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February 3 - February 7, 2024
“That bleeding heart will get you killed one day, you know.”
I was an expert in making stubborn men do things that they didn’t realize they wanted to do.
I wrapped Threllian Lords around my fingers like they were made out of putty. And how different could this petulant Solarie possibly be?
It felt good to have the ability to disregard the opinion of a man.
Max looked over his shoulder. “You should knock. One of these days you’re going to walk in on something that you don’t want to see.” The newcomer’s brows rose, just slightly. “Is that what I’m doing now?” “Not that kind of scandal, sadly.”
Gods, I forgot how wonderful it felt to exceed expectations.
I didn’t even think to be self-conscious until I turned around to see Max standing completely still in the water. He looked like he wasn’t even breathing, his searing gaze hurling an arrow through my chest — the intensity of it paralyzing me.
“I hope that whoever did that to you died a terrible, painful death,” he said at last, words hissing like steam. “And I hope that if there is an underworld, they suffer there forever.” Warmth rose to my face.
I blinked at him, surprised. “She said you must go too?” Max snorted. “Nura? She could try and see how far that gets her. But if you’re going, then I’m going.” “You—” “I’m not letting you go out there alone, Tisaanah.”
“Please tell me that man is dead.” Clip. His fingers curled around the dead petals, and the ensuing flames felt slightly brighter, slightly more vicious, this time. “He is,” I said, hoarsely. “I hope you did it, and I hope it hurt.”
“The way I look at it,” he said, very solemnly, so quietly that his words slipped into the air like steam, “you didn’t forget what you were. I think you remembered. And I hope no one ever again has the fucking audacity to tell you otherwise.” For a moment I blinked at him in silence. An odd, fleeting sensation rustled in my chest — like I had swallowed a handful of my silver butterflies. “I know,” I said at last, as it if were nothing. “I am wonderful.”
“I figured you should have something both beautiful and functional, like you.” He said it so quickly that it almost didn’t register. I whipped my head around to look at him. “Max,” I breathed, touching my heart with exaggerated awe, “you think I’m functional?” A dancing smile glinted in his eyes. “I think,” he said, “that you are breathtakingly functional.”
Honestly? I thought he was breathtakingly functional too. He was the most breathtakingly functional thing I had ever seen.
The things men will do in pursuit of their egos. If they’ll tear down countries for it, maybe they could do something good with it, too.
I wondered what that was like. To live a life so untouched by such ugliness that the very concept of it was startling.
Look. Look at everything you failed to destroy. Look at what your cruelty created.
“Well,” he replied. “You would have to get in line behind all of the other women who want me to undress them.” I rolled my eyes, turning around and lifting my hair. “Have I not earned first place?” A soft chuckle. “I suppose that is undeniable.”
“If the Orders offer me support, then I need it,” I rasped. “I have nothing else.” And there was no hesitation, no pause, as he stepped closer and said, “You have me.”
He looked terrible. And yet, he was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. This second thought felt slightly traitorous, as it flitted through my mind.
“Men want power because it makes them feel good. Women want power because it lets us do things.
mindblown pshhhhh
“I see you, Tisaanah.” Max caught my hand in his. Then lowered himself over me and pressed his lips right between my eyebrows, where the tension of my thought had pooled. “No thinking,” he whispered, against my skin.
“Tell Esmaris I sent you,” I whispered, and drew the fingers of my magic and of my hand together until both his mind and his rotting jaw were crushed to jelly in my hands.
