Page 20 of Cursed By the Dawn

“I can’t believe I went so long without touching you like this,” he groaned into my mouth.

“I’d prefer to not wait that long again, if it’s all the same to you,” I shot back.

By appearances alone, our touches would seem chaste.

Unhurried kisses, hands touching only hair and shoulders. No teeth. No tongue.

So why did it feel soferal?

“Are we so certain we even need the Weavers’ help?” Erebus murmured against my lips, hesitating. “We could find our own way.Withoutthem.”

“When you showed us that memory—” I swallowed hard, unable to finish the sentence. His memory was more than a memory—it was as though I’d lived out that moment, too. I had felt his blood slide down his face as if it were mine, staining the stone. His left arm snapping, crushed and useless. His spirit splintering, then blazing in indignation. “I know your wounds run deep, as does your rage. But we can’t let our desires blind us to what’s needed to save the world.”

“Maybe I no longer care about the entire world,” Erebus admitted quietly, cradling my chin with his thumb. His sharp fingers followed, wrapping along my jaw. One press and they’d draw blood. “Fate has been cruel to me.”

I placed my hand atop his, fingers firm around his knuckles. Anything to bring him back to me. To remind him he wasn’t alone. “It has been cruel to me, too.”

His grip slackened, turning into a caress. “It has,” he agreed.

“But even though fate was cruel to me, it gave me parents who loved me. A sister who was my best friend. A brother who admired me—despite my flaws—with all his heart.” I paused, reflecting on the man in front of me, enraptured by my every word.Say it, Esmer.“And it gave me you,” I said, leaning into his hand. “There is still beauty in our world, Erebus. And it’s our duty to protect what’s left.”

The shadows in his eyes stilled. “If you want the world to be saved, then I will hold its broken pieces together,” he said seriously. “And if the world crumbles around us, even after that, I will remain. To the end and ever after.”

“To the end and ever after, then,” I whispered back.

He brushed away a strand of my hair with a touch gentler than I thought him capable of.

“You carry so much loss, and yet you offer your light like a gift. Even in your sorrow, you glow. You speak of beauty as if it exists beyond you. But it’s in you, Esmer. It always has been.”

“When I said there’s beauty in your life, I meant more than just me,” I sputtered, shaking my head. Our shadows tangled, threading around our arms and pushing us closer.

He smiled. “I know.”

And then he lowered his mouth to mine again, shadows blanketing us. They recalled the curtain of darkness he’d summoned all those nights ago, cocooning us from the sounds of his castle breaking apart. I angled my face to better meet his, making a soft, helpless sound when he deepened the kiss.

“Erebus—”

“Not now,” he admonished. “Let the world wait.”

Everything about this felt intoxicating and right. The swirl of his tongue as it slid against mine, possessive and searing. The press of his fingers as they gripped my neck, my shoulders, my waist—firm but never painful. The euphoria that sifted through my bones when his fevered touches reminded me that he desired me as much as I desired him.

But I could tell he was holding back.

There were too many layers between us, droves of satin, feathers, and metal. Sharp gauntlets, obsidian crowns, and armored chests. Thick capes. Pointed boots. Too many hard lines and odd edges. We were meticulously crafted to look like the Shadow Weavers we were, and it was positivelydistracting.

Dmm.

Dmm.

Dmm.

A violent quake sent us reeling; it was far more powerful than Somnus’s solitary knock.

Dmm.

Dmm.

Dmm.