“Aalto and back,” he cursed, his voice full of gravel. “You can’t take the pass, Leihani. There is no pass. You’re going to kill yourself.”
“You can’t make decisions for me, Kye,” I panted. “You can’t tell me where I’m allowed to go. What I’m allowed to do. You can’t keep mesafe.”
Kye’s body went still. Something flickered behind his eyes. His mouth parted as he drew in a sharp breath and held it.
“What are you going to do?” I pressed on, rasping over every word. “Shove a knife under my chin and escort me onto a ship? Lock me in a cage so dark that I hear nothing but the sounds of a cargo hold? Tie me to a chair while you sleep in a bed?”
I glared at him, determined to ignore the pain in his eyes. His fingers loosened. He slid off, letting his hip find the earthen floor at my side. I waited for him to argue. To pull me to my feet and march me back to the inn. But he didn’t. He stared at me, the gentleness in him snuffed out, his face impossible to read. And damn it toMihauna,my traitorous gaze flicked to his mouth, full and smooth but for his crescent scar, hovering just beyond the breath of mine.
Kye’s eyes dropped to my lips in answer. His panting rushed over my skin, shallow and fast. The burst of molten metal thickened around us, growing heady and savory as we sat gasping for air.
His eyes closed as though willing himself a measure of control, but his next exhalation sank his body deeper into mine. He slanted against me, warm breath curling into the side of my neck, his nose grazing the hollow curve just below my ear.
I was suddenly motionless under the familiar weight of him, spread over me like sand over a bed of coals, and a predatory animal in my core flickered to life, raising its nose and sniffing at the sudden scent in the air, potent between our bodies. My fingers itched to travel through the roots of his hair, and I found myself arching my back, thrusting myself against him, feeling his hips and legs through the thin cotton of his low-hangingpants. He trailed his mouth across my collar bone and up my neck, then grazed my lips so softly I thought I might catch fire.
My mouth opened without hesitation, seeking the smooth glide of his tongue, the soft crush of his lips, inviting him to deepen our kiss as he rolled his weight over me. Every stitch of muscle and bone in his body grinded against mine, electric through my limbs. He tilted my head back and sucked my lower lip between his teeth, fingers settling on either side of my jaw, holding my face with heartbreaking reverence.
And I moaned into him, pushing my ankles into the soil, grating my center against the growing firmness of his body. I felt him still against the side of my cheek.
“Promise me you won’t do that again,” he rumbled. My eyes flew open.
I kicked out, throwing my hips in a futile rage. “Get off!”
Kye glared down at me. Irritation coursed through my belly, hot and piercing. And under that, the soft current of slow, quiet shame. A creeping river below the raging fire in my chest. I stared up at him, a siren gazing at a human, and wondered when he’d gained the ability to seduce the seductress. When exactly had his skin and warmth become a weapon to use against my resolve, his body beckoning to mine in a way words never could.
Kye leaned away, his back proud and straight, a warrior poised for victory. As though he’d discovered a weakness in my walls.
Before I realized what I’d done, a jet of water hit him hard in the side of his face.
It knocked him sideways, sputtering as he waved the splash away, and I scurried to my feet. Loose spray peppered my face and hair, the strands sticking to my damp skin, curling around my shoulders.
On his knees, Kye glanced up at the sky, as though expecting to see rain clouds. Then to me, eyes wide as water dripped off his stubbled chin. He looked up again, then ran a hand roughlyover the side of his temple, pulling it away to inspect his shining palm.
I made to spring away—but his hand struck out, grabbing hold of my wrist. Water trickled slowly from the center of my palm, sliding off my fingertips. Water that had summoned itself, without a thought or word from me.
I’d used my Naiad powers in front of him before. But in most cases, I’d managed to hide them from his detection. I’d never hit him in thefacewith them.
He gestured mildly to my hand, heart rate increasing, a sudden acridity in the air. “What’s this,” he asked, though it didn’t sound like a question. His breath still stunted from our chase, eyes churning as he stared at the open palm of my hand.
“Nothing.” Heat waves from the moment before evaporated, leaving me stranded in the horrified shock of summoning water in front of him.
Kye inhaled through his nose hard enough the tendons sprang along his neck. Then he wrapped a hand around his temples, dragging his fingers to meet at the bridge of his nose. “Do it again.”
I shook my head, the motion jerky. The trickle in my hand grew, even as I closed my fingers into a fist, turning my arm in and pressing it against my body. I urged it to stop, my own heart wild in its cage. But it wouldn’t. And the more desperate I grew, the faster it came, the moist air feeding droplets into my palm like condensation to a glass.
Kye wiped his face again, eyes returning to my hand. Flexing my fingers, I flicked the water away, not that it did me any good. He stared, his thoughts as loud and clear as the trees shivering above.
Witch.
“It’s not what you think,” I said.
One hand still holding my wrist, Kye nodded. “What do I think?”
“That I’m something to fear,” I replied, forcing a swallow down my throat. Kye fixed me with a long look, the seconds dragging out between us as crickets sang in the autumn grass.
“ShouldI fear you, Leihani?” he murmured. I opened my mouth and closed it. Of all the questions he might have asked—how I’d managed to save Hadrian and kill Aleksei, to hold my breath and heal wounds within days, to seduce a man and steal his memory—I realized this was the one I’d been dreading. This was the one that sliced me open like flesh stripped from my body, leaving me bare and cold. The one that froze me solid, rooting my feet into the crisp autumn undergrowth. The one that tore at my aching heart.
I blinked back at the sudden heat prickling at my eyes. “Probably.”
