A Promise of Fire

by Amanda Bouchet

  “My colleagues and I have already tried,” a man responds stiffly.

  “Try again,” Griffin orders.

  “There’s nothing we can do.”

  An ominous sound rises in Griffin’s throat. “She’s northern. She’s Magoi. She’s like you. She saved all of your sorry lives. While you were running away, she was defending this place. It doesn’t matter what you think of me. Fix. Her.”

  “She killed Belinda.”

  Who? The healer I drained flashes in my mind, limp and vacant. Dead, apparently.

  “Belinda should have cooperated.” Griffin’s voice levels out dangerously. The healer would be stupid not to heed the threat.

  “I would help her if I could, but I can’t. None of us can. This is what happens to healers who give too much. She drained her life force, and now she’s not strong enough to get it back.”

  “Explain yourself,” Griffin says sharply.

  “She gave it to you, Beta Sinta. She needs it back.”

  Alarm hits me like a lightning bolt. Griffin must realize the same thing. With him, I can only give.

  “What if that’s not possible?” Griffin asks.

  The healer’s answer is dispassionate. “She’ll die. Look at her. She’s already fading away.”

  He’s telling the truth. I’d know even without my gift.

  The conversation grows faint, and I feel feverish. I’ve heard the Underworld is hot. Is Hades stoking his furnaces? Will he let me see Selena? I guess prophecies don’t always come true…

  The voices around me fade, and a dark wave rolls over me, followed by endless gray. Where’s Eleni?

  No! Not yet!

  I fight my way back, trudging, clawing, and force my mouth to move. “Griffin?”

  His weight instantly buckles the mattress, making me roll toward him. “Take it back!” He lifts my hands to his face. His jaw is prickly, and I wish I could see him—strong, determined features, black stubble, gray eyes that never fail to unmask me. His voice is rough with emotion, and I wonder what I did to earn his affection. I’m not even nice to him.

  “Take your life force back!” His grip is urgent, his face close enough for his breath to stir my hair.

  I try to find what I’ve lost, but he’s impenetrable. My feeble attempts slide right off. After a while, Griffin must understand that nothing is happening because he snarls in frustration and lays my hands back down.

  “She can take ours. Some from each of us,” Kato says on my other side. A moment later, three heavy sets of hands land on me, one by one, followed by a smaller, feminine pair that joins the others.

  My heart squeezes painfully in my chest. I don’t take anything from them. I won’t risk taking too much.

  “Well?” Griffin asks impatiently.

  “Nothing,” Flynn answers. “Either nothing’s happening, or she’s not trying.”

  Griffin unleashes a string of curses that likely teach Egeria a thing or two. “Out!” he eventually barks.

  Muttering under his breath about how stubborn I am, he lies down next to me, tucking me against his side. I wish I’d kissed him back. I should have thanked him for the lamb steak.

  “Can you hear me?” he asks.

  I manage to push a sound from my throat.

  “Did you even try?”

  I don’t respond, and he quietly curses. “I didn’t think so. You don’t always have to have the last word, you know.”

  I wish I could laugh. I haven’t won a single fight with Griffin. Right now, I can’t even talk, but he thinks I’m always getting the last word?

  He shifts, sitting me upright and propping me against him. My head flops to the side, and he pushes it back, bracing it under his chin. “I have an idea. I don’t want to hurt you, but I don’t know what else to do.” He picks up my hand, rubbing my palm with his callused thumb. “What is life force? Mind? Body? Spirit? All of it combined? Is it in our blood? I can give you my blood. I’m going to cut myself.”

  That’s never a good idea.

  “Your turn.”

  Wait! What?

  A blade stings the palm of my hand. Blood seeps out, along with my perpetual fear of discovery. He pulls me onto his lap. My panicked breathing gradually calms as Griffin holds me against him, our fingers laced together. It tingles where our blood mixes, frighteningly intimate.

  I listen to his steady heartbeat under my ear and fight exhaustion, terrified that the next time I fall asleep, I won’t wake up.

  CHAPTER 26

  Instinctively, I curl into the large, solid body next to mine, sighing when I detect Griffin’s familiar scent.

