Resist him, resist . . .

He took my mouth with his, muddling my thoughts, making me forget all the things I needed to remember. He deepened the contact until our tongues met. With each of his wicked flicks, my body arched to his, as if he were in control of it.

Though he didn’t speak, he was still communicating with me through his kiss. He was reminding me that he’d never free me. He was telling me to accept him.

To surrender.

I could so easily get lost in this man, in what he offered. When I moaned, he drew back, his lids hooded. “There. That’s better.” He began removing my clothes with his supernatural speed. “Just let me see you . . . touch you.”

Once he’d stripped me of everything but my panties, he stared at my body, eagerness stamped in every tense line of his. “Empress . . .” he groaned, leaning down to lavish kisses all over my breasts, those elegant fingers kneading me.

His lips closed over a hardened peak; my eyes nearly rolled back in my head. When he moved to my other breast, my cry was so sharp, the sound startled me out of this haze.

Resist, Evie! If I lost control, I could lose . . . myself.

The thought sliced through my desire, triggering the toxin on my lips. If he wouldn’t release me, I’d take my freedom.

So I grasped Aric’s face, pulling him in to kiss me, which he eagerly did. Over and over.

At length, he drew back to tug my panties down. “I want to taste you again. I think about it constantly.” With his strength, he must be taking pains not to rip the lace. “Ah, and you need me too.”

When I lay naked before him, his amber eyes glittered like stars. Pinpoints of light mesmerized me. “So lovely, sievā. My gods, you humble me.” He gave me one of his rare unguarded smiles. “This is joy I feel, is it not?”

I wanted to sob.

His fingers descended, seeking, touching me with reverence. “Tonight you’ll take me into you,” he rasped. “You’ll belong to me alone.”

Yet then his eyes narrowed. “Roses?” He released me.

My scent had changed. Sleep now, Death.

“What have you done, creature?”

I scrambled away from him, snatching my shirt over my head. “I came to you for help. You offered me coercion.”

He shot back from me, but his movements were clumsy, my toxin already working. He made it to his knees, reaching toward the side of the bed, struggling to get to something.

Surely he wasn’t grasping for one of the swords in a nearby stand?

Before he could reach it, his limbs failed him, and he collapsed on the mattress. He managed to turn his head toward me, his hands balling into fists. “And still . . . I should have expected this. Your poison kiss. Again.” His expression was devastated. “You’d kill me before you ever accepted me.”

“Kill you? You’re just going to sleep!” I stood, squaring my shoulders. “After all we’ve been through, murder is your first conclusion? And your first reaction is to stab me?” I waved at his sword, my heart breaking.

Clearly things hadn’t changed between us as much as I’d thought. “I vowed I would never hurt you, Aric. Other Arcana promised to save Jack if I took your life, but I refused.”

Once more he tried to reach for his weapon, seeming to will his muscles to move. Would he even now take my head if he had the chance? He’d done it twice before.

“So help me gods, sievā, you . . . will . . . pay. . . .” His lids slid shut, concealing his anguished eyes. His spellbinding face was free of tension, his body defenseless.

Fresh from his bed, I disbelieved my own sight. He couldn’t have been reaching for his sword. He’d never hurt me. But if I left him when he was so vulnerable and someone else got to him, I’d be responsible. His guard dog was dead. The wolves remained with Lark. Anyone could steal into the castle.

A sense of protectiveness surged inside me. I dressed, then started to barricade his bedroom door, planning to climb from his second-story window.

I rationalized with each of my actions. He’s always a target for other Arcana. I dragged over practice swords. He wouldn’t hurt me. He wouldn’t! I lugged over armor. He was reaching for something else. I wedged a shield under the door handle. He loves me.

So why had he tried to coerce me? Why had he vowed to make me pay?

My protectiveness faded, the red witch rising. So much for your soul-deep connection, she whispered. He’s worth FIVE icons.

Rule of thumb: if a man has beheaded you on more than one occasion and he reaches for his sword . . .

Now he’d come for me, to make me pay. A knighted grim reaper.

I stared in awe, marveling that I’d had the strength to leave him, to poison him. When I hadn’t heard from him in days, I’d worried that I’d given him too much, had hurt him. Worry for nothing.

Soldiers stopped and gaped. In the last two hours, both Aric and Jack had ridden through those gates. Where Jack had commanded respect, Death elicited pure fear.

I spied the outline of a giant wolf beside Death’s armored warhorse. Cyclops padded along, his maw filled with body parts from the stone forest.

That beast had led Death through the minefield! Or Lark had. She hadn’t sent me extra protection because she cared about me. She’d dispatched a spy.

Still gazing at me, Death drew one of his swords. No!

The scent of roses flooded the air as my vines tensed and grew. My claws dripped poison, my barbs at the ready.

But he could cut through my vines, and his armor repelled most of my other powers. If he wanted me dead, I was about to be. Unless . . .