Page 68 of Flames and Blood

“Serenity,” I murmur. The little wolf.

I think about that. A promise to a woman I knew through a wall, a heartbeat I counted on bad nights. It’s a good answer. It’s a true answer. I can hear that it’s true.

“That’s not why,” I say. “There’s more.”

The room stays quiet. He doesn’t answer. He doesn’t deny it either.

I fall asleep waiting, and he’s still in the chair when I go under, facing the door, watching over me when I didn’t ask him to.

Chapter 16

Crowe

She’s asleep across the room, and I’m still in the chair. I haven’t moved much since she went under. My legs have gone stiff from sitting still this long, but I don’t get up. Getting up means walking past the bed, and I’ve had enough tests of willpower for one night.

I had her hands in my hair. I had her mouth open under mine and her back arching into my hand, and I pulled away.

I still want her. That hasn’t stopped. I’ve been sitting in this chair all night, watching her breathe, and it hasn’t got easier by one degree.

There’s enough lamp left to see her by. She’s on her side with one hand under her cheek. Her hair has come loose and gone everywhere across the pillow in red waves. Her face is thinner than it ought to be. There’s a hollow under each cheekbone, and a fading mark along her jaw. Even asleep, her mouth is set like a woman holding a position.

I only notice I’ve been looking at her for an hour when the lamp gutters. I don’t regret it. I’d do the same thing again.

And another flash takes hold of me.

Her teeth against my throat, heat coming off her skin, and this time it comes with her scent on it; soap and flowers, and beneath it, her, exactly as she smells three feet away right now. It isn’t a stranger’s face anymore. It’s hers now, and that makes it worse. I sit through it with my jaw locked until it passes.

I get up before it can start again.

I go out and shut the door quietly behind me.

Kent’s in the kitchen with his bag already packed, sitting on the counter with his boots off.

“Faine called,” he says. “We’re expected. Properly this time.”

“When?”

“An hour ago. You were busy.” He doesn’t ask what with, and I don’t offer. “She wants us back. Court business, whatever that means this week. She said it in the voice.”

“The voice.”

“You know the voice.”

I know the voice.

“You did good work,” I tell him. “Both of you.”

“I got to meet a dragon.” He grins, and I can see there are going to be stories he tells about this month that will get bigger with every telling. He hops off the counter and shoulders the bag. “Take care of her, Crowe.”

“I intend to.”

“I know you do. Take care of yourself while you’re at it.”

Meyer’s at the door already, bag over one shoulder, watching the road.

“Faine’s men will be shortly,” he says. “We’ll meet them at the crossroads.”

“Understood.”