Chapter 37
Analise wasn’t going to look at him while she killed him. Months ago, she would have done this with no hesitation. Months ago, she hated him. He’d lied to her, deceived her deliberately, held her prisoner …
But it didn’t matter anymore.
This had to work so she could tell him that he meant something to her.
She kept her breathing steady as she guided her magic slowly through Ezra’s circulatory system. His hands were warm, fingers gripping hers tightly, but as she worked, she felt them relax. She followed that roadmap of veins until she arrived at his heart.
Life curled around her, warm and bright.
This was the part where everything could go wrong.
Carefully, she gathered the threads of his life, weaving them together, coaxing it into a ball, then closing her magic around it, trapping life within death.
When she was certain Ezra’s lifeforce was secure, Analise aimed her power at his heart, blocking the blood flow.
Ezra didn’t do what Charles expected—he didn’t fight her at all, trusting her completely.
His fingers slackened.
His heart stopped.
Analise opened her eyes. Ezra’s head was slumped forward, his chest not moving.
He looked like he was sleeping.
But he was dead.
‘Start the clock,’ she croaked, throat raw. She didn’t take her eyes off him while time crawled by. Lira was sitting behind him, watching the mark on his skin.
‘It’s still there,’ she said.
‘How much longer?’ Analise held Ezra’s lifeforce steady. It flickered and danced, strong.
‘You’ve got a minute left,’ Charles said.
She risked a glance at Lira and kept her breathing steady. Lira shook her head. Analise’s muscles screamed. Ezra’s lifeforce wasn’t dancing around as much anymore. It was growing colder, sluggish.
‘I’m bringing him back,’ she announced.
‘Wait,’ Lira said. ‘Just wait.’
‘Twenty seconds until two minutes,’ Charles murmured.
Analise glanced at Lira, who was watching Ezra’s shoulder. His hands were growing cold in hers now. ‘Lira—’
Lira looked up, eyes wide. ‘It’s gone,’ she breathed.
Analise didn’t close her eyes this time, going straight for his heart, releasing her hold on his life.
She threw her magic into the frozen muscle, trying to shock it back into existence, imagining the flicker of an arcing lamp.
She imagined the spark that dazzled the eyes the moment a flame caught, the warmth of summer sunshine that bathed the garden in the convent.
Nothing happened.
‘Come on,’ she whispered, pushing into his heart again.
Nothing. ‘Don’t you dare,’ she said. ‘Don’t you dare, Ezra.
’ She shocked him again, harder this time, then again.
His hands were limp, his chest unmoving.
Frantic, Analise threw all she had into his body, charging every part of him, feeling her own heart start to fracture around the edges.
She couldn’t lose him, not now.
‘Please,’ she begged. ‘Please don’t do this to me.’
Ezra jolted.
Blood dripped from Analise’s nose and her cheeks were wet with tears, but she did it again, lighting up his insides with her magic.
Again.
Jem’s voice. ‘Analise …’
She gave Ezra one last shock, before bursting into tears and collapsing onto his lap.
She couldn’t keep going—her head was spinning, her body was cold, fingertips numb, but she needed to try again.
She had to try again. The only sound in the room was her broken sobs, until, soft and rough, ‘Can someone untie me?’
Analise’s head shot up.
Ezra’s eyes were open. He managed a weak smile as Jem, hands shaking, undid the leather straps.
‘I take it I’m not dead?’ he whispered. She climbed onto his lap and kissed him, not caring that everyone would see, not caring that she was bleeding.
Ezra’s breath was unsteady as she rested her forehead against his.
‘Is that the sort of welcome back you’re going to give others?
Because I’m not sure I like that idea,’ he murmured.
‘Only you,’ Analise managed. ‘Only you.’
Charles insisted on checking Ezra’s vital signs.
Analise didn’t let go of his hand through the examination and once he was given the all clear, she took him back to his room, insisting he rested.
She closed the door and went to the kitchen for a jug of water.
Her heart was racing, her fingers tingling with residual magic, with the life she stole from him and returned.
Analise hurried back upstairs. She didn’t want to stay away for too long. She wanted to look at him, this miracle she’d created, amazed that it had worked—terrified it had worked. This meant Blackwood’s book was right, and if she could do this, what else might she be able to do?
Ezra wasn’t in bed, but standing at the window, staring out at the world.
‘You should be resting,’ Analise scolded gently, setting the jug and glass on the table. ‘You just died, Ezra.’
‘I feel amazing.’ He turned from the window.
‘Utterly amazing. Like I could run for miles or swim across the ocean. I’m like one of Charles’ batteries, but overcharged or something.
’ He grinned, then ran his hand over his face.
‘You brought me back from the dead not long ago. If anyone should be in bed, it’s probably you. ’
Analise drifted over to him. ‘Even if I wanted to, I don’t think I could.’ The heat from his body and that spark between them, whatever it was, whatever it meant, surged through her blood, settling in her stomach, where it smouldered and then blazed.
Ezra’s fingers brushed her cheek and she leant her face into the searing heat of his palm, the life she could feel there—the blood moving beneath his skin, the furious rhythm of his pulse and the warmth, the beautiful, comforting warmth of him.
