Page 19 of Fog of War
“Will I be able to do that for you too?” she asked with rounded eyes.
Souls…She had no idea that she already was.
“No, but you soothe me in your own ways. I’m honored,” I rasped amidst the chords of my second diaphragm, “that a Muru has graced me.”
“I’m sorry that I’m not venandi–”
“I’m not,” I snapped, a little too viciously. I exhaled slowly, resisting the hollow panic that had festered in my stomach for months. I breathed her into my lungs and found that sense of calm again. “I don’t need you tohrumto feel connected to you. As long as I don’t scare you, we’ll figure it out.”
“You don’t.” She spun around to look me in the eye, her cheeks dusted with Ferulis silver like snow at dawn. She put her hands on her hips with a sheepish wince. “Actually, Leopha and I bought a toy in the market. It was intimidating but not scary.”
My stare sharpened, dilated until I could see the glow of my own eyes on my cheeks. “What color is it?”
She sandwiched her lips between her teeth in a grimace. “Red? I feel like that’s the wrong answer.”
I took a step towards her with one slow nod, all of my plates itching for a fight with an Ignarian.
Or to pin myvirato the floor and finish what we couldn’t start on that battlefield.
“It’s not for me, I swear!” She put her hands up again, crowded against the sink. “It’s for my landladies. I thought they’d like the–”
My brain flew the nest and myhrumtook a deep dive into dirty. Gabbie’s sentence choked off with a moan. “Don’t tell me what you thought they’d like because it meansyouliked it,” I rumbled, my face a mere inch from hers. I squeezed my eyes shut, gripping the sink by her hip. “Talking about this will carve me into a feral animal. I highly suggest we change the subject.”
When I took in a steadying breath, though, it wasn’t Gabbie’s fear that met my nose. No, it was herlust.The same scent as before, but without the sour afterbite of fear. Blood rushed between my legs and knocked me unsteady. My cock was so sensitive, I was having trouble breathing. I bared my fangs, holding back a snarl.
She didn’t sign up for this. It’s not an invitation.
“Did you–leave someone behind?” I panted, just barely able to get the words out.
Gabbie’s fingers spread across my chest and I huffed like aryhidon.“No, I was alone,” she said in a soft murmur, trailing her hands along the edges of my plates, testing my sanity with her naive explorations.
I hauled myself back, my shoulders hitting the doorway with a scrape. But she reached for me, eyes fixated on the hatchet scar that cleaved her handprint in two. She pressed her fingers to the crater and I hissed in pain.
Gabbie gasped, jumping back.
A grin spread slowly across my face and her eyes narrowed.
It hit me that I’d get to see that look on her face for the rest of my life if I didn’t fuck up in the next several days. The thought thrilled me and cleared my mind at the same time.
“I should go. Give you time to think about things,” I croaked, throat bobbing. “If I stay any longer…”
Gabbie wrapped her arms around my neck and pressed her mouth to mine.
10
Gabbie
Oh no, oh no, oh no.
I held onto Paladus’s neck, my mouth against his, and the gong of regret rang through my mind. My eyes popped open as soon as I realized what I’d done.Andthat he wasn’t kissing me back.
But that stupid grin! He was such a devil, teasing me about his injuries like that. And then all I could think about was how I’d known when I’d smacked him the first time in that field that I was a goner. I would have been chasing his smirk and laughter for the rest of my life, living alone in my cozy autumnal apartment with ten cats and two doomed goldfish.
I was still up for the cats and the goldfish, but the alone part?
I’d worn my adventure pants for areason.
But maybe it was too soon… Maybe Paladus wasn’t sure about me.
