Page 213 of The Edge of Darkness

“Fighting and getting injured became second nature to me a very long time ago.”

I slid a foot forward, and she side-stepped, watching my feet.

“Eyes up,” I said. “Watch my body as a whole. It’ll tell you what to expect.”

She tried, but her focus went back to my feet the moment I shuffled forward again and swiped. The dagger came inches from chopping off half the length of her long hair.

“Are you asking for a haircut?” I taunted her.

“You would really be dead if you did that.” She jabbed at my abdomen, but I skirted around it.

“I don’t believe you. Show me. Attack again.”

She came in low, aiming for my thigh, but I swatted her wrist away, sending the blade flying from her hand. She lunged for the weapon, but I stamped a boot on it before she could reach it.

“Ugh, move!”

“You, move,” I commanded, tossing my own weapon toward the pond. “You’re disarmed, and so is your opponent. Your magic is spent, and your body is now your weapon.” I grabbed for her, catching hold of the collar of her shirt, but she spun out of my grasp just in time.

When I threw a weak punch, she deflected it with her hands. Then, she was coming at me, fists aimed at my chest. I wasn’t expecting her tenacity, given that the last time I even mentioned hand-to-hand combat, it went nowhere. But it seemed she was determined to do some sort of damage, and her enthusiasm had me fighting a second battle: sudden arousal.

A burning flame simmered low in my core as my body began to betray me, and as if she knew or sensed it, she feigned a lunge to the left, then snapped back to the right and drove her fist into my ribs when my guard opened.

I let out a breath. “Good,” I said, my voice gruff as I regained my composure. I shook out my legs to readjust myself in my pants as we circled each other.

She must have snuck in a training session—or two—with Auren at some point, because she seemed to move with more agility and grace compared to last time. And she was far more confident than before.

Thunder rumbled overhead just as a raindrop hit my forehead. One of Neveshir’s infamous storms.

I held my arms out again for Nivelle to strike me, and when she did, I found myself hesitating to block it, wanting nothing more than to wrap my arms around her instead.

Fuck. I shook my head out, trying to wipe those thoughts from my mind, but she capitalized on my distraction, and her knuckles struck my jaw. The pain zinged across my chin, and I blinked, watching as her lips pulled into the makings of a grin. The punch, the smile, all of it ignited the fire within me, and just as the rain began to pour from the sky in heavy sheets, I met her stare . . .

And swiped her feet out from underneath her.

She careened backward, arms flailing. Then, I was there, hand behind her head, breaking her fall as I went to the ground with her.

Lying beneath me, she breathed heavily, eyes flitting back and forth between mine, rain beading on her lashes.

I was close, so fucking close to her mouth and those lips that I wanted to taste. Whatever snide remark sat on the tip of her tongue, I wanted to swallow it whole and steal her breath so that all she could do was kiss me back and lose herself to it.

But no rude remarks came. She only stared up at me through the rain. The rigidity in her body was gone, and she lay in my arms like she wanted to be there, hands out to the side, palms up, utterly at my mercy.

I waited for her to spit in my face, or even attempt to drive her forehead into my chin for taking her down like I had. Instead, she remained still, chest rising and falling. Waiting.

The urge to lean forward was overwhelming. Gazing into her gray-blue eyes was like being swallowed by the sea. They drew me in like the tides. Closer, closer . . .

If she rejected me again, I didn’t know what I would do. So I reached up and slicked the wet strands of my hair out of my face, and peeled my body off hers.

As I stood, I offered her a hand. “That’s enough for now.”

She rose up onto her elbows.

Something passed between us in the brief silence that followed. A layer of enmity had somehow been stripped away, and in its place, a new sort of tension settled in—one that was full of heavy heartbeats and a particularly prominent strain between my thighs.

It looked as if she was afflicted with the same thing. Her eyes ran the length of my body, over the soaked leathers and tense muscles, before settling on my outstretched hand. When she placed hers in it, I gripped firmly and tugged, pulling her up and into me. Her free hand met my chest, and mine moved to gently cradle the back of her head.

I’d caught her just in time. There was no way I would have let her hit the ground, but I had to make sure she was truly unharmed, for my own peace of mind.