Page 84 of Sands of Atonement

“You almost killed one of my men.”

I was sure he could hear the beating of my heart. His face was not a hair's breadth away from mine.

“I’m pretty sure they killed my own guard outside my tent. We’re equal now.”

He hesitated before saying, “Is that what you think? That we’re equal?”

I began to press my hands against his rock-hard chest, but he pulled me closer. My body melded against his, warmth seeping into me. My body shivered. It was like he wanted me to fight just so that he could prove he was stronger than me.

And he was. Completely, thoroughly, and undeniably more powerful than me.

I hated that I might like it.

“You will never be my equal,” he growled and pressed his fingers into my skin. “I should punish you for what you’ve done.”

I pushed against his hold, but somehow every time I clawed and yanked his arms away from me, he kept getting closer to me.

I gave up, breathless.

“How could you say that when your men stole me from the safety of my brother and left me in a cage like I was some criminal? If you expect me not to fight, then you don’t know me at all.”

“The safety of your brother?” Ezra scoffed. “I saved you from him. This is what I get for that? Not even a thank you?”

His words sounded like disgust. Ezra was always disgusted with me. Always treated me like I was some annoying, young, brainless child.

I snapped. “Saved me? From my brother? You have really lost your mind. I need saving from you. Scratch that. I can save myself from you, just as I have saved myself from the darkest moments of my life. But you’re a bottomless ocean that sucks every living, beating heart into your dark traps just so that you can prove them weak against you. You feast on weakness, but I am not weak, Ezra. You have picked the wrong woman to break. You’re insufferable and arrogant, and you think you know everything, but you really don’t. You know nothing about Kavid.”

A moment passed.

And then another.

“Are you done?”

I clawed against the hand that trapped my jaw, my lips pursed.

“I. Hate. You.”

“Keep saying that. You’re really convincing me. And you don’t know your brother as well as you think you do.”

I let out a breathy laugh. “Get off me or kill me, Ezra. Stop being such a stupid, indecisive coward and pick one.”

“I don’t have to do either. In fact, I think I’ll keep you like this until it breaks you apart. I want you to feel confined. I want you to feel trapped. I want you to realize that there’s nothing that you can do or say that will take me from you. I am your fucking shadow now, Eshe, maybe you shouldn’t have come crawling from the mountains in Mongah.”

“You won’t break me.” My voice was barely a whisper.

Ezra leaned an inch closer, his nose brushing mine. My pulse quickened. A small gasp escaped my mouth.

“What did I say about your breathing, Eshe?”

My hands defied me, and the white robes that I had bunched in my fists were pulled closer.

“Do you want me to die?”

“If I wanted you to die, I would never have saved you all those years ago.” His voice turned quiet. I questioned whether I heard his words correctly.

But I did, and my mouth turned dry. “What do you mean?” I whispered against his breath.

Ezra slowly tilted his head, and my lips begged for a touch. I couldn’t think straight with his body crushing mine. I needed air, but I didn’t want it.