Page 84 of The Ember and the Emerald

No time to react to her loss. Jasher strode into the hut without warning, already scowling. He’d bathed, his hair damp and his clothes clean. The breaks in his wings had healed. In fact, he looked more powerful than ever, despite his partial shift.

The sight of him acted as both acid and soothing balm to the array of wounds within me.

He stopped and extended his hand in my direction. “Swallow this.”

Argh! Compulsion kicked in, and my hand shot out, claiming the item, whatever it was. I popped it in my mouth before I could steal a glance at it, guzzling it down before my brain caught up to my actions.

Oooh. A serpens-rosa, I realized seconds later. The miracle cure-all for physical ailments.

“I hid it here as a boy,” he said.

My veins fizzed, unleashing a tide of warmth and strength. Muscle and skin knitted back together, and the newly formed scabs dissolved. An exhale of relief seeped from my lips as the pain faded. So much better.

And yet… “You use your shell to make serpens-rosa.” That shell had first housed the Ember. Life itself.

“Yes. What remains of it, anyway.” Jasher notched his chin. “You may hate that, but I won’t apologize for helping you.”

Hadn’t I once said the same to him? “I’m grateful for your kindness.” I stretched with the languid elegance of water finding its level. Like I’d accepted my new nature and decided to wear it as a crown.

Towering over me, Jasher stared, hard, not attempting to avoid eye contact but willingly getting trapped by it. A bolt of heat zinged me as we continued to stare, bringing a whisper of far more power.

This man might be infected with darkness, but he had light in him, too.

“What do you intend to do with me?” I asked, a plan forming. I hadn’t changed my mind. Ring of Truth, here I come, ready or not. Maybe, in the flames, I would learn how to “unleash” the Ember.

Would Jasher agree?

Oh yes. He would. Confidence fogged my head. Do not smile. But I did smile, gliding a single step closer. He was about to give me exactly what I wanted.

My Tinman opened and closed his claw-tipped fists. A sign of internal struggle, even as his expression remained cold as ice. “Once upon a time, you paid for room and board with answers and truth. Do you remember?”

“I do.” I licked my lips and stepped even closer, thrilling when he swallowed. “I’ll never forget.”

“Today, I offer you freedom for answers.”

I slid the rest of the way, brushing against him. “What if I tell you nothing but lies? How can you ever trust me?”

His pupils eclipsed the sun. “What do you propose?”

“Take me to the Ring of Truth. We’ll go in together, and I’ll answer anything you ask.”

Now to go in for the kill.

“Finally, you’ll know.” I lowered my volume and added an extra scoop of softness. “About me. About you. If you are man or monster. If I’m everything you hope, or what you should fear.”

Heaven help me, I heard Elowen and Iris spilling from my mouth. The same persuasive temptation and enigmatic pauses that promised more than I could deliver. But I didn’t pull back. Let this reach its perfect end. “If we both tell the truth, we’ll both emerge.” I set my palms on his shoulders, just as I’d done before his beastly transformation.

Restrained violence rippled over his muscles. “You seek an escort to the palace.”

No reason to deny it. “I promise you, Tinman. You want to go as much as I do. We have history neither of us have remembered. Yet.” Heart thudding, I obliterated what remained of his personal space. “When you were metal, I fed you a potion. Do you know why I told my mother to include a heartfire coal taken from the royal hearth three days after an eclipse?”

He studied me, then relented. “It is said to reawaken what is dead.”

“And the mercurial vein extracted from the roots of a moon-kissed willow?” I toyed with the ends of his hair, loving it when the jet strands slid through my fingers.

He leaned into the touch. “Removes impurities from a man’s heart, melting it down like armor.”

A slow smile curved my lips. “And the eldermarrow?”