Page 102

She needed it off. Now.

Pushing down the bile rising in her throat, she dashed across the bathroom and pulled the metal cord that sent hot water careening to the smooth stone beneath in a heavy shower, tearing off her bloodied jacket as though it was on fire, and had just begun to unbutton her trousers when icy fingers wrapped around her bare arm.

“What are you doing?”

Soraya turned her face away, not wanting him to see her this shaken. She would not break apart. Not while he was here.

She shook him off and reached for the zip against her ribs to remove her vest instead. “Leave me alone.”

He did not. When she started to pull the zip, he grabbed her wrist, halting her movements. “What’s the matter with you?”

“Let me go!” She tried to pry his fingers away, but his grip was too tight.

“Would you stop trying to take your clothes off for a moment and talk to me?”

“Or what?” she snapped, smacking his arms away. Rage was a poisonous cloud in her blood, choking out any rational thought. “What are you going to do? Hmm? You can’t kill me no matter how much you’d like to because your master needs me too much. I have all the answers he needs to win this war inside this tiny human brain of mine—and he can’t have me taken out of commission just yet. Not when he’s so close to winning.”

Thick steam from the shower rolled through the small room, swallowing everything until it was just the two of them standing there, face-to-face, barely a few inches between them.

Eyes locked onto his, Soraya toed off one boot, then the other, relishing in the steely ire on his face. She saw it, then, the moment he realized she had no intention of waiting for him to leave before she stripped off these blood-covered clothes.

And then there it was again, that crackle in the little space between them. She’d felt it before, when they’d been trapped in the cave together.

Ikarus’s stare grew molten. His nostrils flared, and his jaw was clenched so tight Soraya was surprised she didn’t hear the sound of marble cracking.

But he wasn’t stopping her anymore.

So she carried on.

“You’ve taken me away from my home,” she said, watching every tic and ripple of his jaw as she slowly pulled the zipper of her top down her ribs. It was hard to tell through the cascade of running water behind her, but Soraya swore she heard his breath hitch—only slightly—when the fabric at her sides sprang apart.

“You’ve been searching my memories for weeks now. You’ve watched me grow up.” She pulled one arm free, pressing her hand against the fabric covering her chest, and worked her other arm out. “Watched me scream and cry, and the first time I killed. You’ve gone through years of my life like flipping through pages of a book. I’d say that’s a thousand times more intimate than seeing me naked, wouldn’t you?”

She let go of her vest.

The air between them hummed, and grew so heavy she could feel it pressing down on her shoulders like a pair of hands.

Ikarus’s eyes were glued to her face, unwavering. His jaw twitched, but … Yes, right there, something burned. Something flicked around his irises like hairline fractures on an icy lake. Something alive.

And Soraya liked it. Liked the hum that now zipped through the air between them like a charge of Light. Liked the way his nostrils flared as she started once again unbuttoning her trousers, uninterrupted this time. She didn’t even mind the cold air nipping at her exposed breasts, no doubt pinching them into peaks.

From the moment he’d captured her, Ikarus had always been in control. In comparison to the state of the world her nudity was a silly thing, but in here—oh, in this room, in this moment, with her fingers hooked around the waistband of her trousers and underwear, it felt like the center of everything. Shifted the power balance between them just that little bit—just enough for Ikarus’s throat to bob, and burning suns if it didn’t make her feel powerful.

There was a voice somewhere deep, deep in the back of her mind that was screaming bad idea. That this was possibly one of the worst ideas she’d ever had and she was absolutely going to regret this when the adrenaline of tonight’s events eventually wore off. She couldn’t quite hear that voice right now though.

Holding his gaze, she slowly bowed forward and peeled the rest of her clothes down her legs.

Ikarus’s entire body stilled. He ground his teeth together, the muscles in his neck straining—but he didn’t look down. His eyes were locked on hers, and for some reason, some bizarre fucking reason that she didn’t have room in her mind right now to contemplate, Soraya found herself pinned to the spot.

She was getting to him. Good. Now let’s see if she could make him squirm.

“You’ve taken everything else from me, Ikarus,” she whispered. It was the first time she’d said his name—and the way he clenched his jaw ignited a fire in her belly. “After everything you’ve done, do you really think it matters if you see me without my clothes on?”

She took a step closer, putting her naked body fully in his line of sight. “Go on. Take a look.”

Ikarus rolled his tongue on the inside of his cheek, but his eyes didn’t move.

“What’s stopping you?” Soraya went on, determined to make him cave, to win—just this once. “I dare you.”