Page 15 of Left Hand of the Divine
I took another step closer. I really hoped this didn’t kill me, but I was trusting my gut here. Trusting that he needed a connection to somethingreal.
“Stay back.” He sounded a little more wary now, and the red forks of lightning intensified as I came closer. The hairs on my arm stood up with the static electricity in the air.
I let my scythe go back to the shadow realm and held my hands out placatingly. “It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you.”
He snarled at me like a beast, caught up in all the rage and hatred I could see in his eyes.
I took a deep breath, prayed to Nyx I was doing the right thing, then stepped into the shadows and slowly wrapped my arms around his waist. Magic pulsed beneath my fingers, like it was woven into the very essence of him and swirled beneath his skin. He was stiff in my arms, his back ramrod straight and all his muscles coiled with tension.
I pressed my cheek against the spot over his heart and stroked my hands up and down his spine. Surprisingly, his heart was steady and slow. I had expected it to be racing with all the anger,but it wasn’t. It was just a steady thud, almost too slow, but maybe that was just the way he was.
“What are you doing?” He grumbled, and his voice rumbledthrough his chest.
“I thought that was obvious, shadow man.” I looked up at him through my eyelashes. “I’m hugging you.”
He harrumphed in response, which I found totally adorable. Maybe underneath all the dark grumpiness there was a sweetheart lurking. I looked up at him again and caught his sharp scowl.
Maybe not.
I didn’t know how long I stood in the shadows hugging my dark statue, but eventually his muscles softened beneath my touch as he released the tension with a deep exhale. His shadows still swirled around us, but they’d lost the aggressive sparks of red lightning.
“I apologise,” he said softly.
I arched my head back to look at him. “What for?”
He tucked a strand of my bright red hair behind my ear, and I felt that spark again. “I think I’ve been alone for too long.”
Well, hopefully, that wouldn’t be the case for much longer. I knew I was taking a massive risk, but I trusted my instincts. They rarely steered me wrong, and there was something about him that drew me in. Something that made me feelconnectedto him. I couldn’t leave him behind, even if I wanted to.
The cool tendrils of his shadows coiled around my lower legs, and it was strange how solid they felt. I expected them to be like a cool breeze or current, but they were more like cords, bindingme to him. I was curious what else they could do and whether they had independent thought or if they were wrapped around me because that's what he wanted.
He pinched my chin between his finger and thumb, and my gaze dropped to his mouth. His lips looked pillowy soft, full and plump and deep red. His mouth was almost too wide for his face, and his top lip was a little fuller than the bottom one with a Cupid's bow that would make even the angels weep.
“We’re about to have company,” he said, pulling my gaze back to his eyes. They sparked with a little bit of mirth as I slowly blinked at him, not quite taking in what he was saying.
“What?”
“Your band of merry men is about to round the corner.”
Did that make me Robin Hood? I snorted. I suppose that depended on whether this man counted as stolen goods and how much I needed him.
“Can you pull your shadows back in?”
He frowned, those black eyebrows looking severe and sharp. “Why?”
“The guys have a tendency to go into attack mode at the first sign of a threat, and I don’t want to start a fight.”
He pursed his lips, and I glanced down at his mouth again, which was quickly becoming my new obsession. “As you wish,Asteri.”
He pulled his shadows back into his body, and I missed their touch around my legs. Light filtered back into thestone corridor and flickered like candlelight, which was strange, as there didn’t seem to be any actual light source anywhere.
“Where does the light come from?”
He laughed softly, but there was a hint of sadness under the bright tone. “I govern more than just the darkness, Reaper. Just like there’s more to you than you.”
“What—“
“Roux!”
