Page 44 of Forged in Fire

But he doesn’t move either. If anything, he leans closer, until I can feel his breath against my lips. Until the space between us becomes something dangerous and utterly irresistible.

When he kisses me, it’s soft at first. Tentative. Testing. Like he’s giving me the chance to pull away, to remember all the reasons this is insane.

I don’t pull away.

Instead, I kiss him back. With all the years of loneliness and fear and desperate hope. With the relief of being alive, when we came so close to dying. With the terrifying realization that this stranger with blood on his sleeve just saved my life for the third time, and I don’t know what that means.

Don’t know what any of this means.

The kiss deepens, and I can taste his surprise. His desire. The carefully controlled restraint that’s been keeping him at a distance since the moment we met.

My shadows respond to the emotion flooding through me, winding around us both like they’re trying to bind us together. Like they recognize something I don’t.

Then voices echo from somewhere too close, and we jerk apart like we’ve been electrocuted.

“All clear. Regrouping at the vehicles.”

“Copy that. They couldn’t have gotten far on foot.”

Reality crashes back in brutal waves. We’re still being hunted. Still trapped in this impossible situation with no clear way out. And I just kissed the man at the center of it all.

Riven’s eyes find mine in the darkness, and I see my own confusion reflected there. This attraction between us doesn’t make sense. Doesn’t fit with anything in this impossible situation.

But it’s real. Undeniable. Dangerous as hell.

“They’re moving off,” he says quietly. “We should wait a while to be safe.”

I nod, not trusting my voice. Not trusting myself to do anything other than focus on the practical details of survival.

Because the alternative—thinking about what just happened between us, what it might mean—that way lies madness.

The mountain falls silent around us. My shadows settle into a comfortable darkness, no longer defensive but protective. Sheltering. Like they understand that something fundamental has shifted between Riven and me.

Something that can’t be undone.

He’s saved my life three times now. Three times, he’s chosen me over whatever orders he’s following, whatever loyalty he owes to the people hunting us.

And I don’t know if that makes him my salvation or my damnation.

Maybe both.

Chapter 14

Riven

My arm throbs like a bastard.

The bullet graze burns with each heartbeat, a steady reminder that I took steel meant for her. Blood has dried to a rusty crust on my sleeve, pulling at the fabric every time I move. The wound needs cleaning. Stitches, probably. But first, we need to get the hell out of these mountains.

We’ve been crammed in this rock crevice for what feels like hours, pressed together until I know every curve of her body, every shift in her breathing. My muscles scream from holding still. My back feels like someone worked it over with a sledgehammer.

Worth every damned second to keep her alive.

Iris shifts beside me, hair catching the pale moonlight. Her shadows have settled into a comfortable darkness around us, no longer defensive but protective. Sheltering. Like they understand that something fundamental has shifted between us.

I don’t understand what they are, but they seem to be an extension of her.

That kiss hangs in the air between us. Unfinished business that makes my chest tight and sets my dragon fire simmering just under my skin.