Like she wanted him to drink her in until he drowned.
He could stay here for the rest of his life. He would happily be her prisoner, the way she had his heart wrapped up in chains.
But then he dipped her, and the song shifted, and in a flashing moment of silence, he saw Kinlear across the dance floor.
That gaze...a mirror to his own. A sobering reminder of the truth.
She wasnothis.
And she never would be.
He lowered her into a dip, holding her closely, desperate not to let this moment fade.
And then she was speaking to him again. “What will youdo tonight, Firemage?”
He melted when she called him that.
“I...” He swallowed. He shouldn’t say it. But the winterwine had made him brave like he once was. So, he did. “I will stay up later than I should.” He lifted her, spinning her in his arms as the music changed. “Most likely, I’ll send every lackluster thought I have towards you until I bore you to sleep, and the speaking stone goes cold.”
Dangerous words.
They were theadmittingkind.
She placed her hand on his chest, over his swiftly beating heart. His pulse hammered against her palm, and this was his chance, this was his opening, for shewantedhim. He could feel it, suddenly. He could sense it in the way her own pulse was hammering, too, in how her gaze dropped to his lips.
She wanted him...right now.
He could kiss her.
He could let her claim him, let her taste him, let her show everyone in this godsdamned room that Arawn Laroux would happily bend a knee to her and worship her lips, her body, her?—
Forbidden.
The word slammed into his skulllike a warning.
This will end in nothing but pain.
Nothing but death.
“How is Six treating you?” He blurted, because his eyes were betraying him, too.
They were roving all across her skin, tasting her when his lips could not, and that hunger rose within him again, and it wouldnotbe sated with just one kiss.
He knew if he took the plunge...he wouldn’t be strong enough to stop it.
No, Ezer would claim him for an eternity if he dared take one more step.
So, he didn’t.
And it pained him more than any blade, any betrayal, ever could.
18
The sky was dark. The war had begun anew.
And Arawn pushed his horse faster, hooves thundering against the snow as he followed Six through the woods.
Ezer had called him. She’d called him through the stone, and then he’d seen Six approaching the edge of the woods, riderless, after Ezer and Kinlear had taken her out.
