His eyes darkened, but he didn’t pull away from me. “There’s something here. Ifeltit. Last night. When you—”
I held up my hand. “I’m aware. But…that was your power, not mine.”
He shook his head. “No. It wasn’t.”
He reached out, his hand hovering just above my arm, not quitetouching but close enough that I could feel the heat radiating from his skin. “I felt it then, and I can feel it now. But it’s buried.”
The air between us thickened, charged with something unseen, and suddenly, the invisible thread that bound us seemed to tighten.
“There are different ways of awakening the energy in a Pair,” he murmured, his eyes intent on mine. “Spiritual, emotional…carnal.”
The air pulsed with energy, a charge so powerful it made my skin prickle, each beat syncing to the rhythm of Blake’s presence. “It worked before,” he said, gaze smoldering, eyes gleaming with a hunger that stole my breath. “It would be a more…pleasant way to test our bond.”
Magic flared between us. His metal magic hummed like a storm on the horizon. I could taste it, feel it, the way his magic pressed against somewhere deep within me, and howsomethingin me stirred in answer.
Blake moved toward me, deliberate and slow, a predator closing in on his prey. I raised my chin, defiant. He leaned in, close enough that I caught his faint scent of cedar and woodsmoke.
His hand closed around my wrist, sending a jolt through my body, before he slid up to press our Marked palms together. The burst of magic where there had been nothing moments earlier felt different, like that touch was enough to ignite it all over again.
Blake’s other hand lifted, brushing the hair from my face with a gentleness that made my breath hitch. Then he bent his head. His lips hovered a whisper above mine, so close that the slightest movement would have sealed us together.
My whole world narrowed to that single point between us.
I tilted my chin up without meaning to, desperate, aching for him to close the distance.
Blake’s mouth brushed mine, a featherlight almost-kiss thatmade my chest seize. His breath was hot when he whispered, low and savage, against my lips, “Do you want to try it this way, songbird?”
His words were like a tyger’s purr, and I shivered.
His foot dashed around my ankle, his body pushing mine so I toppled backward. We tumbled to the floor, his hand catching my fall, his body awakening mine. He nipped along my jaw, hands grasping mine and holding our intertwined hands over my head, stretching my body out beneath him.
I grew hotter then, so hot my skin felt like it was burning, before a flare of magic pulsed between us, Blake’s eyes grew molten as he flung himself back, his hands out to stop the sudden shattering of metal all around us, to stop it from hitting me.
His eyes met mine. I kept the tether between us tight. I could feel it as he pulled on my power again, his magic pulsing brighter as he made every piece falling from the shattered sculptures above shudder. I gasped as all of the parts reformed into one great, sharp sword, which floated down in front of him.
His magic—ourmagic—still blazed with power.
He smirked and said, “Now I know exactly how to get that magic from you.” He stood, plucking the blade from the air and holding it by the hilt, testing it. “But you’re going to need to get a better handle on it. I can’t fuck you in the middle of a battle, songbird.”
I rolled my eyes at his playful joke but couldn’t deny the underlying truth. I needed to figure out where my magic was kept within me and how to pull from it safely. Andfast.
44
It was the middle of training when it happened.
Jace and I were trying to figure out a way to secure the thundervein claws we’d made to Calla and Quinn so they could use them when they shifted against the demons. So far, it had been trial and error—mostly error.
Each dominion had offered up something—thundervein from the Silver Tyger, phoenix silk from the Red Phoenix that Auron was attempting to fashion into shields and barding for the tygers, and healing lifebark from Azure Dragon, which was rarer than ever now that its only source, the Soulbearing Tree, the Azure Anchor, had fallen.
Even the Onyxes contributed after the Diviner stepped in. Once it was clear they couldn’t coexist with the Reds otherwise, they removed the manacles from their women’s ankles. They reluctantly offered up shadowsteel—a rare metal of solidified darkness that fed on life. Like thundervein, it could defeatdemons. Una and an Azure were attempting to make different healing tonics and creams to store up before we’d be summoned.
Meanwhile, Blake, Vidor, Lian, and most of the others were trying different fighting styles against each other, comparing what information they had on demons and how to fight them.
Auron quietly disagreed with Blake, which irritated the Ambush Master.
The prince of the Reds either didn’t notice or didn’t care.
“It doesn’t really help that you lot fight like brutes,” Auron said, matter-of-factly. Blake’s face went cold, eyes trained on the fire siren.
