Page 78 of The Crow Games
He undressed down to his undergarments, then he pulled the blankets up over us both and held me, his weight on his side. I felt his chest against my spine, and the solid heat of his arousal at my back.
I clung to the comfort he offered me, more grateful than I could ever express with words. I felt stitched back together again in his arms. Everything still hurt, but I was whole once more.
When he held me around my middle, I ran my fingers up and down his arm, exploring every knuckle and vein in his hands. I learned the divots and creases of his palm, thrilling as he did the same to every hill and valley along my waist, skimming his touch across the softness of my belly and thighs.
We made a game of trying to trap each other’s hands. He chortled at himself when I snared his thumb between my palms.
It was a glorious sound. The rumble of it reverberated through me. Almost as good as every single one of his sighs when I moved against him just the slightest bit. His lips skimmed the shell of my ear, his long legs tangled with mine, and his hands explored me gently until I fell asleep.
I awoke a while later, and his touch was still there, still learning my body. His palm circled my stomach.
“Are you going to sleep tonight?” I asked, voice thick and gravelly.
“Hm. I usually enjoy it, but I don’t want to tonight,” he said, sliding a hand down the side of my ribs, exploring me like there were still things left to learn, though surely by now he’d touched every inch of me. “Another night maybe.” He kissed my neck. “You should go to sleep. You actually need it.”
I was so comfortable tucked inside his arms, covered by his shadows, I slumbered deeply.
I didn’t wake again until an amber glow poured in around the curtains, turning the shadows all around me charcoal gray. Movement shifted the mattress—Asher climbing out of bed.
I squinted up at him. “You’re going?”
“Giants,” he said. Leaning over me, he kissed my nose the same way I had his the night before. “Giants first, then I’m getting your pistol back.”
“Still trying to make me addicted to you?”
He kissed me. “That’s the goal, yes,” he said against my lips.
“Thank you,” I said.
Then he was gone, and I felt his absence like a bruise on my soul.
* * *
Later that morning, Nola found me a pair of mismatched boots. They would get the job done until we could trade for something better.
The seventh trial was made worse by incessant rain, but the smaller number of participants was a blessing on the high platform. The rope bridges were damp, but fewer bodies meant they rattled and shook less.
I felt lighter when I reached the bottom. My palms were chapped from clinging to the cords too hard.
The insect garm didn’t like the storm, it seemed. They stayed hidden inside the industrial buildings. We made it through the district sopping wet, wind-whipped, but unscathed. It was well out of our way, but we hiked back toward the part of the park where the beast had been slain.
I showed them where I’d covered Liesel and Emma’s bodies the day before. We turned the branches and stones into a proper pyre, and Nola lit it with a ball of crimson magic that burned hot and fast. The magic fire consumed everything quickly. Blue collected their ash into a clay jar she then blessed with her wand and her tears. Ruchel sang a prayer to the Crone for the departed.
I stood together with my sisters as witness. To honor their connection with the earth, we buried the urn under a linden tree.
The streets before the clock tower were eerily quiet. The markets were empty. More red-hooded warlocks hung from the library walls, but the large doors were shut up tight, and there was no one at the entrance to the tower collecting a tax.
“The calm before the storm,” Blue muttered.
I hoped she was wrong about that.
Hello, pet, Nott purred in my ear. Then he bounded into view, and the great black panther wasn’t alone. His sister prowled behind him.
“My lord . . . and my lady,” I greeted with a bow of my head.
The others bowed too.
Nott was distinguished from his sister by the patch of white on his chest. He made me scratch behind his ears. Mara circled each of us, taking us in with sharp yellow eyes.
