The Shadow Queen (Ravenspire, #1)(82)

He waited quietly while she looked and saw the way she shone a little brighter than anyone he’d ever met. The way she challenged him and thrilled him and made him want to perform some idiotic grand gesture to prove himself in her eyes.

A grand gesture like sparing my life even though it meant your blood oath with Irina would kill you?

He laughed, but his heart was pounding with something better than the need to hurt, punish, and kill. I didn’t do that for you. Not really. I didn’t even know you at the time. I was just trying to keep my honor without condemning my kingdom.

Still, it was a pretty grand gesture.

You think so? He leaned closer, and the scent of evergreens and snow made him want to drag her against him and show her just how different she really was from every other girl in the world.

“Yes,” she breathed the word into the space between them, her thoughts full of anticipation and need. He took that as the permission he’d been waiting for.

Her lips were warmer than her hands as he gently pressed his mouth to hers, still giving her a chance to back away if she changed her mind.

I’m not changing my mind. She let go of his hand and grabbed the front of his shirt instead.

He ran his hand up her arm and tangled his fingers in her hair while still keeping the kiss gentle. Their first kiss needed to be perfect, and that meant holding himself back so that he didn’t rush things.

Heat that had nothing to do with his dragon’s fire filled him, pressing against his chest like he’d swallowed the sun, and he couldn’t breathe without taking in her scent. Without hearing the tiny gasp she made as he deepened the kiss and pulled her closer.

Something brushed against his shoulder, and for a moment, he thought it was her hand. But then something bumped against him. Hard. He stumbled forward, grabbing Lorelai’s arms to keep them on their feet, and turned to see that the Hinderlinde Forest had come to life.

Oh skies, we’ve got trouble.

The trees—hundreds of them, dripping moss and shedding leaves—were sliding toward them, their roots ripping through the soil and splaying out like tentacles. A horrible cracking sound filled the air as branches slammed against each other and trunks collided. They moved with a steady, relentless cadence that filled Kol with horror and sent his dragon heart thundering.

A walnut tree beside Lorelai raised its branches toward the sky and then slammed them down toward the princess’s head.

Down! he yelled, but she’d already dropped to the ground and rolled away from the tree.

Away from him.

He lunged toward her and a branch smashed the ground where he’d been standing.

It’s the same thing every time. You’d think she’d realize that taking control of so many hearts at once makes the cost of her magic that much worse. Lorelai sounded disgusted.

Yes, she displays a true lack of originality. Maybe we can discuss that further when we aren’t in danger of being crushed by walking trees.

They’re moving slow. We can outrun them. She flipped to the side as a maple bent toward her, its branches swinging hard.

They’re closing in and forming a fence around us.

Good thing we have dragon’s fire and mardushka magic, then. She grabbed his hand and pulled him away from a skinny hickory that was wrapping its branches around his waist. Magic tingled against his skin and then slid into his blood with a jolt.

They ran, stumbling over roots that lashed the ground, ducking branches, and trying to find a path that wasn’t already blocked.

We’re surrounded. Power filled her voice, and her eyes were fierce as she looked at him. And we aren’t going to lead them back to Gabril and the shack. It’s me she wants.

She isn’t going to get you.

No, she isn’t.

An oak swiped at her, and Kol pulled her against him. The branch slid by, scratching Kol’s hands as it passed. The sound of roots tearing through soil, trunks creaking, and branches whistling through the air filled the forest as the trees shuffled closer and closer to Lorelai and Kol.

Sasha, path! Lorelai sent as she tightened her grip on his hand and muttered an incantor.

Fire spilled out of his veins and into hers, and her pain hit him a second later. Blistering agony, pressure that wrapped around her chest and threatened to cut off her air, and a shuddering weakness that tried to send her to her knees.

He wrapped his free arm around her waist and hauled her out of the path of an incoming maple. Branches lashed around them from behind and yanked them against a trunk. Roots tangled with this feet. His dragon heart pounded viciously, and he snarled as he struck out at the branches that were touching Lorelai.

Seconds later, the gyrfalcon shrieked from above, and Lorelai, her breath coming in desperate pants, said Path, Sasha. Find the river to the west.

An oak lumbered close, striking at Lorelai with a thick branch covered in dying leaves. Kol tried to block it, but the branches wrapped around his chest shortened his reach. Lorelai threw herself against him, and the branch slammed into the tree that was holding them instead.

Sasha reappeared above them as the branches holding them began to squeeze the air out of Kol’s lungs.

I’ve got the path. Time to burn our way out of here.

He bared his teeth as his dragon heart pounded a litany of hurt, punish, kill and poured fire into Lorelai through her magic. She made an awful sound of pain, but raised her free hand and grabbed the branches that were wrapped around them.