Page 85 of Serpent and Shadow

“You’re bleeding,” he said, soft as a breath.

“Whose fault is that?” I whispered.

I was crying, though. I guess I knew that, even before my vision blurred.

Before I could say anything else, he abruptly bent his head.

His mouth crashed into mine, and the contact shocked me so much, every thought in my mind scattered. All of it was gone, everything I might have asked him or wanted to tell him. His first kiss was almost rough, but it turned sensual in seconds, shocking me even more when he let out a low groan and pressed me into the stone.

His whole body leaned into mine, and I let out an involuntary gasp.

My fingers were clutching his hair then, pulling him into me as I pressed the length of my body up and into his. He reacted sharply, tightening his hold on me almost violently before his arm wrapped roughly around my back, forcing me against him even tighter.

It felt like drowning and finally getting air all in the same instant. I felt a starved quality on both of us, even as relief suffused me, erasing everything else.

I have no idea how long we were kissing like that.

I know we didn’t stop until another set of footsteps echoed on the stone, and I frantically murmured the cast to activate Alaric’s talisman again.

Bones vanished where I held him.

His whole body immediately tensed.

He hadn’t heard the new person approaching. He hadn’t noticed anything until I distracted him by disappearing in his arms.

I couldn’t help noticing other things, now that I wasn’t solely focused on his mouth and magic. Our positions had changed since he first kissed me. Bones had one hand wrapped tightly around my lower thigh, which he’d yanked up and around his waist. He leaned most of his weight on me still, and had his crotch pressed up against mine, the fingers of his other hand massaging the back of my neck.

He was hard enough I struggled not to focus on that, too.

I’d maneuvered a hand inside his shirt and I could feel his bare skin and his thudding heart as his chest breathed against my fingers. His lips gasped lightly against my neck.

I felt other things under his shirt, things that were hard to ignore.

More scars. More marks and swellings I didn’t recognize. I felt the gold in the center of his chest, the symbol of the vow he’d taken to Dark Cathedral. He also felt like he’d gained back some of the weight he’d lost, most of it in muscle. I’d noticed that when I’d seen him in that ritual haul with Blackstone, too. He’d looked bigger. Maybe bigger than I’d ever seen him.

He flinched and I swear I felt him look at me.

I had to fight not to kiss him again.

I felt him struggling with the same thing.

Neither of us could see the other, though. In some ways, that made it easier.

As the steps receded on the stone, my fingers tightened in his hair.

Come with me, I whispered in his mind. We need to go, Bones. Now. Phase both of us out of here. Help me do it, if you can’t.

I could already feel him shaking his head.

I felt it, even before his magic began to withdraw reluctantly from mine.

It’s impossible, he thought back, even quieter.

Why? I demanded. Why is it impossible?

When he didn’t answer, I rubbed his chest. After a few seconds, with my magic in his, my hand massaging his bare skin, I felt his whole body shudder.

I just can’t. Please, Leda––