Page 35 of Grim and Oro
Not impressive enough.
Irritated that she was naive enough to think she had any chance of beating me—that she hurled herself into my orbit like a damned asteroid—I reach through our blades, grab her by the front of her shirt, and fall backward, pulling her atop me.
My head hits the sand, but I don’t mind that it’s getting all over me. No, all I can focus on is her body inches above mine, with only my arm and my blade between us. All I can see are her green eyes, widened. All I can taste is her surprise. And something else ... something unexpected.
A pebble of want that is nothing compared to mine. It’s just agrain of sandcompared to my own desire.
My blade is right against her heart.
But it feels like she is the one with a sword against mine.
It’s because of that that I say, “I don’t ever want to see you in my lands again.”
Then I portal away.
I don’t see her in my lands, but I see her in my dreams.
They are relentless. They are infuriating.
But the nightmares that used to plague me, the ones of waking up to see the winter palace painted in my siblings’ blood, the ones of the dreks finally breaking through once and for all ... those have stopped.
I wonder which is worse. Dreaming of battle—or dreaming of her, in my bathtub. Her clothes drenched and plastered to her every inch.
Ridiculous.
She has turned me into a fool.
She swore not to return to my lands, but I made no such promise to her.
Before I think of every reason why I shouldn’t be thinking of her at all, I’m in her room, just a week after seeing her last.
She isn’t sleeping.
No.
She’sdancing. Alone. She’s singing and twirling around her room, as if she’s pretending she’s somewhere else entirely.
And I’m not sure if she has the best voice I’ve heard or if I have simply lost it, but I’m entranced.
I watch her smile and twirl in circles, happiness radiating off her like a ray of sun, and ...
My fascination horrifies me.
But I can’t stop watching. Slowly, I find myself sinking down into a chair to study her radiance.
I know this is wrong. Me, invisible, watching her. Being this obsessed with every move she makes.
But no one has ever accused me of doing anything right.
So, I watch as she twirls around the room, singing a song, dancing, swishing her crimson dress around. I’ve never paid much attention to dresses, but this one.This one. I memorialize it in my mind. The neckline, curved down, revealing a sliver of skin. The ties, in the back, loosely done. I imagine myself undoing them, slowly. I think about how easy it would be to just rip that fabric, if she would let me. If she would—
She turns, briefly catching her reflection in the row of swords, and her smile drops. She gasps, and goes still.
As if she’s seen my reflection next to her own. Because she has. For a brief instant I was visible, both of us reflectedtogether, like we never can be.
She whips around, but I’ve vanished. Invisible again.
I’m not breathing. What just happened has never happened before this moment.
