Page 49 of Redline Communion

“You still with us?”

“I’m standing right here.”

“That wasn’t what I asked.”

I hate that he sounds worried.

I hate more that some part of me likes it.

So I kiss him, because that answer is easier.

His surprise lasts exactly long enough for me to feel it before his hand comes up behind my neck and the kiss changes.

I know this mouth, which is the difference. I know the scrape of his jaw beneath my fingers and the sound he makes when he wants to pull me closer but is still trying to behave himself. I know how easily he can make me forget I’m supposed to be angry with him.

For a few seconds, the room gets smaller. Not gone, because nothing tonight gets to disappear completely, but small enough that Alistair’s voice becomes something happening farther away.

When Rafe pulls back, my breathing has gone uneven.

Cassian is still beside me, watching with whatever slipped through his control a minute ago still sitting too close to the surface.

Then he reaches for my hand and begins turning me toward him.

Something inside me locks.

“No.”

Cassian stops immediately.

Rafe goes still beside me, but the rest of the room takes longer to catch up. The witnesses finish the response they have already started before the silence reaches them one person at a time.

Cassian looks at me.

“Lorelei.”

“I said no.”

I’m not even sure what part I’m refusing until I look at Rafe.

Then I know.

“You.”

Rafe’s entire body stills.

Nobody told me I could choose.

That doesn’t mean I can’t.

“I want you first.”

The words come out clearer than they have any right to.

Alistair looks at me over the open Book of Ashes while I wait for him to tell me I misunderstood, for Cassian to explain why the ritual doesn’t work like that, or for somebody to remind me what Alistair said five minutes ago.

Tonight, she chooses no one.

Rafe’s hand returns to my waist without pulling me toward him.