragged her back into the shadows.

A face loomed behind her. Familiar.Wrong.

Kreed.

His grin split wide. “You took her from me,” he whispered. “Now I’ll take her from you.”

I jolted upright, heart pounding, shadows clawing at the walls like they sensed the breach.

Ember stirred beside me, still dreaming.

But I wasn’t.

I’d just seen what came next.

And I wouldburn the worldbefore I let it happen.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

???A Tangle Web

Ember

I woke up with the weight of his arm slung over my waist and the warmth of his breath brushing the back of my neck. It should’ve felt like a trap. It should’ve made me recoil.

But it didn’t.

Not this time.

Instead, it made something in my chest ache. That soft, terrifying ache that started when you knew you were slipping.

He shifted behind me, fingers trailing lightly down my side as if he were still half-asleep, but I knew better.

Dorian didn’t do anything without intent.

“You’re awake,” he murmured against my skin. His voice was still rough from sleep, thick, and low, and stupidly sexy.

I didn’t answer right away. My body was still sore in all the right places, proof of the night before. Of all the nights before. Of how badly I needed him and hated needing him.

“I slept,” I said, pulling the blanket tighter around me. “Barely.”

“Hmm,” he hummed, brushing a kiss against the back of my shoulder. “Might’ve had something to do with the way you were moaning my name until sunrise.”

I twisted under the covers to glare at him. “Don’t flatter yourself.”

A slow grin curled across his face. “Oh, sweetheart. I don’t need to. Your thighs did all the flattering for me.”

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