Page 8 of Mirror of Malice
“Will you just stop and?—”
“Three!”
Suddenly I was falling, my legs and arms flailing in the air. A scream wrenched from my throat. I was going to kill him if I didn’t die in this harebrained scheme of his. Well, I’d probably kiss him first. But then I would kill him. I yelled again, the strangled sound swallowed by roaring and other shouts and screams. Dust from the monster’s attack on my prison cell still filled the air, and I couldn’t see anything in the dark.
I braced myself for an impact that never came. My body hit a soft surface, something that wrapped around me, cushioning me, pulling me. A vine. But—how was that possible? My stepmother was the only one with the power to wield earth magic. Another thing she’d taken from me. Which meant I was going to die after all. She’d captured me and Jasper. It was over. At any moment, this vine would constrict around me, squeezing tighter and tighter until it wrung the last breath from my lungs while she watched and laughed.
Except none of that happened.
The dust cleared as I sailed through the air in the vine’s grasp, but darkness veiled everything. Finally, my feet felt solid ground, and the vine released me just as two strong arms came around me. I turned and realized I was on the other side of the iron gates. Free. I caught the glint of Jasper’s red ring in the night, but otherwise darkness cloaked everything.
“Jasper.” I threw my arms around him, desperate to just feel him, his warmth. To feel anything at all. I grappled for the scarf over his face, yanked it down, and pressed my lips to his. He stiffened at first, but then his body relaxed and I melted into him, his mouth opening, the kiss deepening as he ran a thumbdown my cheek. Heat exploded in my belly as his mouth moved against mine, lips soft and perfect.
Oh. My. Word.
So Jasper hadn’t just learned how to navigate deadly mazes and scale castle walls, but the man had also learned how to kiss. Not that he was a terrible kisser before, but, well, this was on another level.
Warmth pooled between my legs, and suddenly I wanted all of him. Right here. Right now. It had been so long. He pushed me away, and my breaths came out ragged as I returned to myself. Our kiss seemed to have had the same effect on him, his breathing uneven, rattled.
I needed to get a grip on myself. I had been ready to maul the man right outside the castle that had just tried to kill us.
“Jasper, I’ve missed you so much.”
He grabbed my hand, his skin rougher than I expected. Though I guess that made sense given he’d been training to rescue me. He yanked me further ahead into the darkness, dousing whatever flames still flickered from that earlier kiss.
“Jasper—”
“Shhh” was all I got in response.
Something about his silence felt distinctly off, so different from the talkative Jasper I remembered, but my mouth snapped shut. The queen had spies everywhere, and staying quiet was probably the smart thing to do. I desperately wanted to ask about Jillian and Driscoll, but they must have been somewhere behind us. As soon as I was able, I’d ask about them. For now, I followed him away from the iron gates and into the trees that surrounded the castle grounds.
We walked for what felt like hours, me staying silent the entire time for fear that a single word would summon the queen, Jasper not making any attempt to converse with me. He must have been tired after such a huge mission.
Darkness swallowed us. It was hard to see much of anything other than the faint outlines of trees and brush, vines hanging, red and yellow eyes peeking at us from the dark.
I was free. Finally free. The word repeated in my mind over and over, giving me the strength to keep going, until my legs couldn’t move any more, my head nodding to my chest. I bumped into Jasper, and he abruptly stopped and turned.
I expected a hug. Maybe another one of those earth-shattering kisses. But instead, he just grunted and said, “Sleep,” in that deep, gruff voice I didn’t recognize. Had I really forgotten what Jasper sounded like? I’d dreamt of his voice for so long, yet it was so unfamiliar now.
I’d thought he would have horses waiting for us, but he simply laid down on the ground, back to me. I guessed that meant we were still expected to be silent. I had no idea how far we’d gone, but surely if the queen hadn’t caught us by now, we were safe, for a little while, at least.
I swallowed, trying to hold back the tears. This wasn’t how I’d imagined being rescued by Jasper. After that amazing kiss, I’d thought... Well, it didn’t matter. I lay down on the hard forest floor, leaves crunching underneath my body. After two years of being imprisoned, I was safe. My love had come for me. It was finally time for my happily ever after.
Chapter Three
Iwas kissing Jasper again, wrapped in his arms, those warm, soft lips crushing mine, those strong arms cradling me, running up my back and through my hair. It was still dark, his face nothing but a shadow. But his lips, they tasted the same as earlier, like dew and earth.
Something shook my shoulder, and my eyes shot open as I jolted awake.
I blinked a few times at the man standing over me. A man who was definitely not Jasper.
“Who are you?” I flew to my feet and backed away, hands out. “What have you done with my betrothed?”
He rubbed his smooth jaw, looking far too calm given our current situation. My heart galloped in my chest.
“Jasper?” I called out, looking around us at the bleak forest. Blackened tree trunks surrounded us, their gray, lifeless leaves hanging limp. “Jasper!”
Alarm flashed across the man’s face. “Okay, okay.” He took a cautious step forward. “Just stop yelling, and I’ll explain everything. I’m not your betrothed.”
