Book 5: Life and Death

Amval

I knew I missed Ingrid. I didn’t know how much until our mouths meet, and my whole body lights up. I groan softly against her lips, grabbing at her waist. She threads her fingers through my hair.

“Damn,” she mumbles.

My chest lights. Everything she was saying echoes in my head. Wanting the wrong things, finding ways to solve this with and without each other—with her hands on me, all the rules I’ve lived my life by seem so ridiculous. And it’s no mistake that she keeps reaching out. When I lick along the seam of her lips and she opens for me, I know what’s going to happen next.

We’ll solve this together. Hunt down the specter haunting my family and bring them to justice. She won’t stop until we do—and neither will I.

Her tongue sweeps into my mouth. The taste of violets and ink, of new growth and beginnings, intensifies. I open, and she presses her tongue deeper. Every breath she takes rings in my ears.

When my breath rasps i