Total pages in book: 362
Estimated words: 347293 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1736(@200wpm)___ 1389(@250wpm)___ 1158(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 347293 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1736(@200wpm)___ 1389(@250wpm)___ 1158(@300wpm)
He was still quiet, but I detected faint tremors along his shoulders and chest. He was…laughing.
I plopped my forehead on his shoulder. “And then—”
“There’s more?” he cut in.
“There is,” I muttered. “I broke her wrist.”
“Okay.”
I closed my eyes. “And I also bit her.”
The hand on my back stilled.
My hands fell to my thighs. I didn’t think he was angry since my knees were damp from where the frost had melted away. Or at least he wasn’t as angry as before. “That’s probably how I got her blood in my hair. I wasn’t exactly…precise when I did it. I kind of tore her throat open. Her blood tastes gross, by the way.”
Silence.
I squeezed my already closed eyes shut tighter. “Anyway, I then spit the blood in her face.”
Another beat of silence passed.
“Is that all?”
“Yeah?” Unease swirled.
Ash’s hand swept back down my back. “You aren’t confident in that answer.” As his hand moved back up, it curled around my braid. He gently tugged my face out of his shoulder, and his eyes met mine. Only faint streaks of eather were visible. “What are you not telling me?”
I slumped a little. “I wanted to kill her.”
His brows shot up. “That’s what you were holding back?”
“I mean, I would’ve killed her if Nektas hadn’t shown up—even after Rhain tried to talk sense into me, reminding me that I didn’t want war.” I shook my head. “And I really would have, Ash. I was that”—I held up my thumb and pointer finger, spacing them less than an inch apart—“close.”
“But you didn’t.”
“Only because Nektas was there. So, I’m not sure that counts.”
“It does.” His other hand ran along my jaw. “I wouldn’t have blamed you if you had.”
My mouth dropped open.
“I held back with Kyn, but it seems you’ve forgotten that I killed a Primal in anger. And I don’t regret doing it,” he continued. “I can tell you right now that Nektas wouldn’t have been able to stay my hand. Not when Hanan was standing between you and me.” He ran his thumb across my lower lip. “But he was able to reach you. So don’t feel too bad about it.”
I let what he said sink in. Ash hadn’t walked that line between vengeance and justice as well as I believed. And that made me feel a little better about what had almost happened, as messed up as that was.
So, I let go of the guilt and shifted my focus to what had preyed upon my mind as I stood out on the balcony. “As much as I hate to admit this, I think Veses was telling the truth about coming here to get you to talk me into taking Kolis’s deal.”
He tucked a shorter strand of my hair back behind an ear. “What makes you think that?”
I fixed the collar of his tunic. “Like I said before, she…cares about you—in her own twisted, messed-up way.” I quickly moved past that point before I slipped into a rage spiral. “She said I would regret not taking the deal.”
His jaw flexed. “Did she say this before or after you handed her ass to her?”
My lips twitched as I glanced down at my hands. “After I…” I frowned, staring at my nails. I had thought I’d gotten all the blood out from under them, but a tiny speck of dark red remained. It wasn’t that which caused my spine to straighten, though. “My nails grew.”
He looked down at my hands. “They look normal to me.”
“I know, but they lengthened and sharpened.” My eyes widened as I remembered what had happened when Aydun first showed. What had Nektas said then? Something about the…claws coming out. “Today wasn’t the first time that happened. I wonder if that means I’ll be able to shift sooner than you could.”
Lifting my left hand, he kissed the center of my palm. “Wouldn’t that make you special?”
“More special than you. Yes.”
He chuckled. “That’s okay. My fangs are still substantially more impressive than yours.”
I grinned, thoroughly enjoying his teasing because, gods, I really hadn’t realized how badly I’d missed the side of him I’d seen in the mortal realm. When he was just Ash, able to shed the weight of responsibility and forget the cause of the blood drops inked into his flesh for a little while. But that was who he was. He was once more that Ash.
A wide, likely half-crazed-looking smile spread across my lips, and I didn’t care about how I looked because this was us. Who we had been when we were strangers, then friends, enemies, and now…lovers. This was simply who we were when we were together. And if he was reading my emotions now, he would taste nothing but the sweetest, chocolate-dipped strawberries.
Nothing but love.
Veses’ warning followed me as the day progressed. It was hard not to think about it, even as Ash and I spent the better part of the day in the courtyard training alongside the guards.