Page 75 of Entwined

“A—training?” Why does she pull out a weapon every time I change into my humanoid form?

“Come on.” She slashes at me, and then she spins backward, almost crashing into a chair. Then she waves her arm at the offending chair and it flies away, collapsing as it clatters into the wall.

“Hey, you made it move without touching it. Nice work.”

She brandishes the swords at me. “Yeah, yeah. Let’s go.”

“I don’t understand why—” But she’s slashing at me again, like she wants to remove a chunk of my body. I duck and hop and spin, but her sword manages to catch the front of my shirt, dragging downward, slicing my shirt open.

She freezes then, staring at my very normal human stomach. She did that last time, too, when I whipped my shirt off. I shrug out of the remains of my shirt, and her breath hitches in a very satisfying way.

I’m definitely on to something. For some reason, removing the clothing humans themselves put on to regulate their temperatures—only necessary because of a humanoid body design flaw—makes them act strangely. Liz stares at my chest and stomach, her eyes not rising to my face at all.

“Are we done training, now?”

Her head snaps up, her mouth parted slightly.

“Should I go and retrieve your brother and sisters?”

She blinks. “What do you want with me?”

“What?”

“Am I just a key to you?”

Now I’m the one blinking. “I don’t understand.”

“Your heart’s locked up in a volcano, or it’s trapped underneath the earth. Or maybe it’s at the bottom of the lake. Maybe some kind of tortured demon people who made bad decisions in their lives are guarding it. We don’t know, but it looks like I may be the key to unlocking whatever it is that’s blocking you from retrieving it. Is that my only value to you?” She frowns.

“Where’s this coming from?” I step toward her.

She flinches.

That makes me feel. . .very bad. “I would never hurt you.”

“Unless you have to, say, fling me into a volcano to save all the dragons or something.”

“I would never do that, not even to save them.”

Her eyes flash as they challenge me. “What if it’s the only way to retrieve your precious heart?”

“That’s ridiculous.” I fold my arms.

“Is it?” Her eyebrows rise. “Because that inscription says death by fire three times, and those cursed horn people really didn’t want me to leave. I think it’s pretty obvious. They want me in there with them, and they want it because I’m marked with a heart on my chest. Or did you forget that?”

“Liz.” I step toward her as quickly as I can, my hands wrapping around her upper arms so she can’t retreat. Or, you know, stab me with her sword. “You’re my bonded. I would never throw you into a volcano. We’ll go there together so I can protect you. I’d melt the entire mountain into the center of the earth before I’d throw you in.”

“Do you really mean that?”

“Of course I do.” I release her right arm and run the back of two fingers down the side of her face. “You can sense that I mean it.”

“What if your dad?—”

“My dad will have to kill me if he wants to throw you into that volcano.”

She stares into my eyes for one beat, and then another. And then she presses her lips against mine. It’s not our first kiss. It’s not even our second or third. But it’s the first time she has ever come to me and kissed me for no reason other than she wanted to do it, and that changes everything about it.

It feels an awful lot like approval, and that’s something I’ve apparently craved without even realizing it. Her hands press flat against the muscles of my chest, and where she touches me, I start to burn. My hands wrap around her hips, dragging her closer, and she whimpers a little.