Page 118 of Skyshade
“Isla, I think you inhaled too much sand in the storm.” Oro was saying, somewhere far away. “It has power. It can...heighten senses. Emotions.”
Yes, that was what she felt. Heightened. Every nerve was on fire.
He began to move his hand away, but she said, “Please. Please don’t stop touching me. Never stop touching me.”
But he did. He looked pained, but he gently removed his hand. “Sleep, Isla, if you can.”
Sleep. She didn’t want to. She was suddenly burning, more than she ever had in the desert. But, as she rested against the warm floor, sleep reached her quickly.
And she dreamed of the night before the battle.
GOLDEN
Isla had surprised Oro in his chambers. The following day, everything could change.
She wanted a piece of happiness, a slice of summer, something to hold on to during the bloodshed. So she had put on a red dress that molded against her every inch. And now, she waited.
Isla felt his heat before she saw him, a radiance that nearly brought her to her knees, and then he was filling the door, and staring at her, and she wasn’t sure he was breathing. He had gone still, fingers still curled around the door’s handle.
She smiled, pleased. “I take it you like it.” Her voice was a rasp she almost didn’t recognize.
His own was strained. “If by like, you mean I want to tear it to shreds with my teeth, then yes. I like it very much.”
His words were like embers catching fire, a heat dropping right through her. She wanted him now. She wanted everything.
He closed the door behind him and stalked toward her, eyes intently studying her dress the way she had watched him study maps and battle plans. He looked at her like he was trying to navigate the easiest way under it.
A moment later, he had her against the wall, and she inhaled sharply. He ducked toward her mouth, but she stopped him with a hand against his chest.
“Can we pretend?” she asked.
“Pretend?”
“Pretend for just a moment that you’re not the king, and I’m not your enemy.” If only. If only.
He frowned. She didn’t like to upset him, but she secretly loved it when he frowned; it reminded her of the Centennial, back before she had admitted to herself that she could tolerate the Sunling king. “Isla,” he said against her forehead. “You could never be my enemy.”
Her voice trembled. “I’m Nightshade. I opened the portal without realizing. I helped him find the sword. I made it possible for Grim to destroy everything.”
Anger flared in his expression. “You didn’t know. Most of this happened in the past.”
“Can we pretend there’s no past, then? That it’s been you and me from the beginning?” She wanted that so badly. More than anything.
For a moment, she wondered if he would send her away.
But then he said, right against her lips. “Tonight...we can pretend anything you want, love.”
Need prickled her skin. They had all night. All night to pretend like they might not all die the next day. “I want you to do something for me. I want you to make my dress gold.”
He seemed confused. “I’ll call for Leto after all this is over.”
A smile tugged at her mouth. “No.” She looked down at her dress and was met with the sight of her chest, straining against the low, tight bodice. She heard him swallow, also watching her. “The one I’m wearing. Turn it gold.”
She knew what gilding meant to him, the trauma behind it. She wanted to take that trauma and turn it into trust.
He hesitated, so she went on her toes, and said against his mouth, “I trust you. You won’t hurt me.” It was true. He was the only person in the world who had earned all her trust. Then she whispered, “Turn it gold. Please.”
The hand he had pressed against the wall next to her head flexed.
