Page 39 of The Spark that Ignites (Shattered Soul #1)

E mmery clamped a hand over her mouth, muffling her heavy breath. Her heart thumped against her ribcage, begging to escape—adrenaline, anticipation, and a tiny kernel of primal fear in the center of it.

Gathering her knees to her chest, she made herself small, ducking her head as the blackened tree trunk sheltered her. Only slivers of purple, blue, and pale green lit the lavender haze of the Sacred Lands. Even the stalactites dripped a magical shimmer.

But all she had to do was stay hidden a little longer. Her pulse quickened, surpassing the ticking of her pocket watch clutched in her hand.

A few more seconds. Just a few more.

The brush rustled behind her, bioluminescent pollen and dandelion seeds scattering into the warm air. The second hand rounded the twelve and the footsteps grew closer.

She was out of time.

Emmery sprinted.

Her feet struck the ground, her boots stirring a flurry of pollen into her vision as she darted under a rogue tree branch and leapt into the air. Her arms pumped, pulse a frantic hummingbird, as she stretched and—

A gentle arm snatched her waist.

Or at least what seemed like an arm.

The air rushed from her lungs followed by an unrestrained scream that bled into a giggle as she melted into his hold.

“Got you,” Shade purred, his voice low in her ear. “You’re making this too easy. You could at least put in a little effort, love.”

Attempting to wriggle free, she snapped back, “Not all of us can blend with the shadows, Shade. I spent nearly half the night searching for you the first time.” After he’d wrung her for information on where she was staying, even though he wasn’t convinced he would remember when they woke.

Every scrap of her being longed for him to somehow remember and come find her.

She spun in his arms, blinking innocently up at him. “Best two out of three?”

Shade gave her that grin that set her blood ablaze. “We never did discuss incentives.” He leaned down, his nose brushing hers. “I’m doing all this hard work chasing you and—”

“You poor phantom. Worked to the bone,” Emmery teased, wrapping her arms around his neck. “What would be a suitable reward?”

“That depends.” His wicked grin grew impossibly wider. “What are you offering?”

Narrowing her eyes at him, she slipped from his hold, and leaned back against a nearby dandelion stalk, that sweet grass smell so pungent it lingered on her tongue. “I have a feeling you already have your mind on something.”

“Let’s mix things up.” Shade bent to retrieve a raven feather from the mass of dandelion seeds. When he extended it to her, she frowned. “Keep this feather from me for let’s say”—he tapped his chin—“the time it takes you to get to that toadstool.”

Emmery glanced behind her. It was a good sprint away, but surely he wouldn’t make the bet if he didn’t think he could win. What did he have up his sleeve?

Emmery plucked the feather from his fingers. “And if I make it? What do I get?”

With a shrug, Shade asked, “You have me. What else could you possibly want?”

“I think”—she stepped toward Shade, dragging a finger down his misty chest—“you’re far more calculated than you let off. Tell me what you want as a reward. And what’s in it for me.”

“I will give you whatever you desire if you win. If it’s a title you seek, declare it. If it’s fame, I’ll worship at your feet. If it’s something only I can give you, name it.” His fingers found her cheek. “But I—” He swallowed. “What I wish is simple.”

Emmery’s heart stuttered as his green eyes seemingly unravelled her very soul. “Yes?”

“All I request is a teeny-tiny reward.” He blinked slowly, his gaze lingering on her lips. “Just a single kiss.”

Emmery frowned. What would be the point if he couldn’t feel it? “You could have simply asked, Shade,” she teased. “It would save you the trouble.”

“Yes, but I want to earn it.” He took a single step toward her. “This was my favourite place as a boy. But it's even more enjoyable now that I have a beautiful woman by my side.”

“Is that all I am to you?” Emmery slunk behind the dandelion, an innocent smile claiming her mouth. “Just a beautiful woman to chase?”

“No.” His velvet voice was soft and sweet and impossibly sultry. His gaze lingered on her lips. “You’re my everything.”

Though the words wove into her chest, circling her heart and squeezing until her legs were jelly, she grinned. “Catch me if you can, Ghost-boy.”

Emmery shook the dandelion stalk, a hurricane of seeds raining down, and she sprinted for the toadstool.

Shade’s protest rang out as he searched for her through the blur of debris.

She grinned, breath rushing, and head spinning.

Not daring a glance behind her, Emmery’s legs strained as she pushed her feeble muscles.

Victory was in reach, that damn raven feather clutched in her hand like a golden chalice and she had already won.

Because truly, she would win either way.

With each step the toadstool closed in. Grasping any stalk within reach as she skidded past, she shook it too.

