Page 109 of The Dagger and the Flame
‘Don’t do anything rash,’ he said in a low voice.
She spluttered a laugh. ‘Look behind me, Ransom. We arewaypast rash.’ Even without turning around, she could feel the monsters watching them,strainingagainst her command to wait. Seeing the tightness in his jaw, she knew he could feel it too.
‘You can’t kill Dufort yet,’ he said. ‘He has something I need.’
‘Then run home and kiss his feet.’ Her cloak flickered at the hiss of her anger. ‘Better yet, why don’t I go with you?’
‘Spitfire,’ he said, a warning in his voice.
‘Ransom,move.’
He flexed his fingers, shadows uncoiling from the nearby streetlamps. ‘Do you truly expect me to let you rampage through Hugo’s Passage and get yourself killed?’
‘Worry about your friends, Dagger. I’m the one with an army of monsters.’
His shadows struck, curling around her arms, her waist. They snapped immediately, her cloak searing them into nothing.
‘Good effort,’ she said, shoving past him.
‘Fuck it.’ He lunged, grabbing her waist and spinning her into a nearby alley. Darkness swallowed them, the rest of the world falling away in a moment. By the time he released her, the silver in his eyes had softened. He heaved a breath, pinning her between his arms, a position that had become all too familiar to her. ‘Listen to me. Dufort is looking for my family, Seraphine. He’s enlisted the king’s scouts. I need more time.’
She stared up at him in utter horror. ‘Oh, Ransom,’ she said, her anger dissolving into pity. ‘You can’t possibly believe that.’
He frowned. ‘He has nothing to gain from it.’
She might have laughed if she didn’t care so much about Dufort’s clever little lie, how it was delaying her grand plan to flick him off the face of the earth. ‘Doesn’t he?’
Ransom’s frown deepened, even as he shook off her words. ‘I can’t take the chance,’ he whispered. ‘What if it’s real?’
‘Dufort’s words are never real, Ransom. His promises are as empty as his soul.’ Sera huffed, fighting the urge to shake some damn sense into him. She understood now why he had reneged on his promise to her, and even in the depths of her frustration, she didn’t begrudge him that fool’s hope. But that didn’t mean she would share in his delusion. She had her own promises to keep.
She raised her chin, meeting the determination in his gaze with her own. He loomed over her, so tall and broad in the narrow passage, and yet, he was no match for even one of Sera’s monsters. They were barely a stone’s throw from the mouth of the alley, waiting for her next order. She could destroy him with a single word, and they both knew it.
She didn’t want to hurt him.
‘Ransom,’ she said, gently bracing her hands against his chest. He closed his eyes, shuddering as she shredded his Shade. He let her do it, wavering perhaps over his own foolish decision to trust Dufort, or simply unwilling to raise a hand to hurt her. He softened into her touch, and she could have pushed him away with ease, but she didn’t.
Death waited around the corner. And with it, pain and grief and the sharp edge of revenge. It could wait a little longer. He laid his forehead against hers, as if he was having the samethought. Slowly, she moved her palms up his chest, twining her fingers in the collar of his shirt. He looked down at her beneath a veil of dark lashes, and something inside her came undone. She had never seen such raw, undisguised need.
His words were all gravel. ‘How many minutes do you want, Seraphine?’
‘As many as you can spare.’
He brushed his nose against hers. ‘How about eternity?’
She laughed as he trailed his finger along her jaw, lifting her mouth to taste the sound. She rose on tiptoes and he moaned as the last of his Shade dissolved on her lips. She tasted the ash of it on his tongue as she opened her mouth to him. His arm tightened around her waist, the other cupping the nape of her neck as he crushed his lips against hers. She arched into him, sealing every inch of space between their bodies. Desire raged through her blood, chasing the rush of Lightfire.
‘Fuck,’ he hissed, between ragged breaths.
She pulled back, and beneath the glow of her cloak she saw that the shadow-mark on his collarbone was fading. She traced the skin there. ‘Does it hurt?’
‘Yes.’ He traced his thumb along her bottom lip, his pupils so dilated she could see her own reflection in them. ‘But don’t stop.’
He kissed her again, his tongue moving slow and deep as he chased that agonizing pleasure. She met his hunger with her own, letting him drink from her magic like a man dying of thirst.
He slid his hands into her hair, their bodies melding as he pushed her up against the wall. She threw her arms around his neck, her hood falling back as she surrendered to her wild,growing need. She nipped his bottom lip and he swore, tipping her head back to take her mouth again. He laved her tongue, savouring the kiss. Savouring her.
It wasn’t nearly enough. Sera wanted to rip his clothes off, to drag him down to the damp cobblestones, to taste every inch of his skin and lick the shadow-marks away one by one. The need to have more of him – to haveallof him – was brutal.
