Chapter 4: Heat in the Dark

The hallway got so narrow that the rough stone scraped against Liora's shoulder. The air down here was warmer, thick with the scent of damp dirt and something metallic, old and clinging, that made her think of old blood.

Ash kept his hand on her lower back, guiding her forward. His palm was hot even through the thin fabric of her shirt. She couldn't stop thinking about what he'd said earlier: *Not again.*

Her breath caught when the passage suddenly opened into a smaller chamber with a vaulted ceiling disappearing into shadow. The only light came from a thin beam of moonlight streaming through a crack overhead, catching motes of dust that swirled like ghostly fireflies.

“We’ll rest here,” he said, his voice low but decisive. “Only for a moment.”

She leaned against the wall and watched him check every shadow as if he expected something with teeth to jump out. His body was still tense from the fight, his chest rising and falling fast.

"You never answered my question," she said quietly.

He stilled. “About what?”

“Not again.” Her gaze locked on him "What did you mean by that?"

For a moment, he didn't say anything.

Then he walked toward her with slow, careful steps. When he stopped in front of her, the heat radiating from his body banished the chill of the stone at her back.

“It means,” he murmured, voice rough, “that I’ve already lost you once, little flame. And I’ll burn this entire world before I let it happen again.”

Her breath caught his eyes, gold in the thin light, held no jest. They held nothing but raw, dangerous honesty. Suddenly, he kissed her.

It wasn’t gentle or careful. It was like everything they'd been holding back had finally exploded a desperate certainty that tomorrow might never come. His mouth claimed hers with heat and hunger, his hand sliding up to cup the back of her neck, fingers tangling in her hair.

She made a sound, half gasp, half whimper. He deepened the kiss, pressing her back against the wall. Her hands found his shoulders, gripping hard, feeling the coiled strength beneath his shirt. He tasted like fire and something darker, like the first taste of something you know you shouldn't want.

When his other hand found her hip, she melted into him. Her pulse pounded loud enough to drown out the faint howling echoing in the distance. His thumb traced slow circles over her hipbone, making her nerves light up. “Ash,” she breathed, breaking the kiss just enough to speak.

He didn't let her finish. "Say my name again," he whispered against her lips, his tone halfway between a command and a plea. She obeyed without thinking, and his breath shuddered out against her skin.

His mouth moved down her jaw to her throat; his teeth grazing sent heat shooting through her. His hand at her hip slid lower. She arched into him, the cool wall at her back, his body burning against her front. 

Then the beam of moonlight shifted.

Ash froze mid-kiss, his whole body going rigid. “What” she started, but he pressed a hand over her mouth, his other arm wrapping around her waist to pull her flush against him again. Not in desire this time, but in concealment.

Through the narrow crack in the ceiling above, something huge passed over the light, its shadow stretching and shifting like the silhouette of wings.

Her stomach dropped. “Don’t move,” he whispered in her ear, every muscle in his frame locked.

Then came the sound of something dripping onto the stone floor, though they couldn't see what it was. The metallic smell of blood thickened in the air until it was almost suffocating.

Ash eased them sideways into the darkest edge of the room, keeping himself between her and the open space. She could feel the tension vibrating through him, a predator waiting for the other predator to make a move.

From the opposite wall, a voice slid into the air like smoke.

“Always hiding her behind your back, aren't you, Ashriel.”

Her blood went cold. The voice was smooth, but there was mockery underneath it.

Kael.

Before she could react, Ash shifted, putting himself directly in front of her, blade drawn. “You should have stayed in your den.”

Kael stepped out of the shadows, moving with impossible grace, his purple eyes gleaming in the moonlight. “Miss the chance to see my queen awake again?” His gaze slid over Ash’s shoulder, locking onto hers.

The same pull hit her again, but stronger this time. Her pulse started matching some rhythm she couldn't hear; her skin got hot with a heat that wasn't entirely her own, and her breath quickened without her consent.

Ash must have felt the change in her because his arm tightened around her like a steel band. “Stay with me, Liora,” he ordered, low and fierce.

Kael smiled faintly. “You remember, don’t you? The nights before the war, before everything went wrong. My mouth is on your skin, your throat… your fire in my veins.”

A flash of memory, feelings she couldn’t possibly remember slammed into her. Heat and darkness, his lips at her neck, her fingers tangled in hair the color of midnight.

Her knees weakened. Ash swore under his breath. “Get out of her head, Kael.”

“I’m not in her head; I’m in her blood and you can’t change that,” Kael said softly.

In the same breath, the air in the room suddenly got heavy, like the moment before a thunderstorm. Ash shoved her behind him just as Kael moved, the space between them collapsing in a blur.

 “Run!”

 Ash shouted over his shoulder, but her feet wouldn't move.

Kael’s gaze flicked to her while he was fighting. “If you leave with him now, little queen, you’ll never know the truth.”

Ash’s blade cut through the air with lethal precision, but Kael only laughed, blocking every strike with unnatural speed. The sound of it was wrong, too cold and too empty.

Then Kael did something she didn’t expect. He stopped fighting, he simply stepped back, lowered his weapon and smiled like a man who’d already won.

“Tick-tock,” he said softly, eyes locked on hers. “Your time with him is running out. It's shorter than you think." And just like that, he was gone.

No flash of light, no dramatic exit. One heartbeat he was there, the next he simply wasn't.

Ash was breathing hard, his grip on his blade white-knuckled. Slowly, he turned to face her, eyes still glowing gold.

"Don't listen to him. Not ever,” he said fiercely.

Her throat felt tight. “What if what he wants… is me?”

Ash’s jaw flexed. He stepped toward her until her back hit the wall again. “Then I’ll just have to make sure you only want me.” 

His mouth crashed against hers with all the leftover fury from the fight, all the possessiveness Kael had stirred up. His hands slid into her hair, then down to her waist, pulling her up against him until there was no space left between them.

She didn’t resist; she didn't want to. Whatever the danger outside this chamber, right now she was caught in another kind of danger entirely, one she had no intention of escaping. Heavy footsteps echoed through the corridor beyond, definitely not human.

Neither of them moved, not until a voice not Kael’s whispered from the dark: 

“Found you”.