Shade laughed, an impossibly joyous sound, his voice close behind. Emmery stretched for the fleshy toadstool, now only an arm’s reach away. She was so damn close, her lungs burning—

Tackling her with supernatural speed, they toppled, rolled, and landed in a puff of debris.

Shade’s arms pulled her atop him with a rush of breath and shared laughter.

They both lay panting, Emmery aligned with his large body, as she shoved the feather behind her ear, reached out with a single finger, and tapped the toadstool.

“Seems I’ve won,” she claimed, utterly breathless as a winded laugh slipped between her lips.

“Have you now? Are you sure about that?” Pure sinful delight lit his eyes as he bit down on his lip and gazed up at her. “Name your prize.”

Emmery pushed off his chest to straddle his hips and Shade propped himself on his hands. Their chests heaved, brushing, though it was like Emmery sat atop empty air.

He smelled ... different today. Not his usual freshly-fallen snow. Sharper. Colder. But he was still Shade.

He plucked the feather from behind her ear and tossed it carelessly over his shoulder. Her heart pounded more fiercely than she thought possible.

Not from the running. Not from the chase and the game. But from Shade.

Gods, that pull between them was impossible—the magnetic force tying her to him.

Their breaths mingled, hearts hammering to the same beat as time narrowed into this moment held in the space between their lips. There was really only one thing she wanted.

“Make me a promise?” she asked.

He nodded and gave Emmery a small smile. “Anything.”

An ache spurred in her chest as she murmured, “Promise you won’t leave me.”

Shade leaned toward her, his chest shaking with a heavy breath. “It’s a deal.”

And she closed the distance, brushing her lips over his cheek, feeling only that same cool mist and faded dreams. Her heart throbbed and she pulled away, blinking away the sadness gathering in her soul—that deep, endless, black thing staring back.

Shade’s face twisted with pain. “I must have done something unforgivable in a past life, because—” He groaned, “this is a fresh breed of torture. To be so close to you and so far away. I want you ... so fiercely.”

Her eyes fell shut, fighting the longing in her heart. For something tangible. For wishes and dreams she dared not even think. Because maybe she was being punished too. Punished for all the things she had done and all she hadn’t.

Emmery couldn't speak.

“Do you know what I would give to kiss you? To touch you. To show you how you drive me mad with that fiery glimmer in your eyes.” His throat worked, his voice lowering to a husky desire. “To know how you taste. How you feel. That you’re mine and I’m yours.”

She swallowed hard, and said, voice low, “I’m already yours. In every way I can be.”

And for the briefest of moments, it was as if his eyes flashed—shifted. Like the green exchanged for something else. But it was too fast, the dash of a hare into the brush, a hummingbird taking flight. She couldn’t catch it.

“I can feel how your heart answers mine. How your body and soul whisper to me. I want you to moan from my touch, my tongue on your skin. How you feel beneath me. You can’t possibly know how badly I crave you. There’s something ... undeniable between us.”

Emmery’s breath caught and her cheeks burned. Struck speechless, she could only stare. She wanted that too.

After all these years that part of her had gone dormant, buried under all her trauma and broken nights, but Shade had awoken it again. Lust, passion, longing—but underneath it all, there was more. As he had put it, the feeling was undeniable.

Her fingers traced the blurred lines of Shade’s face. He didn’t flinch from her like everyone else. But he should. He should be afraid of her and the magic burning within her.

“There’s virtue in patience,” she said, her hopeful heart shattering a little more. “I guess I’ll have to wait for you to get off your lazy behind and come find me.”

Shade released a wholesome, shadow banishing laugh.

Their eyes locked and for a moment, she forgot all the things that weighed her down each day.

He cupped her face in both hands, his thumb sweeping her birthmark, his green eyes blazing.

“I love you. Endlessly. In this life, in all my dreams, and every eternity.”

The words struck her in the chest.

Would he truly feel the same if he knew who she really was? What she had done. All the people she had hurt and killed and left a trail of carnage in her wake. Could anyone ever truly love her for the monster she was?

Never finding Shade was a fate worse than death and her lonely, scabrous soul insatiably longed for him, so maybe it was for the best. She didn’t deserve him. She didn’t deserve his love. Or anyone else’s for that matter. She could never truly have him.

But instead, Emmery burrowed into that hollow part inside herself, searching for the light Shade gave her, clutching it like a lifeline, when she replied, “I love you too.”

The edges of her dream frayed, fading as they always did when things started to feel too real—stealing her away in the night.

No, no—not now. Not this soon.

I want to dream. Please leave me to dream with him , she pleaded to any higher power who may be listening.

Any merciful gods or gracious fates.

But I don’t want to dream forever.

I don’t want him to be a dream forever.

She cast her wish into the universe; certain it was lost somewhere between the stars and the god’s hands.