Sabaa Tahir

An Ember in the Ashes 03. A Reaper at the Gates

alexys <3

It's damned stupid to fall for a once-dead ghost-talker, I don't care how pretty he is.

I turn to practicalities. They are easier to speak of than this feeling in my chest, like my heart is being carved out of me and lit on fire. 

“I don't want to let you go. Not yet." She traces my jaw with a light hand, her hngers lingering on my mouth. She wants me—I can see it, feel it—and it makes me desire her even more desperately. "Not so soon."

"Neither do I." I pull her into my arms, reveling in the warmth of her body against mine, the curve of her hip beneath my hand. She tucks her head beneath my chin and I breathe her in.

"You are cruel, Elias," she whispers against my mouth. "To give a girl all she desires only to tear it away."

“This isn't the end for us, Laia of Serra." I cannot give up what we could have. I don't care what bleeding vow I made. "Do you hear me? This is not our end."

“You've never been a liar." She dashes her hands against the wetness in her eyes. "Don't start now.”

“You look like him,” she whispers. She doesn't look angry, though I alwas thought she would. Instead, she appears perplexed, almost bewildered.

Ouin's hand hovers over the mask before he takes it. "It was a nightmare to get that boy to keep it on," he says. "I thought he would lose the damned thing one day."

I step toward her, gripped by a soul-deep longing for her to be real. I want to hear her speak my name. I want to dip my hands into the cool shade of her hair, to take solace in her gaze.

"I’m not—“ I consider. “Never mind. I am jealous. Tell me he’s old, at least? Or grouchy? Or maybe a bit stupid?"

I snort. "He's probably rubbish in be—“ Laia smacks me on the am "Battle," I say quickly. "I was going to say battle."

The things," I whisper in her ear, "that I want to do to you…”

“Tell me." Her tongue flicks across my ear, and I forget to breathe. “Show me.”

An Ember in the Ashes 03. A Reaper at the Gates quotes

Join the club