by Sarah Tobias
My only choice was to run. I couldn’t fight him in this weakened state—as Emily Chaucer. I couldn’t confront his silver fae without my gold. But I wouldn’t set her free. I couldn’t watch as she killed him.
All she wanted to do was eat him.
Give him to me! I'll chew on his tongue, wash it down with blood wine. I’ll flay him and slurp down his skin in strips.
I clenched my teeth as she expanded her fiery ire, but—no. No!—I yielded. Her flames were so hot, so hot. I braced myself against a stone wall as I fell to the floor, her flames licking at my face.
Asher was upon me in seconds, his body veiling mine. His hands sank lava into my neck, and he lowered his head, his fangs brushing my lips.
“I’m … I’m sorry … Asher.” My vision sheened over when he clenched my throat tighter, the burn of his skin on mine melting my bones.
I lifted my hand and cupped it to his face, expecting my nerves to fray with fire, but nothing happened. Astonished, my hand remained, my fingers trembling against his curved cheekbone.
My last breath shuddered out, but my eyes remained on his.
Asher faltered, bringing up his hand to lay against mine.
The dark flame launched, breaching my dying waters with the propulsion of a shark.
My muscles hardened, my mouth reshaped into a lethal weapon. She tore my hand from his face and sent my elbow digging into his forearm, loosening his vise-like grip on my neck. He pitched forward, and she caught him by the back of his shirt and threw him to the building’s edge, his feet dangling in the air for a few, flailing seconds. He pulled himself back onto the roof, limping to a stand, scattering broken shards of concrete as he staggered out of the debris.
My blood frothed and churned, the last three fae fueling my dark flame so much that her abilities could destroy this city with a thought. I searched for control, but her strength was unparalleled.
She cupped my hands in front of me and black smoke unfurled between my fingers. The air thickened as the smoke formed into a swirling obsidian cloud. She hurled the black storm into Asher, and he corkscrewed back to the edge of the roof. His whole body slid into the air, his hands clutching the edge as he dangled fifty stories over the city.
Don’t kill him!
The dark flame set aside my plea as she would a half-eaten carcass. She stalked over. As she peered down at Asher, my feet so close to his trembling fingers, he looked up, and never had I wanted to hold out my hand so badly.
Until he back-flipped into my mid-section. We smashed backwards, blasting into the roof’s floor and cratering the stone.
Asher laced his fingers around my neck, his touch molten metal. But the dark flame, unfazed, reached up to return the favor, forcing my hands around his neck, his Adam’s apple giving way beneath my palms.
She burned him ferociously. All three of us trembled with exertion, dripped with pain, yet no one would let go.
She’d never met her match before, and it made some sort of divine sense that it would be him. It would be Asher.
Asher strained harder, crushing my larynx, his eyes blinding bright. I realized mine had the same effect on him.
Our faces came closer together, our jaws snapping and teeth flashing against the city’s specter of lights.
She tightened her grip on his neck, his skin tearing and delicate bones submitting as she maintained her hold. His hands loosened, sweat dotting his brow.
The dark flame had him.
She forced my face into his, her teeth grazing under his eyes as she gnashed, leaving bloody trails of red in her wake.
The pleasure of tasting his warm Hunter’s blood didn’t satisfy only her. A fiery explosion sounded in my head and I fought to suppress my own clenching need for his soul.
The glow in his eyes became unsteady, sputtering like a dying firefly.
Don’t kill him! Just let us get away. Don’t kill him…
Too entrenched in her frenzy, my dark flame couldn’t hear me, not that she’d pay me any mind if she could. All she wanted was to drink Asher’s blood, then top off her thirst with his soul.
And so, I thought of him, too.
I thought of Asher, flashing back to when we first met, his eyes so shadowed. I thought of our first conversation and the automatic pull whenever he was near. I remembered the feelings he brought into my life: warmth, tenderness, understanding, strength. He was my humanity. He was my soul.
It was a connection. Our common link. She would never break it. Kill him, and it would endure. Consume me, and it would linger. This was a fire even she couldn’t douse. It was the eternal bond of kindred spirits.
Familiar white light grew inside me, and I reached for it, spreading its pureness, smothering my dark twin and feeding my light. It revitalized my soul as it flowed out of my body and encased, transformed, and protected.
Through the luminescence, I found Asher. My lips slid back to normal as my fangs receded, and my face softened into a human’s. My vision filled with tears as I looked through the residual glow to see the monster I'd forced Asher to become. His eyes bulged and his fangs glinted with the fae strength he so loathed. His muscles tensed and bunched with his poisoned acceptance of the very evil he so mercilessly fought against. I let go of his neck and gently wrapped my arms around him, bringing his monstrous face closer.
“Asher,” I said against his snarls. “Asher, please.”
Shock registered on his face upon seeing me, the person he knew. The true Emily.
“Emily…”
His incisors receded, his eyes fading from white gold to a tempered gray. His cheekbones smoothed and reformed into that unforgettable, heartrending face that would stay with me, always, no matter what happened next.
I lifted my chin, my lips meeting his.
