Page 115 of The Dagger and the Flame
He staggered to his feet, one hand clasping the Lightfire cloak at his throat, the other folding her body underneath it. The doorway was blocked, the cavern echoing with screams. Everywhere he looked, Daggers were fighting and falling, the monsters too caught up in bloodlust to find the Lightfire in their midst. ‘This way,’ he said, pulling her towards the stone fireplace. The fire was out, the last embers dying in the grate. He kicked ash over them, then pushed her inside it.
‘What are you doing?’ she said, stumbling backwards, into charcoal and ash.
He crawled in after her, making a shield of the cloak. A barrier through which the monsters couldn’t pass. ‘What does it look like? I’m hiding you.’
‘I don’t want to hide!’ she cried, slamming her palms against his chest.
He trapped her arms with one hand. ‘Can you not fight with me just this once?’ This hot-headed spitfire was going to be the death of both of them. ‘In case you haven’t noticed, things have gone to shit around here.’
‘That’s because one of you assholes knocked me out,’ she snapped. ‘Nowmoveout of my way, before Dufort flees like the rat he is.’
Hell’s teeth, she was serious about going back out there. ‘This is hardly the great spectacle of revenge you envisioned,’ he said, shouting over the rising screams. ‘Evenyouare not this reckless.’
She snorted. ‘Want to bet?’
‘No,’ he hissed, resisting the urge to shake some damn sense into her. She was so hell-bent on revenge, she’d crawl througha bonfire just to get it. Burn herself along with Dufort, and the rest of them. ‘I don’t want to bet and I don’t want to fight. I don’t want to do anything right now, except come up with a really good plan to end this mess and get out of here alive.’
‘Here’s the plan. You take the cloak and the monsters. Stomp around, make a racket to draw their attention. Then get them out of the Cavern and up to the Aurore,’ she said quickly. ‘I’ll go after Dufort.’
He scoffed in disbelief. ‘With what weapon?’
‘A pocket full of Lightfire,’ she said, trying to climb past him. ‘And whatever the hell I find on the floor.’
He braced a hand against her chest, kneeling on either side of her legs and pinning her hips with his own. He ignored the rushing urge to slam his lips against hers and wrench one more moan from those perfect lips.
Get a fucking grip.
He dragged his senses back to the unholy disaster unfolding around them. ‘Can you not try and get yourself killed for one second?’
She glared up at him, her cheeks flushing. ‘Stop getting in the way of my plans.’
‘Then start making better ones. I’m trying to save your life!’
‘I can save my own damn life.’ She jutted her chin forward, until they were almost nose to nose. Teeth bared, breath heaving, both of them seething. Ransom didn’t know if she wanted to kiss him or slap him, but one thing was certain, he was not about to let her go out there.
‘Actually, historically, you can’t.’
She cut her eyes at him, blowing a strand of hair from herface. Fucking adorable. Even if she did want to throttle him. ‘You must have a death wish.’
‘Well, if I do, I’m certainly in the right place.’ When she continued to glower at him, he sighed. ‘Just… think with your head, please. Not your anger.’
‘I’m going to kill him, Ransom,’ she said, immediately ignoring his advice. ‘It has to mean something – this awful night, the terrible mess of it all. I have to do what Mama asked of me. I have to finish what she started, so we can both know peace.’
‘I’m not saying you can’t kill him,’ he said calmly. ‘I’m just asking you not to kill yourself.’
‘I know what I’m doing.’ She squirmed beneath him, creating a distractingly lethal friction.
He rolled back on his heels before he stiffened between her legs. ‘If we go back out there, we go together.’
‘Fine,’ she huffed.
A monster howled, far too close. There came the crack of bone and then the panicked gurgle of someone choking on their own blood.
Sera flinched, her gaze shifting to something over his shoulder. ‘Ransom, there’s a—’
A monster roared in his ear. It had jammed its misshapen head inside the grate, and now its shadowy tentacles were grasping at them. Seraphine screamed as one brushed her face.
Ransom twisted, trying to shove the monster out but it grabbed onto the end of the cloak, its glowing eyes so close, he could see his own terrified reflection in them.
