I laughed, now enjoying the cool wind on my hot cheeks. “For the record, I’m glad you agreed to be my partner.”
Zach raised a skeptical eyebrow. “That’s a load of griffin dung.”
It was understandable that he didn’t believe me—I hardly believed it myself, since it was only a few days ago when I was screaming at him for tricking me.
I smiled and shook my head. “It’s true.”
“Okay, I buy that you may not hate me anymore. But I’m still not going to Kiss you, and that’s the whole reason you wanted me as a partner…so what changed?”
“I—” My voice caught, the giddy happiness I’d had rapidly transforming into bouncing nerves. I closed my eyes to make sure I couldn’t see him when I said, “You were right.”
“About what?” he asked, his voice close.
“You said…tell me I’m wrong. That I’d be better off with someone else. And you’re…you’re not wrong.”
Without warning, Zach’s hand wrapped around my ribcage, while his other slid under my hair and cradled the right side of my neck.
“You’re not making this easy.” His hot breath tickled my neck for a moment before his lips made contact with it.
I inhaled more slowly than a gasp with ten times more tension in my lungs. My eyelids fluttered as the muscles in my back contracted. He held on to me, moving his lips across my skin in deep, sensual kisses.
Somewhere, in the back of my mind, I thanked the Sisters that Zach didn’t seem to know that a Kiss could be placed anywhere, lips to skin, and the magic could still be triggered. But I didn’t dare try anything. For one, I wouldn’t have even been able to think of a spell, but more than anything else, he would’ve never kissed me like this again. And I…I wanted him to.
I brought a trembling hand to his shoulder and pressed my fingers into his strong muscles. His hand on my neck moved gently over my skin, the base of his palm coming to rest on my throat. His kisses moved up to the corner of my jaw, right below my ear.
I’d heard other girls describe the feelings of Lust before—that it felt like hot flames were licking your body. Or that Lustful kisses were like fiery scorch marks all over.
But I disagreed. Zach’s kisses didn’t burn me in a way that fire would. Instead it was like being out in the snow and practicing with your sword until your hands were numb, then placing them in a basin of warm water heated by coals. The moment your fingers touched the heated water, all you wanted was to plunge your entire frozen body in. You were desperate to feel the warmth spread to your body and shiver with the pleasure it brought.
As his lips passed over my throat and back to the edge of my jaw, a sound escaped me. I was desperate for more. My hands groped at the back of his shirt as he tilted my head upward, kissing at the base of my throat and moving toward my clavicle and farther down. His hand that rested on my shuddering lungs traveled down my hip and onto my thigh.
There was nothing that could keep me up now. I lowered myself down to my elbows and he followed, his lips now kissing my shoulder, fingers tugging down my sleeve to allow more bare skin for his kisses to travel over.
Without thinking, simply following the signals from my own body, I twisted under him. I didn’t even have to guide him—my hands simply brushed across his neck, and his face came up to meet my own. His breathing was low, labored, and hot against my lips.
My fingers curled into the fabric of his shirt.
I should’ve seen his reaction coming.
His eyes snapped open, as if finally waking up from a trance. With a groan, he rolled off me, smoothing back his hair. “Troll’s breath, Ivy.” He dragged one hand down his face and covered his mouth. “You’re more dangerous than the vipers.”
For a moment, I was dumbstruck and still basking in the glow of that warm, heavenly bath. Then I shook my head, clearing it. “I didn’t initiate…that. I just came up here to talk.”
To try to understand Love, I’d told myself. Had that just been a pathetic excuse?
“Ivy, don’t patronize me.” His gaze landed on my bare shoulder. “You know how I feel about you. You came up here and told me… What did you expect to happen?”
I couldn’t answer that, not when I wasn’t sure myself. “I should go to bed.”
He stared at me for a few weighty moments then turned his gaze back to the stone valley. “Yes, you probably should.”
I stood, wobbly, and climbed off the rock. I was halfway to the fire when I heard Zach unsheathe his sword.
The Swordsman Prince must’ve had better ears, or his brain was much clearer than mine, because he had already recognized the crumble of loose pebbles and the hiss of goblins’ tongues.
Chapter
Twenty-Eight
“Galleek Okk ak Yawk.”
I cursed myself over and over. This was why I had promised myself I wouldn’t surrender to Lust. Why I’d keep my focus on our mission. If I hadn’t been so distracted by…other feelings, I would’ve been able to sense them sooner.
But I didn’t have time to dwell on my mistakes. I ran to wake Millennia and Bromley.
“Attack!” I screamed, my voice echoing through the rock valley.
Goblins—three-foot-tall creatures with big heads and skinny limbs—climbed down the side of the cliff like spiders. From the look of it—close to thirty in all.
The moment my shout cut through the night air, the first two goblins leaped off the rocks toward Zach. He raised his sword and, with a flash of silver, sliced one down the middle, dust flying up and disappearing in the darkness. He pivoted just in time to slam his elbow into the side of the other goblin’s head. The creature went down, bouncing off the rocks.
Bromley jumped to his feet, awake and shaken. But, bless him, he had quick reflexes and tossed me my sword, then began loading his crossbow. Millennia, too, had woken quickly, neither bleary-eyed nor frightened. She was already running past the fire and into the battle.
Zach took on four at once. Swinging, dodging, and cutting, he tore through the goblins. The goblins drew back, snarling and muttering curses in goblin tongue under their breath. Unlike trolls and dwarves, goblins used only their claws and curses for weapons, making them difficult to dodge but easy to cut down.
“Don’t let them hit you with a curse!” I yelled, remembering Kellian’s comatose form lying in a bed in Myria. Another wave of the creatures jumped off the rocks. Zach had taken out five, but there were still at least twenty left.
Bromley swung up his loaded crossbow and fired arrows with pinpoint accuracy. He took down two, and with piercing shrieks, they fell to the rocky floor. I darted forward to finish off any that survived, swinging my sword into an upward cut on the first goblin. With an arrow sticking from its shoulder, it tried to twist away from my swing, but my strike was true. As my sword sliced open the tiny chest of the goblin and its shriveled gray skin crumbled into dust, I froze. Something was familiar about that goblin’s face.
Before I had time to consider it, sharp claws scratched my back from behind, and I yelled and twisted around, slashing down and killing my attacker. Pivoting to my right, I swung my sword in a great arc, lopping off another goblin’s skinny arm before it had time to cast a curse on Zach. The little beast screamed something in goblin tongue and struck me, its long nails managing to cut only the fabric of my tunic.
With the creature so close, I got a good glimpse of its twisted face, and my muscles locked in place, my breath freezing in my chest.
I knew this goblin.
Like all goblins, it was short, bald, with wrinkly gray skin, red eyes that blinked like a serpent’s, forked tongue, and long fingers and toes. But this one’s face was scarred.
And I knew by what. Because I’d seen it happen.
From its forehead, through its eye, and down to its jaw, there was a deep, long purple scratch that turned its eye a bright pink instead of the normal crimson. Through Minnow’s memories I had seen Kellian make that same scar.
Right before he’d killed it.