Page 47 of Wolf of Ashes
His hand slides up to my chest, his palm pressing at the location of my heart while his fingers extend across my shoulder.
His touch reminds me of what I’ve already sacrificed in pursuit of the revenge I seek.
The love in my heart. A beating organ with feelings that only ever caused me pain.
His features smooth out, becoming blank, and somehow, he’s fucking scarier this way. “I promised you revenge and I promised you would live to have it,” he says as the shadows grow around us and, in the distance, another streak of lightning cuts across the night sky. “But beyond that, I am not yours to command.”
I draw a sharp breath, but if I push through the mire inside my mind, there’s a message I believe he’s trying to give me that I probably should have understood already:
He is not mine to cage, no matter what he promised me.
And yet…
He is destined to walk this path to revenge with me.
As I plunder the depths of his eyes, I’m reminded that I made a dangerous deal.
His fate may be bound to mine, but by giving him my heart, I have bound myself to him.
I dare to close the gap between us and whisper against his lips. “I know what I want you to call me.”
Heat flares in his eyes, but the only move he makes is to capture my hand and press it to his chest. “You don’t have to tell me. I already know because it’s in your heart.”
I exhale quietly, accepting how vulnerable my feelings are to him.
Another streak of lightning crashes across the sky, this one flickering right above us, licking the darkness like a snake’s tongue as the keeper says, “I will call you ‘Veda.’”
I can’t stop my smile—a smile that must betray my approval of the name he’s given me. “As you like.”
Dark energy flashes across the air above us and the keeper’s gaze passes across my face, once again focusing briefly on my lips before he pulls back even further.
“I like,” he says.
He settles back onto the blanket and I allow my head to rest on his shoulder.
Above me, the palm tree branches partially obscure the night sky, but its beauty is even more alluring now that I can only catch brief glimpses of it through the branches.
I speak carefully. “Thank you for showing me the night sky. I’m grateful to have a name and to try burgers for the first time. It’s nice to have hair that isn’t clumped anymore.”
His voice rumbles at my ear. “But?”
“But tomorrow, my only plan of attack is to bust down the doors of one of the empire’s strongholds and announce my claim. They’ll kill me on the spot. And if they don’t succeed right then, they won’t stop until I’m dead.”
The keeper’s arms tighten across my back before his right hand rises to my face, tipping my chin so that he can see my eyes.
There’s a fresh glow across his face as another streak of lightning bursts through the air above us.
“What if you don’t go as yourself?” he asks.
I stare back at him. “What are you talking about?”
“What if you don’t return to New York as yourself?” Sapphire-blue energy crackles around his fingertips, licking dangerously at my skin. “Just like the panthers, I can give you any appearance you like.”
The crackling energy grows as he sweeps a few strands of my straightened hair forward and allows them to rest across his palm.
“Red hair, brown hair, blonde if you like.” His focus switches to my face. Releasing my hair so that it falls across my chin and chest, he traces the edge of my jaw. “Blue eyes, green eyes, brown eyes…”
As his focus lowers to my lips, his fingertips pause at the edge of my mouth. “But, even if you ask me to, I won’t change your lips.”
