Page 62 of I Punched an Alien and Now We’re in Couples Therapy

“You. Shot. Me. Don’t claim to be a paragon of virtue when we both know you’ll do whatever it takes to survive.”

“I grazed you. And I’m still not entirely sure if that was the right thing to do.”

I held her gaze, raising to the challenge. “Then correct your mistake and save yourself.”

“It’s like you want to die!”

“I want you. There’s no turning away from me now. I’ll have you in this life as my wife and my queen, or I die here, and my spirit will come back as the air you breathe so you have no choice but to take me into your body. Run to the ends of this earth, and you will find me a breath away. You will never be free of me, Wicked Thing.”

The rope dragged us farther down the clock hand until it caught on the curve of its arrowed end, causing us to lurch to a precarious stop. Her legs squeezed tighter around my waist; she looked up to see the thread we were literally hanging by fray even further. “This is not the time for sappy declarations.”

“Then admit you don’t hate me, and we can put an end to this,” I countered.

“I do hate you!”

She could sink her fangs in as many times as she liked.

“S-stop grinning, I do!”

If they couldn’t dig deep enough, I’d hand her a knife. “Prove it.”

“Fuck you!”

She could coat it with her venom and run me through. “Gladly, now say it.”

“I won’t!”

“You’d rather we both fall to our deaths than admit you feel something for me? At the beginning of this trial, that Tamagotchi of yours was at zero, if I pulled it out now, how high do you think it would be?”

“Again, now is not the time for that!”

“I see we’ll have to work on that pride of yours. Not that I have much room to judge you in that respect. Put your arms around my neck.”

“And fall to my death because your concussion made you think you could fly? Fat chance.”

“I imagine it’s too early in this do-over to ask you to trust me?” Fire rose from my core to heat the air around us in an attempt to ease her shivering. Cold rarely bothered me, but my wicked thing was human, with no horns or fire to speak of. Maybe their lack of natural defenses was the root of all her ferocity. Even the smallest of creatures would bare their teeth when backed into a corner. Yet despite all her bluster, I knew the truth.

“Yes, you psycho!”

Humans weren’t venomous.

I shifted my weight to pull a knife from my belt. “Add this to the list of grievances I’ll need to atone for.”

Blair

“What are you—”

Osid cut the rope, sending us into a free fall. I latched on to him and welded my eyes shut, screaming bloody murder. He held both palms downward and shot fire from his palms until the force of it slowed our fall. We landed gently at the base of the clock tower in a puddle of melted snow.

I stayed there, frozen. My arms and legs wrapped so tightly around him that my muscles strained. Adrenaline and something else I wasn’t ready to admit had my heart beating at my chest like a drum. Slowly, I opened one eye and peeked around to find that, yes, we were safely on the ground. “…Oh.”

His legs shook beneath us, and he fell to the ground with his back against the tower. My hands flew to the sides of his face, inspecting his injuries. There was a nasty cut just above his temple; when I ran my fingers over the back of his head, they fell across a bump that made him hiss out a breath.

I cursed under my breath. “This looks bad, we need to get you to a healing pod immediately.”

A smile curved at his full lips, and when I met his eyes, the heat in them made my breath turn hollow. Warm hands came to my hips, and I felt his little finger slip beneath my shirt to stroke the skin on my back. I knew the moment his flesh met mine by the way his eyes fluttered shut, as if he couldn’t deny himself this small touch. “This is the second time I’ve gotten to see my queen fuss over me. If this is what it takes to finally have you in my arms, I may have to take up billjaw wrestling.”

“You are awfully affectionate when concussed. Can you stand? I don’t think I can carry you all the way to the entrance. If we show them how injured you are, they’ll have to let us out. Or at least send in a doctor for you.”