Page 87 of Voidwalker
“I’m afraid that won’t do much good,” he said, unflustered.
“Daeyari don’t have hearts?” she snapped back.
“We have hearts. Not like yours. Daeyari are energy, at our core. The body is a shell, created so we could walk the Planes again, crafted as a memory of what our mortal bodies looked like. Not all necessary to function. A blade through the heart will slow a daeyari, but won’t kill.”
Well, there was one thing the stories got right: that old cautionary tale of the “nameless warrior” who managed toput a sword through a daeyari’s chest, only for the beast to laugh.
Fi spun her sword hilt, jabbing it to the soft hollow of Antal’s throat.
He stilled. Fi’s stomach warmed at the weight of him between her legs, the subtle shift of his waist as his tail swished the snow. But even more, at how his eyes sharpened. Like she could surprise him, too. His exhale feathered the exposed skin of her wrist.
“That will do it,” he said, soft as a secret between them. “Taking off the head breaks the body, sends a daeyari’s energy back to the Void.Ifyou can get a blade through. The capsules will help. Next time, try it without letting your guard down.”
Fi scoffed. “How have I—”
She wasn’t wearing her silviamesh. This came to Fi’s attention when claws slipped beneath her coat. Antal’s warm palms splayed across her abdomen, cool clawtips poised to disembowel. The sensation should have turned her stomach. She should have recoiled like a startled hare.
She sucked in a sharp breath.
Oh no.
No. No.This wasn’t rightat all.
But Fi had no other explanation for the heat blooming beneath his touch. A slow, treacherous ache sank between her legs, countering every rational survival instinct that screamed at her to pull away.
Instead, she fought an urge to lean in. To surrender.
Maybe something was wrong with her. Maybe her dumb brain got a circuit crossed, confusing terror with lust.
Antal stared up at her. Fi feared she might fully combust as the beast’s head tilted, crimson eyes narrowed on her traitorously flushed cheeks.
“Mine would kill faster,” she argued, pressing her hilt against his throat. It took all her willpower to sit tall, chin up.
“Questionable,” he returned. “You’ve neglected an important variable.”
A pressure closed on Fi’s neck.
This made no sense. Shefeltboth his hands beneath her shirt. His legs were pinned beneath her.
But his tail.
Fi snarled as the noose yanked her sideways. Her hands swiped air as she was pulled off him, twisting, falling.
Antal caught her before her head cracked the ground.
Her back thumped ice with his palm cradling her skull, claws slipping through the rainbow snarls of her hair. Always softer than expected. He leaned over her, knee pinning her waist. So close, every breath was ozone. So close, she watched the flare of his nose, his eyes lidded as he breathed her in.
“Careful, Fionamara. You’re more useful to me alive, as well.”
Her full name rolled off his tongue, slow like a purr. Warm like embers. Fi fisted her hands into the fabric of his shirt collar, unyielding.
Antal’s smile had gone. A heavy pause furrowed his brow, parted his mouth. Void have mercy, Fihad tostop staring at that mouth.
“Why do you look at me like that?” he asked.
Shit. “Like what, daeyari?”
“Like you aren’t afraid.”
