Page 82 of A Fate of Ice and Lies
I inched closer to her and massaged her rigid shoulders. With a loosened breath, she turned her head to kiss my fingers.
“I’ll show you where to strike us,” I said. “How to kill us.”
“That’ll make for good bedroom role-playing.” She turned off the stove, and when she turned toward me, hereyes raked over me. “I think I could make you beg for mercy.”
My blood heated, and my skin tightened as if she’d caressed those words across my flesh. “I’m positive you could.”
She bit on her bottom lip, a question forming behind her eyes. I waited patiently while she seemed to war with herself.
“When you were on the ground, did you feel like your magic was being taken from you?”
I held my breath, considering her question. “Yes. Why do you ask?”
Her cheeks paled, her eyes growing wide with fear. “I think I saw it. This black smoke was around you, and it looked like it was taking your magic.”
I held a hand to my chest, remembering how it’d felt and somehow knowing I wouldn’t get it back.
“I. . .” She shook her head, dismissing whatever she was about to tell me.
It felt important, so I waited her out.
“Sometimes I think I’m going crazy,” she admitted.
It reminded me of how vulnerable she’d seemed the night we first met. How she kept insisting she was going crazy.
When I wrapped my arms around her, she rested her head against my chest and slid her hands around my midsection. I kissed the top of her hair before I leaned my chin against her head.
“Your world has changed drastically,” I told her. “I’m sure a lot of this seems crazy.”
She looked up at me, her pretty blue eyes wide with worry. “I have this book I’ve been writing. It’s more like a dream journal.” She bit her bottom lip. “I think. . . I don’t know what I think, but could you read it?”
My heart swelled with pride at what she offered. “You want me to read the story you’ve been writing?”
Her eyes, still filled with worry, swam over my face. “Yes, if you want to.”
I ran a hand over the length of her hair. “Of course, I want to.”
With that, she kissed my chest before rushing out of the kitchen. She returned quickly with the same white book I’d seen the morning after my lashing. When she handed it to me, I took my time examining the white cover. Just as I opened it, she closed it.
“Not now.” She scrunched up her nose, that I pinched. “Later. When you’re alone and if you have time.”
“Okay,” I said, putting the book in the pocket of my magic.
“It’s about a woman with magic,” Teddy said. “She calls herself a tenebris.”
The wordtenebrisskittered over my spine in a way that chilled me to the bone.
“Have you ever heard of that?” she asked.
“No,” I answered.
“I’ve never heard the term either,”Nalari said.“But there’s something about it . . . Tenebris, it gives me that same feeling of dread.”
I was careful not to show Teddy the fear that had wrapped around me. I leaned down to kiss her forehead.
“It could be nothing, Elias,”Nalari said, her tone taking on a rare tender note.
“I’ll read what you wrote and see if anything sounds familiar,” I told her. “Nalari said she’ll do her own research.”
