A Shadow in the Ember (Flesh and Fire 1)

“I would suggest you stop doing that,” he advised, his voice deeper, rougher. “Not only are you going to further irritate the wounds along your back, but I don’t believe your actions are inciting the type of reaction you’re aiming for.”

It took a couple of moments for the firestorm in my blood to ease enough for me to make sense of his words…and for some inkling of rationality to seep in. Breathe in. I stared at the cracks in the white and gold columns, dragging in a deep breath. My chest rose, pressing against his arms. Hold. Slowly, my senses returned. My cheek tingled from the contact with his. The night rail was barely a barrier. The length of my back and hips prickled from the feel of his flesh against mine. The coarse hairs of his arms tickled the sensitive skin of my chest through the sagging bodice. My pulse thrummed erratically as I stared forward, unable to understand the riot of sensations. The skin-to-skin contact was a lot.

I squeezed my eyes shut. Breathe out. Had I seriously tried to attack the Primal of Death?

I didn’t want to think about that. I couldn’t think about what surely awaited me after what I’d done to the would-be King of Lasania. All I could focus on was that I was here now with him, the object of over a decade’s worth of training and grooming. A strange sort of laugh worked its way up my throat, but it found silence against my sealed lips. Because no matter what had happened in this Great Hall, no matter who took the throne now, I still had a duty to Lasania.

I was supposed to be seducing Nyktos, not dismembering people in front of him and trying to kill him. Not until I’d made him fall in love with me. In my anger and disbelief, I’d apparently lost sight of a very important step there.

The reality of the situation once again settled over me as the anger slowly returned to the simmer of the last three years…and maybe even longer than that.

Nyktos.

A name known but never spoken out of fear of gaining his attention or inciting his wrath. A name I’d never even allowed myself to think.

But he was finally here. How many times over the last three years had I wished for just such a chance to fulfill my duty? Countless. He was finally here. This could be it.

Could’ve been the chance.

I wasn’t sure how one could seduce another into falling in love with them after stabbing them in the chest.

But I knew what he’d meant when he said that my actions were inciting a reaction I didn’t intend. I’d been around enough men in my life to understand what he was saying…and to feel now what I had been too furious to register when I pushed back against him earlier. The thick, hard length of him had pressed against my lower back. He had been aroused.

He still was.

My mind was quick to push past everything, seizing on the knowledge that this was something to work with. Perhaps there was still a chance—a small one. Physical intimacy was only part of a seduction. It was everything else that would be damn near impossible now—forging a friendship, learning what he liked and disliked so I could mold myself into what he wanted, gaining his trust and then his heart.

My stomach churned. Molding myself into what he wanted. When I was younger, there had been a time that I hadn’t questioned any part of my duty or what it entailed. I was young then and wanted nothing more than to save my kingdom.

Now, every part of me chaffed at the idea of becoming someone else to gain the love of another. If that was what it took to make someone fall in love, then I didn’t think I wanted anything to do with it.

But this wasn’t about me. It never had been. This was about the Nates and the Ellies and everyone else who would continue to suffer. I needed to remember that.

“Did you forget to breathe?” the Primal asked softly.

Possibly.

I exhaled raggedly as I opened my eyes, my lungs burning and white spots blinking in and out of my vision. I needed to think. He’d come for me. That had to mean something.

He shifted his stance behind me, the slight movement sending a shiver of awareness through me.

There was no way I could think with him holding me so closely. “Let me go.”

“I don’t think so.”

I bit back a retort that surely would not help me. “Please?”

A deep chuckle rumbled out of him and through me. My eyes widened at the sensation. “You saying please makes me warier of letting you go.”

My hands opened and closed. “You’re a Primal. I can’t hurt you.”

“Do you think I’m incapable of feeling pain because I’m a Primal?” His cheek dragged against mine, sending a shiver across my skin. “If so, your assumption would be incorrect.”