A Shadow in the Ember (Flesh and Fire 1)

The god became very still then, so much so that I wasn’t sure if he even breathed. And the water… I swore the water around him stopped its lazy rippling. My heartbeat stuttered.

“I won’t?” he queried softly.

Tiny hairs began to rise all over my body. “No.”

“What will you do, my lady?” Moonlight kissed the apple of his cheekbone as he tilted his head once more. “You have no shadowstone dagger to threaten me with.”

“I don’t need a dagger,” I said, my voice thready. “And I’m not a lady.”

His head straightened. “No, I imagine not, considering you’re nude in a lake with an unfamiliar man, whose lip you bit upon meeting, and have seen the bare backs of many sailors. I was only being polite.”

My lip curled at the presumed insult. I knew I should let it go. Keep my mouth shut, but I didn’t. I hadn’t in three years, and my inability to do so had grown and festered into an incurable disease. The kind that provoked further, dangerous recklessness. “What I am is a Princess who is nude in a lake with an unfamiliar man and has seen the bare backs of men,” I told him, speaking the forbidden. “And you, with each passing moment, are getting closer to no longer having the ability to see anyone’s unmentionable places ever again.”

For a long moment, he stared at me, his features unreadable. My heart began to pound with trepidation—

The god laughed. Tipped his head back and actually laughed, long and deep. And his laugh was…well, it was a nice sound. Deep and husky.

It was also highly infuriating.

“I’m not sure what you find so funny,” I bit out.

“You,” he answered between laughs.

“Me?”

“Yes.” He lowered his head, his stare piercing even though I couldn’t see his eyes. “You amuse me.”

If there were some kind of switch deep inside me that controlled my anger and impulses, he’d found it with unerring accuracy over and over.

And then repeatedly flipped it each time I crossed paths when him.

I was a lot of things, but I was not the source of anyone’s amusement. Not even a god’s.

Fury pulsing through my blood, I rose to my full height. “I doubt you will find me so amusing when you’re gasping for the last of your breaths.”

He became still again, and…good gods, the water coursing down his chest froze. The droplets ceased.

“I’m already gasping,” he whispered, his voice rougher, deeper.

Confusion rippled along the flood of rage. Did he have some sort of breathing ailment? Could gods have health issues? If so, I doubted these cold waters would be good for his lungs. Not that I remotely cared for the condition of his lungs. Nor did I even know why I was wondering about their condition.

A warm breeze lifted the strands of my wet hair and slipped over the chilled skin of my bare shoulders and my…

Oh.

The water only reached my waist here.

“In case you’re wondering,”—his voice was a kiss against my skin—“this is me intentionally staring.”

I started to lower, seeking the shield of the water, but I stopped myself. I would not shrink or cower to anyone or anything. “Pervert.”

“Guilty.”

“Keep staring,” I growled. “And I will claw out those eyes with my fingers if need be.”

He barked out another short laugh, this one tinged with surprise. “Still no fear, Your Grace?”

I bristled at the way he used the Royal title as if it were something silly and irrelevant. All the more frustrating was the fact that he was perhaps the first person to ever refer to me as such.

“I’m still not afraid of you,” I replied, briefly glancing down. There was only a minor bit of relief when I saw several pale strands of hair plastered to my chest. They didn’t hide nearly enough, but it was better than nothing.

“Well, I’m a little afraid of you,” he said, and he was somehow closer without seeming to have moved. He wasn’t even a foot from me now, and an icy heat radiated from him, pressing against my flesh. His closeness heightened the sensitivity of every inch of skin. “You want to claw my eyes out.”

Hearing him say what I’d threatened sounded ridiculous. “You and I both know it would be impossible for me to claw your eyes out.”

“And yet, based on my limited interactions with you, I know you’d try, even when you know you’d fail.”

I couldn’t exactly argue against that. “Well, if you’re that concerned about the possibility of me attempting to do that, you should be careful of where your eyes wander.”

“I’m being extra-careful as incredibly hard as that is, given the…abundant allure of being less careful.”

“I’m sure you say that to all the ladies you accost.”

“Only the ones I would be tempted to allow to try and claw my eyes out.”

“That…that makes no sense.” Drawing in a too-short breath, I stepped back through the water, folding an arm over my chest.