A Shadow in the Ember (Flesh and Fire 1)

The water was a little over waist-deep where I was, but there were dips that came out of nowhere and seemed bottomless, so I was careful. I had no fear of water, but I couldn’t swim, and I had no idea what the depth of the middle of the lake was nor the area near the waterfall. I wanted so badly to explore there, but I could only get within ten feet of it before the water started to rise above my head.

Sighing, I tipped my head back and let my eyes drift closed. Maybe it was the sound of the rushing water or the isolation of the lake, but my mind was always blissfully blank here. I didn’t think about everything I’d done or my mother. I didn’t think about the Rot and how many more bellies it would rob of food. I didn’t think about how I’d had a chance to stop it and failed. I didn’t think about the man whose life I’d ended today, any that had come before him, or what had happened to the Kazins or Andreia Joanis. I didn’t wonder what would happen once Tavius took the throne. I didn’t think of the damn god with silver eyes, whose skin was cold but made my chest feel warm.

I just existed in the cool water, neither here nor there or anywhere, and it felt like a…release. Freedom. Lulled and maybe even a little enchanted, the strange, prickly sense of awareness was a sudden shock.

Water clung to my lashes as my eyes snapped open. Goosebumps pimpled my skin as I sank lower until the water reached my shoulders. I reached for my dagger, but my fingers brushed bare skin.

Dammit.

I’d left the iron blade on the rock, and that was most unfortunate because I knew what that feeling was. It was wholly recognizable, even if hard to explain, and it sent my pulse skittering.

I wasn’t alone.

I was being watched.

Chapter 10

I didn’t understand the inherent sense that alerted me to the fact that I wasn’t alone, but I knew to trust it.

Remaining crouched in the water, I scanned the dark banks around me and then quickly looked over my shoulder. I saw nothing, but that didn’t mean someone wasn’t there. The moonlight didn’t penetrate the deeper shadows clinging to large swaths of the shore and farther back among the trees to the cliffs.

No one ever came here, but the feeling continued, pressing against my bare shoulders. I knew it wasn’t my imagination. Someone was here, watching me, but for how long? The last couple of minutes? Or from the moment I undressed and slowly walked into the lake, naked as the day I was born? Anger flooded my system so fiercely, I was surprised the water didn’t start to boil around me.

Someone, getting over their fear of the woods, must have followed me. That same instinct warned me that wasn’t a good sign.

Muscles tensed as I called out, “I know you’re there. Show yourself.”

The only answer I received was the rush of water. I heard no night birds singing to one another nor the constant low hum of insects. I hadn’t since I entered the woods. A chill swept over me as my throat tightened. “Show yourself now!”

Silence.

My gaze skipped over the waterfall and snapped back to the sheet of falling water, turned white in the drenching moonlight. There was a deeper shadow behind the waterfall, a thickness that didn’t seem right.

And that tall shape was moving forward, coming through the fall of water. My stomach dipped like it did when I goaded a horse into running too fast.

A moment later, a deep and smooth voice came from within the waterfall. “Since you asked so nicely.”

That voice…

The shape became far too clear in the moonlight. Broad shoulders shattered the water, and then I saw him as he stepped out into the pool of moonlight.

I stopped breathing. My heart may have stopped beating.

The god.

Nothing about him seemed real. He stood there with the water pounding off the rocks behind him. More tiny bumps spread across my flesh as I stared at him in shock.

“Here I am,” he said. “Now, what?”

His question yanked me out of my stunned silence. “What are you doing here?”

Water stirred around him when he broke the surface and slicked back his hair, the spray lapping at the defined lines of his chest. I snapped my gaze to his face. He appeared to be studying me. “What does it look like?”

His blasé answer struck that reckless part of me. It didn’t matter that the pretend kiss in the vine tunnels had become very real, or that he hadn’t struck out at me when I stabbed him in the chest—something most would be furious about—or end up dead over. It didn’t matter that he was a powerful god that had continuously crept into my thoughts since I’d last seen him. He had been watching me when I’d been at my most vulnerable. “It looks like you shouldn’t be here.”