Chapter 48
DANTE
Ihave to keep Emberline safe.
Have to protect this female I love more than life itself, even if it’s from myself.
The ifrit wants to consume her whole.
She is so close, and she smells delicious, and it’s all I can do to lock my mortal body in place, to make this fragile flesh obey me and not the hungering, greedy thing possessing me.
I wish I had died back on that island, wish I’d been ripped apart, but I don’t even know if I can die. Don’t know if there is any separating myself from this demon fused into my bones with cruel, blackened fingers and ancient spells.
She’s speaking, so determined to fix me. I see that stubbornness in her eyes, even though she’s scared to death. I smell her fear from here, and the ifrit smells it too, thrashing inside me, searching for a way out. He’s gotten a taste of freedom, and now he wants more. He wants everything.
But he mostly wants her.
I don’t know how long he’s watched from inside his dark prison, trapped behind my ribs, but his hunger for Emberline exceeds even his hunger for destruction and blood.
He wants her with a fervor that almost exceeds my own, but he will never love her like I do, and he would never die to protect her.
Her voice is amazing. Soothing. Like a drink of fresh water in the desert. I could spend the rest of my life listening to her husky voice, and the words she’s saying… I don’t deserve them.
I don’t deserve to have anyone feel this much for me.
Be willing to risk so much for me.
Time slowed to a crawl as the ifrit and I battled back and forth, push and shove, darkness and light, life and consuming death. Emberline is telling me how much she loves me and how she’ll save me, and all I want is to get as far away from her as possible.
Go back in your box, or I will find a way to bury us both so deep in the dirt, neither of us will ever come up for air again.
That threat—as always—worked. The demon backed off, the flames faded, and some of my own thoughts flowed back in. Logic is a sweet reprieve after the chaos of the spirit, nothing but violence and anger and rage.
Cool, damp air kissed my skin, sharp rocks dug into the soles of my feet, and I swayed, realizing I was back… and naked.
“There you are.” Small, delicate fingers worked between mine, a hand smoothed up my chest, and tears stung my eyes as I realized she was touching me. “Don’t go away again. Please.”
I opened my eyes and stared down at my reason for existing. “I’ll try not to,” I rasped, my throat dry. “Now, let’s get you inside. You’re exhausted.”