  “Cat?”

  I wiggle closer, sliding my cheek along his bare chest.

  “It’s working!” He sits up, and I grumble a protest. “Easy, kardia mou. I’m just cutting deeper.”

  My breath hitches. His sweetheart? Most people have forgotten the ancient language of the Gods. The tribes must have retained some endearments. No one’s ever called me anything special before, except Thanos, and I’m not sure “little monster” counts.

  Griffin must cut himself first. I force my eyes open just as he’s coming at me with the knife. Everything’s blurry, but my heart still flips over at the sight of him—midnight hair, sculpted features, wide, sensual mouth, magnetic gray eyes. I could stare at him for hours.

  His blade draws a line of fire across my hand. “She’ll find me,” I croak. I have no idea how long my blood’s been exposed.

  “Alpha Fisa?”

  I nod. Almost. You’d think I’d be used to pain by now. I still grit my teeth when he presses our hands together.

  Frowning, Griffin settles me on his lap again, like he did earlier. Blood stains the front of my tunic. The shirt is Griffin’s, and it reaches my knees. He’s bare from the waist up, his skin hot and hard like sun-warmed marble. He moves his free hand up and down my spine in a slow, soothing stroke that makes me want to rub against him and purr. His hand is rough from a lifetime with a sword, powerful, and spanning half of my back. It makes me think about the times we brawled, about the restraint he must have shown to keep from snapping me in two, especially when I deserved it.

  His mouth brushes the top of my head, sending warm tingles across my scalp. “We’ll leave here soon. I promise.”

  “Is that a binding vow?” I’m only half joking. We have to go.

  Griffin tilts my chin up until our eyes meet. “I love you, Cat. I would do anything to keep you safe. That is my binding vow.”

  My heart twists so violently it hurts. “Don’t say that.”

  His hand returns to its steady glide up and down my back, exploring lower with each stroke. Pleasure ripples over my skin, shivers along my spine. I melt against him, heat pooling in my abdomen and warming me from the inside out.

  “Why not?” His tone is casual, but his body feels tense under mine.

  I swallow, wishing I could sound as calm and sure as Griffin always does. “It makes you a target.”

  His hand stills on my back, then he rolls us so that he’s on top. My eyes widen, and my heart beats faster, pumping our mixed blood to my waking limbs.

  “I don’t care,” he says flatly. His storm-cloud eyes drink in my face like he’s memorizing every detail. “You’re everything to me.”

  The truth of his words resonates through me like a thunderclap, and I gasp. Griffin swallows the sound with his mouth, his lips an intoxicating mix of hard strength and subtle pressure. They move over mine, seductively insistent, coaxing me to open for him. His tongue slides along the seam of my lips, and desire awakens with a hot pulse that hollows me out and makes me desperate with want.

  I unlace our fingers, throw my arms around his neck, and kiss him back, pouring all the jumbled-up, foolish, crazy, confusing emotions he brings out in me into the kiss. An Olympian-powered jolt arcs through m
e, rousing the wings in my chest. They unfurl inside of me, and I arch off the bed, propelled into Griffin’s body.

  He groans low at the contact. Wrapping his arms around me, he sweeps his tongue over mine, claiming my mouth and so much more. Passion ignites, and I forget about wings and Gods and the thunder hidden in my veins. I lose myself in his fiery embrace. Sheltered by his big body, feeling him move above me, surround me, hold me, need coils deep within. I moan at the intensity of it, and Griffin pulls back, concern darkening his eyes.

  “More,” I urge breathlessly. I use what little strength I’ve gathered to pull him back, wildly seeking his lips again.

  With a sound of raw desire, Griffin molds his lips to mine for another scorching kiss, cradling my head in his hands like I’m something fragile and precious. “Why did you save me?” he rasps against my lips, kissing me again. He kisses me like he can’t stop.

  I take his face in my hands, smearing blood down one scruffy cheek. We stare into each other’s eyes. His are the color of a turbulent sea. I see tempests with silver linings, their deadly force raging for me. Looking at him, I feel recast, melted down and formed anew, and realize this is how lives change, how reasons for existing shift. “Because I wanted to.”

