Page 6 of Labyrinthine
“Your father doesn’t need you to control Larksbind,” he murmurs. “And you won’t be marrying anyone who isn’t worthy.”
I pull back, just enough to see his face. I’m confused. He’s always respected the tributes, more than anyone in the palace. Yet here he is, dismissing them with uncharacteristic ease. He even narrows his eyes as he looks down at me and his lips part, his mouth curving down like he’s trying to swallow the words he knows he shouldn’t say.
“If the Reaping doesn’t kill them, I will,” he says. “I won’t let you be forced into an arrangement you despise.”
Relief washes through me. The emotion doesn’t make sense because Mallen has always kept me safe, but it steadies the heat rising through me. Or maybe it makes it worse. And now he’s brushing another loose strand of hair from my cheek and tucking it behind my ear with an unexpectedly gentle touch.
“Will you stop it?” I ask softly. “For me?”
His gaze meets mine, and there’s something in his eyes I’ve never seen before. It’s too potent to ignore, but I don’t know how to name it. It isn’t disappointment. It isn’t envy or anger. And it isn’t hunger. It’s more resolute. Fiercer. Like Mallen’s just been handed the reason he’s been searching for.
Waiting for.
Like he’s falling apart and holding on and he doesn’t know which will prevail.
“That depends,” he says, his voice low and sure, without threat. “On what it is that you choose to do next.”
CHAPTER TWO
He lowers his head,and for a moment, I can’t read him. My breath burns, caught in my chest.
There’s a quiet fierceness in the way he looks at me—unflinching, unguarded. I don’t understand it. I don’t know what he’s asking. After all these years, I should. But my thoughts have scattered like leaves in a storm, and my heart beats so loudly I swear he must hear it. My pulse flurries fast enough that my body turns light and all I can think about is how breathless I am.
I press my lips together?—
And then he kisses me.
It’s not sweet. Not slow. One hand anchors me while the other cradles the back of my head as Mallen grips my hair as though their strands might slip through his fingers. His mouth moves over mine and I’m startled. It’s everything, but I don’t know what I’m doing. Gods, I don’t even know how to breathe.
My lips part out of instinct, not certainty, and I mimic him—clumsy, breathless, burning.
This isn’t how I imagined my first kiss.
I imagined warmth. Certainty. A sense of readiness. Too many times I’d half-dreamed it would be Mallen, but now I’m swept away in him. By him. I’ve stepped off the edge of a sheer cliff face and I haven’t figured out if I’m falling or flying.
His teeth graze my bottom lip and I flinch. His tongue brushes mine and I taste him—smoke and winter spice and something I can’t name. Something older. Something born before fire had a name. He is too much. Too close. And I can’t keep up.
He pulls back slowly, like he’s loath to end it. His forehead rests against mine and for too many racing heartbeats, neither of us moves. I don’t want him to move.
I am shaking. Not from fear. Not from cold.
His voice is soft as he whispers, “Azhara. Have me instead.”
My mouth falls open. My arms and legs seem heavy, barely responding. The world sounds muffled. His words don’t make sense at first. They ring like a bell that hasn’t finished echoing.
My breath catches. Mallen—protector, shadow, constant. He’s never touched me like this before, never hinted.
“I…” My words tangle.
I didn’t see this coming.
Not from him. Not like this. Not now.
He tenses, bracing. My hesitation is a storm he’s already preparing for.
Mallen’s expression falters. “I’ve wanted you for years,” he says. “I’ve stood at your side, kept guard when you slept, and learned the shape of your silences and the weight of your courage. You’ve never been a duty. Just a choice I made a thousand times over. But if this isn’t what you want—say so.”
His arms don’t tighten, but they hold firm while his gaze rakes over me like he’s searching for a sign. For some proof I won’t vanish. I’m not sure I’m built for this kind of tenderness, and one more breath from him might scatter me like dust. I’ve stepped into a moment too delicate to survive, and Mallen just stares at me, like he’s waiting for just one word from me and he’ll give me the world and all the stars.
