Page 86 of Of Blood So Cold

“It’s aprivilege, methinks.”

He laughs. “Well, if we’re hellbent on convincing each other to do things, I’d like to ask something from you, too.”

I smile. “Anything.”

Dorran scans my face, his own a mask of serene severity. “If you die, I die,” he says plainly. “No negotiations.”

My smile vanishes, and I feel my entire body go cold. “Dorran,no, you ca–”

“You saidanything, Cigs.”

“Anything but that!”

He grits his teeth. “Stop using my words on me. If you get to stop me from giving up on my ways of living, then I get to make a bargain with you as well.”

“Why are you doing this?” the question is barely a whisper as it leaves my lips.

“You know why,” he pushes. “I can’t live without you, Cigs. So, if we’re doing this, then we’re doing this together, or we’re not doing this at all.”

“You’re asking me to allow you to kill yourself if something were to happen to me. How do you think it’s fair to me, Dor?”

“And you’re asking me to continue putting you in danger every time we take on a mission. How do you think that makesmefeel, huh?”

“Am I a liability to you, then?” I sneer. “You think I can’t keep my own during a kill?”

“That’s not what I meant, damn you,” he hisses. “Each mission we go on has high risks of failure, as you yourself just reminded me. I’m just asking for an assurance from you, because with how much I love you, I can’t even die if I don’t have your permission for it.”

I blink against the haze before my eyes. “Alright, then. We do this together, you and I, or we don’t do this at all. If I die, you die. And ifyoudie,Idie too.”

“What, no!” he says immediately. “Fucking no, okay? That’s not how it works!”

“You just said that if we’re doing this, we’re doing this together, or we’re not going to do it at all. I’m simply agreeing to it. And before you try to argue,no, it will not be a one-way thing. If you want this to work, then it has to go both ways.”

“And if I say no?”

“It’s adorable that you think you’ve got a choice, sweetie.”

His mouth opens and closes, but no words come out. And then he just laughs, making me do the same.

“God, I hate you,” he muses, leaning in to press a long kiss on my lips.

“Aww, I love you too, don’t you worry.” I kiss him back. “So, we’ve got ourselves a deal, then, right?”

He sighs as he touches his forehead to mine. “We do, yeah. But only because when it comes to you, I always think with my naïve heart, and not my brain.”

I grin. “To whatever end, then?”

Dorran grins back at me. “To whatever fucking end, Little Swan.”

I’m about to ask him to kiss me again, but stop when I hear a subtle knock on the door, which is quickly followed by a voice saying, “Make sure the two of you are decent! The entire clan is about to barge in on your asses, dressed or otherwise…”

Dorran and I raise our brows at each other. “Alex,” we state in unison, then chuckle.

“Should we tell them about the bargain?” he asks me.

I shake my head, surprised that I barely feel any pain. Thank fuck the fentanyl has finally started working.

“What they don’t know won’t hurt them,” I tell Dorran.