My insides withered.
“He took a direct hit for you—for someone who doesn’t even remember all he’s done for you. All he sacrificed for you.” Kolis’s fingers trailed over my temple. “Or perhaps I should say all he forced others to sacrifice for him.”
I had no idea what he was talking about, and I didn’t really care. Not when all I could do was roll onto my side. Not when he wastouchingme.
“He’s not dead,” Kolis shared. “Not yet. Not until I want him to be.”
That was a relief.
A sick one.
Feeling had returned to my legs, the muscles there twitching painfully.
“Unlike you, I made promises I intend to keep.” Kolis drew his fingers over my cheek, and my heart lurched as I realized he was tracing the scar there. “I can’t believe you actually stabbed me.”
The spasms in my calves and thighs settled.
“I wasn’t expecting that.” Kolis let out a laugh that was soft and disgustingly pleasant. His fingers slid over my lips, tugging on the lower one. “I know. I know. I should have. But I will admit, you caught me off guard. I didn’t expect the attitude mixed with the offer of submission.”
Each breath I took became easier.
“It was possibly the most contradictory spectacle I’ve seen in a long time.” His hand was now coasting over my throat,lingering briefly where my pulse had slowed. “But you’re probably wondering why I’m not nearly as weakened as you likely believed I would be.”
I wasn’t.
The thing that looked like Isbeth had said he’d been fed while entombed. Clearly, that had been the truth because he was just about as weakened as Casteel had been when I plunged the dagger into his heart.
But I had wounded Casteel.
And I knew I had wounded Kolis.
I could hear it in his voice: a strain under each word, a bite of pain that thinned his breath.
“I may have been little more than bones when I was freed, but I was never weak. I’ve never been weak—not like my brother or nephew. That was something they never understood.” His hand slipped lower. “But they will.”
I held myself still, giving the essence time to heal what it could so I could fight—do some real damage. That was all I could think about because I knew I wasn’t defeating him. I wasn’t getting out of this. Healing from the blow of essence would nearly drain me. I knew I didn’t have it in me to even shadowstep. I was weaker than when I entered Iliseeum, but even then, I wouldn’t have won.
But this wasn’t about winning anymore.
It wasn’t even about surviving.
I gasped as the sick bastard’s palm pressed into my injured shoulder.
Kolis’s hand stilled. “Gods, it has been so long since I’ve heard that breathy sound coming from your lips.” The edges of his hair tickled my forehead. “It still makes me hard.”
My body went cold.
“Maybe I stopped loving you long before now because I don’t think causing you pain should elicit such a response,” he mused as I gritted my teeth. “But I did love you,so’lis. You ruined that.”
Even if I could muster up the effort to tell him I didn’t give a fuck, I wouldn’t have wasted my breath.
His face appeared above mine as he leaned over me from behind. The skin at the corners of his mouth was pinched white despite the smile. A sheen of sweat glistened on his brow.
“By the way, you’ve always been terrible at keeping in what you’re thinking and feeling.” His palm moved away from my aching shoulder, and I immediately wished it had remained there. The curve of his lips widened. “You have tells. A slight squint of the eyes, a twitch of the fingers, a shallow swallow, a too-quick inhale.” His lips grazed the bridge of my nose. Pain rippled across my chest, causing me to inhale sharply. “Just like that.”
Kolis moved suddenly, twisting his body so he was above me, his knees on either side of my hips. My gaze lowered to the wound in his chest. The tear in his skin remained, leaving the edges of the flesh jagged. Blood no longer poured from the wound, but it hadn’t healed, and that had to mean something.
“You were right, you know. About what I want. At least, part of it.” His hand was moving again. “I do want you.”
