Page 80 of Under the Iron Sky

What a stupid question. Curling his fingers around a small protruding piece of rock by her hip, he started to haul himself up—and got about three inches off the ground before his chest felt like it was cracking open and he dropped back to the stone with a hiss. “No.”

The human ran her tongue across the inside of her cheek. “And I suppose me helping you up is out of the question?”

“Absolutely. The less you touch me, the better.”

She went quiet for a moment, thinking. “All right,” she eventually said. “That really only leaves us with one option, then.”

“Oh yes,” he replied, wincing through gritted teeth as another pain sliced through his chest, “please, keep me in suspense. We have all the time in the world right now.”

The wrath on her face could’ve rivaled the Ancient One on a bad day. Sighing, she stepped over him, a boot on either side of his hips. “Don’t read too much into this.”

And he didn’t get time to question what she was doing before she bent her knees and sank down onto his lap.

25

Breathe deep, and all will be well.

No, Ikarus thought wryly. All would not be well. Not when he hardly had a wisp of magic left, he was trapped in a bloody cave with no way out, and the human was sitting in his lap, swallowing up all the oxygen in the tight space between them.

“Do you have to be this close? You’re practically straddling me.”

She wasn’t. She was hovering around his knees, as far away from his crotch as her arms would allow, but it’d take no more than a light breeze to send her tumbling into his lap.

A fact she seemed to be painfully aware of too, given the displeased crease at the top of her nose. “If you can think of anywhere else I can go, please, be my guest.”

A few feet to the left would be preferable, down to the bottom of that very black crater. But that didn’t really feel like the wisest thing to say while she was holding a pair of sharp tweezers next to his face that she seemed inclined to run through his skull, or when she had a gun strapped to her thigh—a warm, muscled thigh that was now sitting atop his own.

Ikarus bit the inside of his cheek, suppressing a groan. Why couldn’t they have landed on that alcove on the other side of the drop? There was so much more room over there. He thought about just trying to phase them over, consequences be damned, but another wave of toe-curling agony promptly put him in his place. There would be none of that until this last shard of metal had been removed.

There was no room down here. To think. To breathe. To escape her. Her scent burned his nose each time he inhaled, sweet and citrusy, and so strong he could scarcely smell the vapor’s sulfuric burn.

“You’re a big boy,” she said flatly, seemingly not nearly as bothered by all this as he was. “I’m sure you’ll survive.” She sprayed a good amount of clear liquid from a bottle onto the tweezers, then met his eyes and tilted the bottle toward his chest, asking permission. Oh, wasn’t that kind of her.

“What is it?”

“An antiseptic to kill any bacteria so you don’t get an infection.”

He wanted to nod. They’d just had the discussion of how her life was linked to his own. He knew that pure survival instinct would keep her from actually killing him, but she was still a human. And she did seem to have a proclivity for inflicting pain.

Apparently his poker face wasn’t what it usually was. Her eyes flitted between both of his, seeming to read the words there. She loosened a long sigh.

Holding the tweezers and bottle in one hand, she unzipped her leather jacket, goosebumps rippling across her bare chest, and he watched with confusion as she pulled her top down an inch and sprayed her exposed chest and neck.

“See?” she said after a long moment. “No burns. No welts. Just antiseptic. Are you going to stop being a baby now?”

Well, that was one way to shut him up. Feeling well and truly foolish, he gave a reluctant nod. A cool, stinging sensation attacked the injury, bitter chemicals burning his nose.

“You ready?” she asked.

“Almost.” His hand shot out to wrap around her neck. She gasped, and genuine fear shone in her eyes for the briefest second when he pulled her in close, her skin near scorching beneath his touch.

“You try anything to cause unnecessary damage,” he seethed, his voice pure gravel, “and I will snap this pretty neck of yours. Do you understand?”

She swallowed, her eyes briefly flicking down to his hand, then her gun, before returning to his. She stared at him. Seemed to weigh some scales in her mind, then gave a curt nod. “That’s fair. Can’t say I wouldn’t do the same if the roles were reversed.”

His grip still firm on her neck, he shifted his elbow slightly to give her more room to work.

And the sadistic bitch wasted no time diving in.