His breath on her face was soft, gentle, and she wanted to sink into it, let the spark inside him consume her.
Analise breathed a sigh of relief when he rested his forehead against hers.
Her eyes fluttered closed. The fingers on her cheek shifted to curl around her ear, then spread across the back of her neck.
She tilted her face up and when his lips brushed her cheek, she turned her head to catch his mouth with hers.
She couldn’t deny it any longer. His lips felt right against hers.
The heat of his flesh felt right, and when his arms closed around her, all Analise wanted to do was crawl beneath his skin.
Maybe it was what she’d done. Her magic had been inside him, moving through each part of him.
She’d held the essence of his life inside her, and it was only now that she realised how truly intimate that was.
He’d allowed her to strip him bare, trusted her enough to end his life in the hope she’d be able to give it back to him.
His breath was warm on her mouth as he exhaled.
‘You should be resting.’
‘I’m not tired.’
For a heartbeat, their eyes locked, and then his lips collided with hers.
Analise groaned and wound her arms around his neck, fingers sliding into his hair.
Ezra kissed her until she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see or speak at all.
She was nothing but heat and feeling, the fire raging under her skin consuming her.
His chest was heaving, his heartbeat so strong, so furious, she could feel it pounding against her breast.
Ezra freed the buttons on her trousers before he slipped his hand inside, fingers pressed against the burning between her legs.
Analise’s knees weakened as he sank his teeth into her throat.
His fingers filled her, then withdrew, plunged in deep and withdrew again, that steady rhythm setting sparks dancing behind her lids.
This would be different. This time, they weren’t strangers in a pub on Blackcoln Road.
They weren’t using each other to fuck away their tension, their pain.
Analise wasn’t sure what they were anymore, but this time it would be more, and there would be no going back.
Ezra stepped back, letting his gaze slide over her face, lower, carving a path over her breasts, the dip of her waist and the flare of her hips, before returning to rest on her face.
The depth of the desire, the longing, on his face took her breath away. No man had ever looked at her like Ezra was looking at her, like she was special. Analise slowly removed her clothes. With him watching her every move, she’d never felt so vulnerable, and her hands lifted to cover herself.
‘Don’t you dare,’ Ezra said. ‘I want to look at you.’
Hesitantly, she removed her hands, and let him look. His gaze stripped the flesh from her body until there was nothing left of her but bones and a heartbeat. She could barely breathe. When she couldn’t take the power of his gaze any longer, she stepped closer.
‘Your turn.’
Although Analise had seen him naked plenty of times, she'd never taken the time to truly look at him.
He was all lean muscle and lithe limbs, strong without being bulky.
His hip bones were so sharp she could snag her mouth on them.
She wanted to sink her teeth into him, feel the pulse of his blood beneath his skin.
She placed a hand on his chest; his heartbeat fluttered like butterfly wings beneath her fingers.
His breathing deepened as she explored him, tracing the line and swell of muscle.
He tipped his head back so she could trail her fingers along the column of his throat and down again, gliding over one collarbone then the next.
Ezra let her touch, let her take as much time as she wanted.
She didn’t miss the way his fingers curled, or the way his throat shifted as he swallowed.
When his hips bucked towards her involuntarily, she bit back a moan, then nudged him backwards until he sat on the bed.
His lips curled as she climbed astride him.
‘Oh, I like this,’ he murmured, closing his teeth over her nipple.
Analise hovered there, not moving until he looked up at her.
She kissed him, then slowly sank down. Sparks exploded behind her eyes when he was buried completely and, for a moment, neither of them moved, panting in unison.
Analise rolled her hips, then groaned as pleasure rocketed up her spine.
She moved slowly, so slowly her nerves burned.
Ezra didn’t look away from her face, letting her see the emotion on his.
Fire was spreading through her blood with such aching heat it was impossible to know where it started.
She didn’t want it to ever end, but if she kept this up, it would be over.
She stopped, clinging to him, unable to find the words.
He understood, flipping them around, laying her on her back. He was still inside her, and kissed her, long and deep, slow, savouring her mouth, until he groaned, slipping his arms beneath her. His face was resting in the curve of her neck, his ragged breath hot on her skin.
‘Ez? Are you okay?’
‘I’m alright,’ he whispered, then he started to move.
Each tempered stroke drew her closer to the edge, until the world exploded and she was engulfed in a storm of heat.
Analise was almost sobbing as Ezra found his release; his hands cupped her face and he kissed her so tenderly it made her tremble.
She squeezed her thighs around him weakly, her muscles nothing but liquid.
He held her as close as he could. Analise’s hands trailed over his back, moving into his hair and down again, as if she couldn’t help it. Ezra shifted off her and pulled the blankets up, tucking himself behind her. Analise felt his lips touch her hair.
‘Whatever comes, I won’t let anything or anybody hurt you,’ he promised.
‘I know,’ she whispered, weaving her fingers through his. ‘Don’t leave.’
‘I won’t. I’ll be here when you wake up.’