Page 194 of City of Snakes
He deepened the kiss, sliding his tongue across my lower lip, as though he too was drinking in the moment. Humming with relief, I grasped the back of his neck, feeling him, anchoring to him.
When he broke for air, my cheeks tingled from the rub of his stubble. He commanded, “Never do that again.”
“Kiss you?” I retorted.
He let a half-hearted growl build in his throat. “No, risk your life. I won’t have it.”
I spun the wooden ring on my left hand, and answered, “That is not a promise I can make. You fight, I fight.”
He grunted in response, and I claimed his mouth once more.
He broke to say, “You’ll never let me win one, will you?” For once, he didn’t seem annoyed about it.
My heart swelled. I’d happily fightwithandforhim until death parted us. I couldn’t imagine living what remained of my life any other way.
“I may forever be unwilling to give you the higher ground, but I’d be happy to face a hundred more battles so long as at the end you are by my side.”
His lips turned up. “I love you. More than I ever thought myself capable of loving again.”
Letting my hand rise to meet his cheek, I offered him a weak smirk. “I know.”
Krait tried to tell me I was too injured to go down to the dining hall.
He knew better. I glared at him in a way that made him let out a deflated sigh.
Wyeth had done great work stitching my head and then had used Source power to heal as many of my injuries as she could. To avoid scarring, she’d recommended not healing everything all the way and letting my wounds scab over.
She’d cast a charm to speed the healing of my broken arm. Sources, the bone rapidly growing back together hurt.
I dressed in my new favorite cream-colored linen dress and woven-leather mules. Krait wore an equally light tunic and breeches. Though he washeavilyarmed with his broadsword strapped across his back, two daggers poking out from each of his boots and another dagger holstered on his belt.
He still seemed tense despite there not being an immediate threat.Krait sported dark circles below his eyes, and the wrinkle had returned to his brow line.
Asterie was the first person we came across in the halls—Vangard trailed at her heel, panting. Her eyes lit up when they landed on us. She smiled. “You’re awake, Sybilla.”
“I am—if you can call thisawake.” I reached out and scratched Van between his curved horns. He kicked up one back leg. “Where is everyone?”
“Most are gathering for tea.”
“Who is most?”
“Well, all but Elsie. She sent a note down that she would not be joining us for breakfast. And Emmerick told us that Firose was not found after the fall of the amphitheater. She is presumed dead. I cannot pretend that I am not glad we do not need to face her.”
There was a pang of sadness in Asterie’s voice as she spoke of her former mentor. I could feel that she longed for closure, but she knew a reunion between Firose and Fenris outside of the chaos of that arena would have been catastrophic.
My thoughts exactly—hence why we hadn’t originally told them she had lived.
“Never presume,” I warned. “We’ve done that once before with her. The woman is like a roach—she just never seems to die.” Callous as it sounded, I still couldn’t separate the good and bad in the Fire-wielding enchantress. The damage she’d inflicted had scarred the realms too deeply.
“You spoke with Em? He’s well?” I asked her and noticed Krait’s grasp on my hand tightened.
Asterie’s face fell, and she looked uncomfortable.
“He hasn’t told her.”Asterie was still shit at warding her thoughts.
My head snapped toward Krait. I spat out, “What haven’t you told me?”
“We havetemporarilyplaced him back in the holding cell for monitoring,”Krait answered. I pulled my hand out of his, ready to huff a response but he spoke again. “Sybilla, he was one of Caym’s envoys. Destroying the Death Origin’s true form may not have cut those ties. Caym has acted without a body before.”