  Heartbreakingly gentle, he brushes messy hair back from my face. “I thought you hated me.”

  The feelings I’ve finally unleashed swell, becoming poignant to the point of pain. “I tried to hate you. It turned out to be harder than I expected.”

  His sudden grin makes my heart clench. I lightly trace the crinkles at the corners of his eyes, marveling at how his gaze darkens and then heats, turning smoky and swirling with intent. Drawn by an irresistible force, I close the space between us, lifting my mouth to his, my kiss raw and open and truthful.

  I started the kiss, but Griffin dominates every inch of my mouth, his fierce tenderness setting off explosions of excitement deep in my belly. I move against him, caught between restlessness and hunger, clinging to his shoulders and grinding my hips. My knees come up, giving me more of the contact I crave. My hands glide over his broad back, exploring his masculine strength.

  Griffin rakes his lips down my throat to where my pulse pounds in my neck, sucking lightly on the thundering beat. My breath turns unsteady. I sink my fingers into his hair and hold him close. He grips my thigh and lifts me into him so that his hard, thick length presses against my core. I’m naked under his tunic, and the sudden, intimate contact makes me dizzy with arousal. Dampness floods the space between my legs.

  Breathing raggedly, Griffin dips his head into the curve of my neck. He shifts to the side, bracing himself on one forearm and smoothing his large hand down my body. His fingers skim back up my ribs, taking my tunic with them and leaving sizzling anticipation in their wake. He slides the material off me inch by inch, baring my body to his avid gaze.

  “You’re everything I’ve ever wanted.” He cups one breast, gently squeezing. The desire in his glittering gray eyes is too potent for me to feel self-conscious. His thumb brushes my nipple, and the sensitive bud tightens. He lightly rolls the dark peak until I squirm, pleasure cascading through me.

  “The feel of you,” he says, lowering his head. “The taste.”

  I gasp when his tongue slides over the stiff crest, teasing it with hot, wet lashes. Sensation thrums along every nerve, races over my skin. His tongue swirls, deliciously relentless, while his hand moves to the other side. His knuckles graze the sensitive underside of my breast, and I tremble. My hands curl into his hair, gripping harder as his fingers and lips roam, learning my shape and feel. Griffin closes his scalding mouth around my nipple, sucking with a husky sound that reverberates against my chest.

  I buck under him, pulsing with desire. At the same time, my sense of self-preservation jumps to alert along with a desperate need to keep Griffin safe. My eyes fly open as his fingers feather down my belly, seeking the curls between my legs. I almost don’t have the will to stop him. I wait a second longer than I should, and his wide palm curves around me, a finger sliding between my slick folds.

  Panting, I reach for his wrist, halting him with a limp touch.

  Griffin stills. A few heartbeats later, he presses the heel of his palm down, putting pressure on a place that sends an exquisite jolt through me. Deep inside, I start to throb.

  “Cat.” My name is a tortured plea. His breath comes in warm, erratic puffs against my breast. His finger dips deeper into my wetness, teasing my opening.

  My body aches. Violently. Desperately. I’m unbearably empty and need to be filled. I exhale with a shudder and shake my head, biting my lip to keep from saying something I shouldn’t. I deny him. I deny us both.

  Griffin’s hoarse groan intensifies the ache inside me. I shift restlessly against his hand, unconsciously lifting my hips.

  His whole body tenses. “That’s not helping,” he mutters, dropping his forehead to my shoulder.

  “Sorry,” I mutter back, breathless.

  It takes a long time for his breathing to settle. He stretches out on his side, absently smoothing his hand over my hip, the warm weight of it making me aware of how slight I am. Not just slight. Concave.

  I glance down. I’m used to a certain amount of roundness, and the sight of tight skin over bones reminds me of things best left in the past.

  Griffin eases onto his back, lacing our fingers again even though we’ve stopped bleeding. I turn into him without thinking.

  “Should I reopen the cuts?” he asks. His free arm comes around me.

