“Good,” she said. Her voice came out as a hoarse, cracked whisper, barely getting the words out. The muscles in her neck worked like she was choking on unspoken words.
He opened his mouth to ask her what was wrong, but she cut him off with her lips pressed to his. Her tongue swept into his mouth, so passionate, so desperate. She kissed him with reckless abandon, like she’d never have the pleasure of tasting him again.
Dominic pulled her closer, kissed her harder with a burning desire that could devour him whole. His hand found her hip and pressed her body to his, needing to feel every inch of her. With his other hand in her hair, he angled her head slightly upward, giving himself more access as his tongue explored her mouth.
He stepped forward, slowly guiding her backward until her spine was against a tree. She moaned softly as he pressed himself against her. That sound was his undoing, letting his lips wander over her skin, across her jaw, down her neck to her collarbone.
“Dom,” she gasped, hand threading through his hair as she tilted his head up, pulling him closer to kiss him again.
He responded with a ravenous desire he’d been suppressing all this time. Her body against his and her soft lips as she kissed him was all he wanted.
Adarawas all he wanted.
He didn’t think about anything but the passion flowing between them as his hands roamed over her, and he pressed his lips to her with feverish longing.
She stopped him with a hand on his chest.
Slowly, breathlessly, she dragged her lips away from his. As if she, too, didn’t want this to end. Another tear streamed down her face, steam rising in its path.
“Then burn,” she breathed, breath hot against his lips still inches from hers.
Her eyes glowed with an emotion he couldn’t place.
Pain, scorching and electrifying like lightning, arced through his chest. Something cold and sharp twisted inside him. Warm liquid coated his tunic. A low groan escaped Dominic’s lips,growing into an agonized scream as fire ignited along the blade embedded in his chest. His eyes bulged, throat aching from the scream that ripped through him as Adara twisted the flaming dagger deeper inside him before yanking it free. Scarlet sprayed on her as Dominic fell to his knees. Blood bubbled from his lips. Gasping for breath through the torture ringing through his body, he covered the gushing wound with a hand, the other braced on the dirt to hold him up.
“That’s for Cal,” Adara spat, wiping her blood-covered dagger on her pant leg and sheathing it in her vambrace.
“Adara,” he breathed, words barely leaving him. His vision was edged with black, but he could see the wrath clearly etched on her face. Her eyes blazed with fury. “Please,” he said. He kneeled on the ground in a pool of his own blood, magic fighting to mend the wound.
She turned to leave.
“Adara, wait!” he shouted, attempting to crawl after her. Every word, every movement, agony racked his body. He collapsed, landing in the bloodied grass with a wince. It felt like he was onfire, but the icy magic in his veins had repelled her powers.
She paused at his command, though her back remained to him.
“It was you,” he breathed. “You were the reason I ripped out my own heart and erased my memories.” Salt coated his tongue along with copper, tears mixing with blood. He didn’t know what he should feel more ashamed of—lying to Adara or his cries and pleading for her to stay. “I lost you.” His voice broke. “I couldn’t take the pain of losing you.” His heart broke. “Ican’ttake the pain of losing you.” For it was her betrayal that pained him more than the knife she’d stuck in his chest. That he’d laid himself bare and admitted he was afraid she’d hurt him.
He was so stupid, so foolish. His words were practically an invitation, and she’d gladly accepted.
But he was more terrified of the pain her absence would bring. Of once again feeling the anguish that had him ridding himself of his heart and mind. “Please, don’t leave me,” he said. Tears flowed freely down his face. Pain lanced through his chest. A deep, throbbing ache that came with the sorrow of a broken heart. One that he already lost. He couldn’t lose her, too.
“I can’t lose you again,” he pleaded weakly.
Her back stiffened. Finally, she turned to face him. Nothing but pure hatred shone in her eyes. She strode toward him, determined, unyielding. Dominic strained to push himself up, angling his head to peer up at her as she loomed over him. Every muscle in his body protested, threatening to bring him crashing back to the ground.
Adara glowered down at him, flames rippling at her fingertips. Crouching before him, she lifted his head with a burning finger. His skin blistered beneath her touch, but he didn’t dare pull away.
“You lost me long before today,” she snarled in his face. “I only just now realized it.”
She let his head drop, the motion so forceful that his body followed. He landed in a heap on the ground. “Adara, please . . . ” He coughed, blood spurting from his mouth. “I can explain.”
“Too late, Dominic,” she said. He’d never heard her voice so cruel, so cold. “Or should I sayAlecsander?” she spat. Adara pulled something from a hidden pocket in her black vest. He blinked through his blurred vision until he saw an old parchment, yellowed and wrinkled with time and dust, clutched between her fingertips. “Your letter already explained it for you.”
His brows furrowed in confusion. What letter? Worried he might someday need his memories back, Dominic must have written everything down and hidden a letter before drinking the elixir, wiping away his memories of the past and where he’d stashed it.
Another wave of pain shot through him, nausea roiling inside him.
“After all the lies you’ve told, your words mean nothing to me.Youare nothing to me,” she hissed.
