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Water sprayed my upturned face. I held his dark gaze and swirled my tongue over the glans. “You’ll live.”

Then I took him deep and absorbed his responses. His head falling back, his labored breaths, the twitch of his cock against my tongue, his bucking hips. Then it all ground to a halt as the master of emotion lost the rein on his release in a raw and beautiful contortion of features.

The warm splash of salt and man washed down my throat. I licked him and my lips.

His laughter wrapped around my heart. “Christ, Evie. That was…” He leaned down and took my mouth, untamed and filled with fire. “I need a few minutes.”

He yanked the faucet to fill the tub. His fingers wrapped around mine, pulling us to sit, me straddling him. I gave him his recovery time then melted onto him, taking him in, rocking my hips.

The way he watched me, his smoldering eyes roaming my nudity, rivaled the heat in his voice. “Just when I thought you couldn’t get more beautiful,” he whispered, “seeing you wild and happy like this knocks the wind out of me.”

His words, his timbre, the flame in his eyes sent another release through my body. When strength returned to my limbs and the water level submerged where we were joined, I turned off the tap.

We soaked the bumps on our well-loved bodies. My chin rested on his chest and he traced my back. His finger paused. “You’re bleeding.”

“Red sweat,” I mumbled in a lazy voice.

“I’m supposed to take care of you. Not injure you.”

I flicked water in his face. “You did take care of me. And now you’ve set the bar. Better get some more sewing needles.”

His arms snaked around me, pulling me up until our eyes were level. “Do you know how many times I wanted to crawl in behind you in this tub and hold you like this? To offer some kind of reassurance that you weren’t alone?” His biceps flexed around me and rippled the water. “I was so worried in those early days, when you disappeared inside yourself. Took everything I had to keep secrets from you.” His voice softened. “You nearly dragged me into that pit with you.”

I put my smile against his lips. “Instead, you dragged me back.” I drew up and planted my hands on either side of his head. “I like being with you, too.” More than liked it. I held the eyes of the man I trusted with my life, watched them soften. “If we ever get off this rock, I want to go with you. To Shard. To wherever. Got a problem with that?”

His smile lit up his face. “Only way I can protect you, Nannakola.”

Till the day he died. I smiled back, knew my eyes were brimming with it. “Even if I have a priest and a savage in tow?” They’d come with me. I’d make damn sure of it.

He gave me his answer in a kiss then whispered into it. “Sun down tomorrow. We’re breaking out.”

My robe dusted a path in my cell. Michio hadn’t returned from his final walk in the quadrangle. He was supposed to check for Jesse and come right back. Then we’d escape.

The sun dipped past the rafters hours earlier. Two prayer times came and went.

Perhaps he found Jesse. Or maybe the gig was up. The Drone approached him in the kitchen that morning, said he found the tongue-less chef, that Roark had overpowered him, taken his tongue and fled. He also assumed it was Roark who severed the Imago’s tongue during an unscheduled visit to his chamber.

My stomach cramped, and my head thrummed under a sheen of sweat. What if the Drone had since figured it out? I stopped at the gate and pulled off my headscarf. Fuck that.

It took three attempts to get the combination on the lock to click. I sprinted to the chamber door. Michio could come and go because the Drone allowed it. The guards were his eyes and ears. As soon as I opened the door, he’d know. I’d have to be quick. Didn’t Michio say the kitchen was next to the hall? If I could get there, I’d find a knife.

I reached inside and gathered my guts. I didn’t have Michio’s Yang to power my whatever, but I could do it. I opened the door.

The guard crouched. Spit flew from its snapping jowls.

For a fearful moment, I locked up. Forced a breath. Then pushed my command. Stay.

Black veins pulsed under its glowing skin. Its pincers clicked. I sidled around it. Stay beat with every breath I took.

The dizziness crowded in. I tripped down the stairs and bounced off the first bend in the wall. Nausea chased me. But the guard didn’t.

Despite the fog in my head, the stairway was clear. I stumbled off the bottom step and released my hold on the chamber guard. The strain inside me receded.