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“Tell me, darling, do you think of me often?” His voice is a murmur, as if his lips were pressed against my ear. I shiver, knowing exactly what that feels like. If he knows I’m here then why hasn’t he— “Do I haunt your dreams, plague your thoughts, like you do mine?”
“It’s a good thing you’re not here,” he says softly, a tone I never thought I’d hear from him again. “Because I still haven’t found my courage.”
It’s dangerous, how much I think of her. How much everything reminds me of her. How much I wonder if everything was a game to her,
“I’m embarrassed to not die in a more dramatic manner.”
I know the face behind that fabric. Know the freckles that fleck that nose, the silver hair that glints in the sun. Know the lean body hidden beneath layers of clothing, concealing the waist where my hand fits perfectly, ribs scarred by a spear in the Whispers Forest. It’s her.
I used to welcome the idea of drowning in those blue eyes of hers. But now, seeing the disdain she stares me down with, I realize that drowning alone wasn’t what I craved, but sinking together.
If she is Shadow, then I am Flame. This girl is the very thing I can’t seem to escape—can’t seem to go anywhere without the remnants of her following. Where I am, she is. Whether it’s in the flesh or in the fragments of my mind. And where there is a flame, there is always a shadow. She is my inevitable.
Even time seems to hold its breath in anticipation of our reunion.
She sends the blade arcing upward, intending to slip it between my ribs and pierce the heart that once beat for her. Only, she’s already done that.
“Don’t think for a second,” she whispers, “that I won’t be the death of you.”
Because when darkness hides those blazing blue eyes, I can pretend that she is nothing to me.
But here, she is no one. Here, I am nothing. Here, we are forgotten.
“You promised to be my undoing,” I murmur, lowering my head close enough to hear her sharp intake of breath. “So, prove it.” Her face angles up toward mine, our noses brushing. She never lowers her dagger, and the point of her blade still draws blood from my throat. “Prove it,” I repeat, voice quiet. “Hate me enough to make me want you.” I cup her jaw, feeling her eyes burning into mine. “Ruin me.” Our mouths crash together.
I ignore how familiar she feels, ignore every one of my screaming senses. Because this is a stranger. We are nothing to each other. And that means anything is allowed.
This kiss is deep and anything but tender. It is betrayal. It is bitterness. And nothing has ever tasted so sweet. It is ruin.
She is still my mission, and I am still her monster.
A pain in the ass does not even begin to describe this girl.
I want her to fight me. I want her to burn for me, even if it means with hatred.
“You really think you can handle me on your own?”
“I think I’m the only one who could handle you on their own.”
“The only thing I’m considering doing when your back is turned, is shoving a dagger into it.”
Yet, I can’t help but think that in another life, another time, another chance to choose each other—I would be in that bed beside her.
“You killed a father,” I practically growl, stepping close enough to see the storm brewing in his gray eyes. “I killed a monster.”
He rips a piece of cloth with ease before tugging my leg toward him to rest atop his own from where he kneels. I find myself committing the sight to memory with a smug smile. I feel anything but Ordinary with the prince on his knees before me.
“He is gone, and I don’t even know how to breathe if he does not command me to do so. Command me to eat. To live.”
it was possession. The threat was territorial. I am his prey, his prize, his prisoner. His and his alone. I hate it. Hate that I belong to him.
I allow myself one moment. One selfish moment of my miserable existence committed to her. To a girl in the arms of a boy. To a facade.
“I’d like to knock your teeth in.”
“Oh, but then I wouldn’t be able to smile in that way I know you like.”
The look she gives me promises a death I know she can deliver.
She looks at me, shocked. And then she smiles, bright and big like the night sky hanging above us. I fear she could rival the stars.
“Oh, it’s you,” she says groggily. “I didn’t know who I was tied to. I should have hit you harder.”
“Paedyn,” I say softly. The taste of her name is intoxicating on my tongue.
“Which means you sacrifice who you were for who you need to be.” His eyes bore into mine, reading more than just the emotion on my face. “And who you need to be it with.”
‘To be a great king, you must first be brave, benevolent, and brutal. Only then can you rule a great kingdom.’ ”
“Under different circumstances,” he pants, “I promise you I’m much more fun tied up.”
“Your name seems like a good word to die with on my lips.”
“I don’t regret you, or what was between us. And I don’t regret kissing you on that roof. But I know I’ll regret what I have to do to you for the rest of my life.”
But I melt at his words, mourn what could have been. And now I’ll drown in the regret that is him.
My heart aches. Aches to be reunited with the piece he’s stolen from me.
He tastes like longing. Like regret and relief. Like nothing matters but this moment.
She tastes like a piece of the heaven I won’t be going to. Kissing her is relief.
Her mouth is crushed against mine, and it’s her I’ll breathe in for the last time.
It feels like finality, this kiss. This moment. I kiss her harder at the thought, willingly breathing her in until the very end.
She’s clinging to me as though I’m an anchor she’s willing to sink with. I’m drowning with her, in her.
She’ll be free of me now. She’s probably halfway to a shadow she can melt into. The idea almost makes me smile. I sink into oblivion, the thought of her my final prayer.
the mistake was tasting you now that you likely won’t let me do it again.”
She snorts. “Possessive, are we?” “I chained you to me. What do you think?”
Maybe he never intended to bring her back. Maybe he ran away with her. Maybe they are running away from me—together.
Kai and I were good. Especially so after Ava.
Who is ava?!