A flash, and then a spectacular explosion of colors burst behind my eyelids as we connected. I put everything I had into that kiss. My childhood, my dreams, my heart, my soul—every fiber of my being converged. It was to show him all of me, to leave myself exposed before I accepted what was inevitable.
What was my destiny.
“I’m not a monster…” I said against his lips.
A sharp pain spread from my stomach.
My blood flowed around the silver spear embedded in my abdomen, the cold steel of the Hunter wrenched deeper by his hand. Asher remained on top of me, watching my eyes spitting with tarnished gold, my dying gaze framed by the violet glow of his blade. I stared back, and through slow blinks, saw what he’d worked so hard to hide from me since the day we met.
The pain, the responsibility, the loneliness, and the burden.
“I can't live with your blood on my hands,” he said, kissing my lips as I faded into a dreamless sleep. “You have meaning. To me. But it can’t matter. I don’t come first. Our happiness won’t keep the world safe.”
Take my spirit, Emily. Asher’s voice swirled, a comforting resonance in my head as I drifted, so familiar, yet so different from before. Whatever is left of me, whatever we could’ve been, will die with you.
The last thing I remember before allowing the sweet, silent blackness to overtake me, the final picture I would forever hold on to, was finally witnessing warmth in his gaze before his head rested against my chest and he felt my life slip away.
Chapter 42
I woke up, gasping for air. It was difficult adjusting to the dark, and harder to discern what the lumps in front of me were supposed to be.
Wood. Metal. A thick red line painted horizontally on each of the four walls.
Okay. I was back in my Secret Clubhouse, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember how I’d gotten there.
I sat amongst the gymnasium debris, breathing slowly and sorting through my memories.
I’d come face to face with three fae. The Leiches. I’d saved Macy and selfishly erased her memories of the monster I was. And then … Asher.
Oh, Asher…
I had a sudden burst of heart-wrenching understanding.
Asher was the Hunter. Asher, the one person I thought I was falling in love with, was now my worst enemy. My stomach sank with the clarity of it, my heart shattering into tiny, jagged shards.
I raised my hand to my head, hoping to quell the pounding ache that seemed to shoot out of my soul, and with slow, painstaking fear, I realized I couldn’t feel my hand on my forehead. I couldn’t lift my hand from the floor.
My mouth made sounds, but the voice that came out of it, though my own, wasn’t being used by me.
Dread dawned as I realized that the rumbling laughter shaking my body ... was not my own.
“The Hunter drove his weapon into you, Emily. Not me. Killing you only strengthened me,” she said, enjoying every moment as the consequences sank in. “Why do you think I allowed you to come forward in the end…?”
No, I said, though my mouth didn’t move.
“Welcome to the darkness, dear Emily,” she said.
If my voice were my own, the force of my grief would have come out like the gods, snaking through the buildings, calling to storm clouds and thundering into the skies.
But all that met my screams was my own silence.
I was no longer me.
I was the darkness.
The dark flame was me.
I was evil.
“Time to show you what I can do,” my dark flame said, before rocketing through the roof and into the black, starless night.
Epilogue
He’d left her.
Forever alone, to suffer in never-ending torment, to beg for the fires of Hell to consume her, to destroy her once and for all.
She lay on the shower floor for hours upon hours, until the very last drop of searing heat from the spray transformed into an icy blast, and she remained there, shivering, her teeth chattering, her fingers trembling against the freezing tiled floors.
Eventually, she was able to stand, her fingers clawing and slipping against the tiled walls as her legs weakly unfolded beneath her. Once on her feet, she rested her forehead against the cool ceramic wall for a while longer, breathing in and out, in and out, water droplets sliding down her face before silently hitting the floor.
She stumbled out of the shower stall, nearly falling back to the ground, but was able to right herself against the towel railing. There, she turned, leaning forward onto the sink so she could face her clear, haggard reflection in the mirror.
She paused, but only for a moment, as she stared deep into her own eyes, as if she could find the shattered soul that she knew lay beneath. But she could not.
Raising her hand, she lifted it towards her reflection, her fingers caressing the cool, mirrored glass before she slowly, achingly, brought her hand back to rest on the rounded, growing curve of her abdomen.
There, she let it remain.
Asher and Emily’s story continues in Entwined, Book 2 of the Dark Thirst Series, with more action, big twists, surprise betrayal, and enduring love. Plus, a few new characters!
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About the Author
Sarah Tobias is the author of the clean paranormal romance series, The Dark Thirst Trilogy.
When she's not scribbling down stories about love, magic, and the evil things that want to destroy them, she can be found hanging out with her husband and toddler (with another baby on the way!) in Florida, basking in Piña Coladas on the beach.
Just kidding! More likely she's racing around in her pajamas in the heat trying to get a million things done in a day.
Sarah loves hearing from her readers! You can always email her at [email protected].
Visit her website, follow her on Amazon or Bookbub, or join her mailing list to keep updated on when Asher and Emily’s next book, Entwined, will be available in a few months’ time, as well as get exclusive access to other news, sneak peeks, and fun goodies!
