Déjà vu rushes over me, because twenty feet away, Auren stands with a wave risen behind her like a gilded crest. Her chest heaves with rapid breaths, her dripping hands curling into fists at her side while her eyes glow with narrowed attention.
“Auren.”
I try to take a tentative step forward, but a snarl rips from her throat. My eyes rake over every inch of her, assessing. When I take a step, she thrusts out her hand, sending a rope of gluey gold shooting out at me like a whip. But it doesn’t make contact. Instead, it was merely a warning.
My lips tip up into a smirk, while her eyes taper in suspicion.
Oh, Goldfinch, I see you.
“So, you’ve finally woken up,” I say casually, barely glancing at the whip of gold hovering mid-air, like it’s ready to strike at any moment. “Not a morning person?”
Another snarl comes gnashing through her teeth.
“I didn’t think so. That’s alright, Ryatt’s worse. Although,” I muse, glancing toward the cave’s darkening entrance, “it’s nighttime now, anyway.”
With slow, measured steps, I shift to the left, starting to circle around her. I keep the same amount of distance between us as before, but this makes her shift with me, makes her become acclimated to movement. She’s not dripping new gold anymore, but everything she has is coalesced around her, gathered with perfect synchronicity.
Her gold mirrors her motions, stretching up behind her, its surface rippling like an ocean’s wave. But my attention is on her and her aura flickering around her silhouette.
“You’ve been asleep for days, did you know that?” I ask, keeping my tone conversational. “Lying on a bed, not waking, not eating. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that you’re probably feeling a bit weak.”
As soon as I say the word weak, her anger bursts through her gold, which she sends hurtling toward me. But this time, I’m ready for it, and I dodge the viscid whip before it can make a hit. Behind me, it slaps against the rock, a splatter left behind from the blow.
I tsk. “That wasn’t very nice.”
Her face pulls together in a furious sneer.
“Oh, I see,” I say casually as I take off my stained coat, letting it drop to the floor, before slowly rolling back the sleeves on my arms. “You don’t want to be nice. You want to fight.”
My body shifts with a thought, black spikes punching through my forearms and curving down the length of my spine. They line my brows, and I touch my tongue to the fangs now dropped from my jaw. She watches my transformation with rapt attention, like a beast trying to size up another predator in her midst. With my ears now pointed and the slash of gray scales against the bones of my cheeks, the smile I flash her is pure fae.
Her chest heaves, and her body is so tense, like she’s a string pulled too tight. She’s not going to listen to soothing words to get her to come back to herself. No, what she needs is to snap.
Which is why I lift a hand, gesturing for her to come near. “You want to fight, so fight me.”
That’s all the invitation she needs.
Auren sweeps her arms out to her sides, and the wave of gold behind her splits. Then she claps her hands together, the gold moving to mirror her movements, but I drop to my knees and roll before it can smash into me. The focus of her fight is good. She’s not depleting herself like she did back at Ranhold Castle, and her aura is holding steady, although, she’s also not wholly herself.
But I know a thing or two about dual natures.
“Is that all you got?” I taunt as I leap back up.
She whirls around to face me, eyes blazing. The gold moves with her, blowing her hair back, tightening in a cocked wave to hold itself in a predatory stance beside her. With a curl of her fist, she sends it shooting toward me, trying to squish me to a pulp. I leap away, but not without it splattering all over me from the force of its crash. I see her eyes glow, her jaw tighten, and I smirk in return.
She starts sending the waves at me again and again and again. Yet not only am I fast, but I know her. I can read her every move before she makes it, giving me time to anticipate exactly what she’s going to do and dodge the gold before it can slam into me.
Each time she tries to pin me down, I slip away out of her gold’s grasp, chuckling as I circle her. The gold keeps up with me, sloshing against the ground, arcing and twisting with my movements. Her irritation is clear on the pull of her brows, on the way her eyes barely blink. But she is so attuned, so fucking gorgeous like this, wielding her power so effortlessly.
When I dodge another splash slamming toward me, I wipe away the spray that landed on my cheek with a grin. “You’ve got to be quicker than that if you want to land a hit,” I taunt.
She screams in frustration and abandons her tactic. This time, she breaks apart her gleaming wave into a hundred different twisting ropes and sends them lashing out at me like a wall of whips. When I duck, she manages to move one strip down in time to slam into my stomach, smashing me against the rocks.
I grunt upon impact, my eyes flashing up to see her reaction. Satisfaction edges her mouth, but when she sees me get back to my feet with a smirk, it slips right back off.
“That was better, Goldfinch. But why don’t you drop the gold and hit me like you mean it?” I croon.
She blinks, taken aback, but then her lips press together in anger. With a snap of her fingers, the gold immediately loses its shape and drops to the floor in a splash, soaking through the soles of my boots. Instantly, the gold hardens, and even though it’s only about an inch thick around my feet, it’s enough to pin me in place.
Clever girl.
Now that I’m stuck, she comes walking over, hips swaying in satisfaction. When she stops in front of me, there’s a gleam in her eye. Anyone else standing here would probably be pissing their pants. At the very least, trying to yank out of their boots and run. But me? I’m just turned on. And I stay right where I am.
“You’re gorgeous when you’re unhinged,” I tell her.
Then, I slam my lips against hers.
Her mouth is warm and supple, droplets of gold dotted along the seam, and I can’t help but let my tongue dart out to get a taste. I have barely a second of feeling her against me before she’s shoving me back, the solidified gold turned back to liquid. I fumble backwards from the force of her push, feeling it splash around my shins.
She pants, looking even angrier than before, her golden eyes alight as she brings her fingers up to her lips. For a moment, she just glares at me, fuming, the gold rippling at our feet.
Come on, Goldfinch.
I keep my body loose but poised, readying for another hit from her. When she drops her hand, my eyes dart down to the gold, expecting it to come up for an attack.
Which is why I’m completely caught off guard when she launches at me instead. I go tense, just as her body slams against mine, forcing me to take a step back to keep myself upright.
It takes me exactly a heartbeat to realize that this is an entirely different sort of attack. She’s not trying to hit me anymore. She’s trying to devour me.
My lips part against the assault of her mouth on mine, and my hands come down to grip her thighs that wrap around my waist so I can hoist her up higher. This time, instead of pushing me away, she’s got her hands in my hair, yanking me closer, demanding more. When my tongue slips against hers, she moans, this time not in pain or aggravation, but pure, hedonic thrill.
Fucking sexy.
When she nips my bottom lip hard enough to split it, I pull away, locking eyes with her challenging gaze. She tries to dive right back in to continue with our kiss, but I lift a hand up and thread it through her hair, yanking it firmly to hold her in place, but not enough to hurt. She growls in response, making me smirk.
“Come out to play, Goldfinch, and I’ll kiss you all you like.”
Her eyes flash with warning, and a moment later, she’s on her feet and I’m pinned against the cave wall by her gold. It’s not liquid enough to seep into my clothes, but it’s firm enough to hold me in place. She stands in front of me with a look of pure victory on her face. I’m like an insect caught in the strands of a spider web.