Page 33 of Darkness Births the Stars #1

The sight of her made me freeze in the doorway.

She was putting the plates into the sink, the sun coming in through the window, catching on her hair, setting it aflame.

I loved it when she kept it loose, as wild and untamed as her spirit.

The silky strands tangling around my fingers when I buried my hands in them to bend back her head for a thorough kiss.

Or trailing all over my naked body, sending delicious shivers down my spine as she…

I snapped out of my fantasies when I saw her struggling to lift the plates with one hand. Swiftly moving closer, I attempted to grab the teetering stack. “Wait. Let me help you with that.”

Rada swerved out of my way, making the plates rattle. “I don’t need your help.” A beat of silence. Her gaze stayed on the sink in front of her, filled with soapy water. Then, icy and precise: “I don’t need you .”

I struggled to rein in my temper at her biting tone, suspecting she wanted to provoke a fight. “I understand that the situation is not ideal,” I said, leaning against the kitchen counter next to her. “And that you hate having to rely on anybody.”

My soothing words were wasted; her eyes blazed as she rounded on me. “I hate having to rely on you .”

Her open accusation, the hurtful reminder that nothing I did would ever be enough, made me snap back, “Well, there is nobody else here.” I scoffed. “At least your neighbors seemed relieved I am here to support you.”

A bitter laugh escaped Rada as she drew closer to me. “Believe me, if they had the faintest clue who you really are, they would think differently. No one wants the Fallen One in their back garden.”

I couldn’t believe she was bringing this up now. Knowing she was right only made it worse. “ Lyr , you are so self-righteous.”

“I have every right to be. You nearly destroyed the whole world.” Her index finger jabbed at my chest. “And I’m not convinced you aren’t trying again.”

I hoped it would free me of my doubts and banish the ghosts haunting me, I was tempted to confess. Instead, I created a thousand more.

But I could not discuss this—not with anyone, and especially not with her—so I tried to divert her with an accusatory question of my own. “Is that how you want to end every bloody fight we have until the end of this pathetic mortal existence?”

Rada turned still at my words, her starfire eyes fixed on me.

Her voice took on that cold tone she reserved for the moments she was the angriest with me, the moments in which she wanted to make crystal clear that nothing remained between us.

“I won’t need to. You’ll be gone from my life as soon as I am better. ”

I took a deep breath. When she pushed me away, it only hardened my resolve to hold on to her.

“I could stay.”

A soft, nearly innocent offer of help. Only it wasn’t. It was something else entirely. Something I should never have dared to put into words. Something that pulsed between us, heavy and alive, making the kitchen, the entire house, feel too small.

Rada didn’t refuse right away. Instead, her face showed a sudden vulnerability as she looked up at me: the silver of her eyes hazy, her tongue darting out to wet her lips, all the ramped-up emotions from our fight morphing into a different kind of tension.

I hadn’t imagined how her gaze had lingered when I had stepped out of the shower earlier.

I leaned closer, deluding myself into thinking I would be welcomed. Stars, I could already taste her, feel her heat against me. My body tensed up in wonderful anticipation, the distance between us shrinking, her eyes fluttering closed…

The icy bite of steel against my throat made me freeze an instant before our lips could meet.

“Oh no you don’t,” Rada hissed. “What do you think you are doing?”

My eyes darted to the gleaming kitchen knife in her grasp. I had not even noticed her draw it. But then, she had always been lightning-quick. And I had been more than a little preoccupied.

I tried to defend myself. “You looked like you wanted to be kissed.”

My words only fueled her ire into a storm, the knife biting into my skin as she growled, “Then check your fucking eyes.”

I didn’t back down, my own temper rising as I met her scorn head-on. The blade followed my movements, close to drawing blood but not yet breaking skin.

“Do you need that knife to keep me under control? Or yourself?” A soft whisper in the small space between us.

“Oh, I know quite well why you are angry. You realized our little arrangement isn’t the chore you pretend it is.

You realized you like having me here.” I bent even closer, our lips only a breath apart.

“And you’re tempted to agree to my offer to stay. ”

Her beautiful face twisted, conflicting emotions racing over it. With a frustrated snarl, she lowered the knife and shoved against me. Sensing she had reached her breaking point, I let her go. I was prepared for her to either unleash her anger on me or hastily escape through the door.

She did neither. Instead, she took a deep breath, placed the knife back in the drawer, and said in an eerily calm tone, “There are still a few hours of daylight left. I’m going down into the cellar to work on the cheese.”

I stood motionless, my thoughts racing and my body ablaze with unfulfilled desire. Not two feet separated her from me, but it felt as if she were on the other side of the continent.

“You’re right,” I said hoarsely. I had to get out of here before I did something we’d both regret. Even if it felt like fleeing. “If you need me… I’ll be outside, mending that fu cking fence.”