Page 57 of A Vow of Shadows

“Does it hurt?”

Faster than I could avoid, he caught my foot in his sure hands. I hissed as he probed it with gentle fingers.

“A bit,” I admitted.

Releasing my foot with a nod of understanding, he rose to his full height, towering over my position on the bed. For once, his intimidating presence was tempered by an easy smile.

Perhaps I hadn’t dreamed our late night entanglement.

“Sam has made a salve for your wound and procured fresh bandages. When you’re ready, we can clean and redress it.”

I nodded, at a loss for words. When he reached out his hands, I took them without hesitation. Lightning sparked through my body at the contact. The pain in my ankle became a distant memory as he helped me to my feet.

Chest to chest, my breath caught. I lifted my face to his and found it a mere handbreadth away. This close, I could make out the color of his eyes, not black as I’d originally thought, but darkest brown, warm and deep. He hadn’t shaved, and I itched to run my fingers over the stubble. I probably would have had my hands not still been clasped in his.

My attention snagged on his full lips. I marveled at the way they turned up at the corners.

What a strange time to be happy.

But even as I thought it, I felt my own mouth curving. It occurred to me that I would very much like to kiss him.

That thought was like a bucket of cold water. I jumped away and was instantly reminded of my injury as my leg buckled withthe sudden movement. Evander’s arms were around me before I had the chance to fall.

“I’ve got you,” he whispered, sweeping me off my feet like a hero in one of my books.

With those words, I melted, unable to resist pressing a kiss to his cheek. He looked at me sharply, surprised but not angry. Heat crept up my neck, and I turned my face away, embarrassment following swiftly on the heels of my brazenness.

I caught my reflection in the window and gasped. Evander’s arms tightened around me, and I shook my head to ease his mind.

He’d mentioned my mark spreading last night, but I’d thought little of it at the time. It had been slowly taking over my body for almost a decade, so some growth was not unexpected. I didnotexpect to see more than half my face lost to darkness.

“It’s not that bad,” he muttered into my hair, guessing the direction of my thoughts.

“It doesn’t matter.” It didn’t. It never had. Secretly, I had a fondness for the way the shadows transformed my skin. The way they sharpened the planes of my face and acted like camouflage in the night. They made me feel dangerous, beautiful, powerful. But how I felt was irrelevant when society refused to accept, or even acknowledge, a woman marked by Death.

“You’re still beautiful.”

His declaration startled me, as out of character as the now-constant smile upon his face. I whipped my head back to his, expecting to find some hint of mockery in his features, but his eyes shone with sincerity and something else I wasn’t ready to acknowledge.

“I know.” I’d meant to say I was surprised someone had noticed, but my mouth had another idea. Of course, if anyone was capable of seeing beyond the shadow of death, it would be the Master of Shadows himself.

Evander’s attention dipped to my lips, and I knew no one had ever looked at me with such heat in their eyes. For a moment, I considered how it would feel to close the short distance between us and press my lips to his.

My kissing experience was limited to the quick, stolen peck with James Haywynn in my father’s garden before I’d been marked. The giddiness of an adolescent infatuation was nothing compared to the heat now pulsing through my veins.

His gaze found mine, an unspoken question in the angle of his brows. I parted my lips, prepared to answer, when the beaded curtain clattered behind us.

“She lives.”

Sam’s timely entrance shattered the spell that had woven between Evander and me.

I shot him a wry look over my shoulder. “Your concern is noted.”

He smirked, taking in our cozy position. When his mouth opened to comment, I silenced him with a glare.

“Ooh! Kitty has claws!” Sam mimed a cat scratch and hissed.

“And a sharp tongue,” Evander added.