  I touch the hard ridges of his abdomen, warm skin over steel. “We should go.”

  “Can you walk?”

  I take a deep breath, not wanting to move. “There’s only one way to find out.”

  Griffin scrubs his hand down his face and then rises, reaching out to help me up. I stay upright but feel like a ripple on water—ready to collapse. I groan, which seems to worry him. Then my stomach growls, and his eyes brighten.

  “Food. Then we leave.”

  I shake my head, gripping the bedpost for balance. “No time.”

  His gray eyes turn flinty. “You need to eat.”

  “I’ll eat while we ride. Andromeda could have spies anywhere. She might already know I’m here.”

  The muscles in his jaw flex, but he nods, turning from me to find a washbasin and sponge. He wipes the dried blood off us both. My immediate protest fades with his unwavering stare and gruff insistence on taking care of me. I bite my tongue and stand still for him because I understand his need. He watched me dying for days. I watched him dying for minutes, and it was beyond awful.

  Heated shivers follow the path of the cool sponge and Griffin’s smoldering gaze. Goose bumps sweep my body, and my nipples tighten again, causing his eyes to snag on my breasts and turn heavy-lidded. Unfulfilled desire molds his striking features into stark, hard lines as he washes me with a focus that makes my pulse pound and my knees weak. Warmth gathers between my legs again. My limbs feel languid. I can’t catch my breath.

  Griffin drops a lingering kiss on my bare shoulder before tugging a clean, white tunic over my head. He drags another one over his own head before throwing open the door and bellowing for the others.

  Kato and Flynn rush out of the room next door. They see me, and their faces split into wide grins. We almost hug but hold back because Griffin is hovering like an overprotective Centaur. That, and I’m not wearing any pants.

  Griffin hands Kato the basin of bloody water. “Dilute this.” To Flynn he says, “Burn the tunic and the bedding. Make sure there isn’t a drop of blood anywhere.”

  I turn to him, wide-eyed, and Griffin spreads his hands. “You think I’m not learning?”

  I smile. No comment.

  Egeria arrives next. She gets teary and launches herself at me, nearly bowling me over and squeezing me so hard I start to reevaluate her buttercup status. She’s str
ong. Or maybe I’m just really weak. I awkwardly pat her back until she lets go.

  “We need food for the road,” Griffin tells her. “Fruit. Bread. And cheese.”

  I open my mouth, but he beats me to it. “Not goat cheese.”

  I grin. How did I ever not like him?

  Carver pounds up the stairs, breathing hard. “Cat!” He picks me up and twirls me around. When he sets me down, I lose my balance, and Griffin has to catch me before I fall. He circles an arm around my waist and hauls me against his side, planting a kiss on the top of my head. His possessive display of affection has me blushing kalaberry red.

  “Help Flynn with the bedding,” he grumbles. “Get the horses ready, and tell Piers we’re moving out.”

  Carver glances at me with concern, ignoring his brother’s surly tone. “The sun’s still high.”

  Griffin looks out the window, frowning. “We can’t wait.”

  I clear my throat. “Can I please have some pants?”

  Everyone’s eyes drop to my legs, and Griffin pushes me behind him as if no one’s seen knees before. Egeria hurries from the room, returning with a pale-yellow tunic and a pair of dark-brown pants.

  “What happened to my clothes?” I see only my boots, tucked neatly under the bed.

  “Ruined,” she answers. “We burned them along with Griffin’s.”

  That means I’m down to one tunic and my leather pants, and they’re not even here. At least they’ll fit. Actually, they’ll probably fall off.

  “I need to go to the agora when we get back. Not that I have any money.” I scowl at Griffin. “When is payday, anyway?”

  He laughs and kisses me in front of everyone. I’m too weak to shove him away, and the second his lips touch mine, I forget to protest anyway.

  “You deserve a raise. You all do. Now move!”

  CHAPTER 27

  Everyone flies into action. Griffin stays with me, coaxing me to drink water while I get dressed. Egeria’s clothes are too big for me and much softer than what I’m used to. Wearing them is like walking through a cloud.