Page 48

“Samara. Slow your heart.”

“Raphael?”

“I’m right here, just a few feet to to your left. You’re nearly there.”

“I-I can’t,” I stammered. It was hard to even speak between breaths.

“You can,” heinsisted. “Keep going.”

Hesitantly, I slid my foot forward. Into the dark. But just like in the light, the path was smooth. I moved my other foot, and resumed inching.

“That’s it.” His voice was soothing, like the night sky. “Just a bit more.”

I followed the sound of his voice, my galloping heart slowing to a canter.

“Good. Nearly there. Now just step forward and you’ll make it.”

Just another step. That was all I had to do. My foot slid off as the lip ended. I was there. I tried to hook my leg to catch the opening.

I lost my balance.

I was going to fall. The awareness hit me a second before I began to drop—an immediate, absolute certainty that I was done for. My hands slipped off as I fought to regain my balance, my foot trying to come back but missing, and I was falling, falling, falling—

Strong hands snatched me from the air itself. Raphael threw me back against his body, sending us both tumbling. I landed atop him. There was no light save the faint, unnatural glow of his red eyes.

In the dark, every other sense became more acute. This close, I inhaled his scent with my rapid breaths. Cedar, spice, and something more dangerous than the dark. My fingers gripped the fabric of his shirt, like he was the only thing stopping me from falling into the pit.

“Told you that you’d make it.”

I didn’t have to see his mouth to know it was curved into a smile. Me, I couldn’t smile right now. Not with my heart still slamming in my throat. I couldn’t even force my fingers to unclench from where they were still fists in his shirt. My head told me I should be getting off him, that if I was close enough to feel the rise and fall of his chest beneath me, I was too, too close. But my legs were shaking too much for me to move.

“You caught me.” Three words. The most I could manage in this position.

“I did,” he agreed. Like it was nothing.

Like of course he had saved me from certain death, and how could I even doubt it?

How, indeed.

“As much as I enjoy having a woman on top of me, we should continue.”

His teasing jolted me out of the remnants of panic that had caged me. My chest was flush against his, my legs sprawled over him. Even riding together on Alphonse didn’t compare to this. I scrambled to stand, pressing my hands into his chest to leverage myself up, but in the dark I was moving blindly. His hands rose to my sides, steadying as he guided me up, and I told myself my heart was pounding only because I’d nearly fallen to my death, not because of his touch.

“The torch?” I asked.

Wood brushed my fingers as he offered me the discarded branch. It took a moment to figure out which card Ineeded, but eventually I managed to relight the flame. It was even smaller than before, as if the magic struggled to stir this deep in the temple. I stuck closer to Raphael as we ventured farther.

Even as the shock faded from the prior trap, I couldn’t let go of one thing. “You can turn into a bat.”

“Yes.”And your point is?was the silent continuation.

I recalled the time we’d been in the inn, and he’d let himself out the window. I’d looked and seen no sign of the vampire. But I hadn’t been looking for a bat.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

His steps slowed as we hit another trap. “I’ll tell you my secrets as soon as you start volunteering your own.”

Absently, my fingers threaded around the pendant on my neck. Fair enough.