Chapter 15 · You want to keep breathing?

"You want to keep breathing?"

"Not if the price is you."

That stopped me for half a second.

His gaze dropped to my mouth, then lifted again. The moment was quick, but I felt it anyway. His grip on my hand shifted. His thumb brushed the center of my palm.

"What price?" I asked.

"Every time you pull the fire out of me, it takes something."

"You already told me that."

"I didn't tell you how much."

The fire climbed higher. A black line reached the edge of his jaw.

Evelyn laughed softly. "She doesn't know? That's almost sweet."

"Shut up," I said.

"Ask him what happens when the fire settles. Ask him why he keeps you close. Ask him how many years he has left to spend."

Riven shoved me behind him.

"Don't listen to her."

"You keep saying that whenever someone tells me something useful."

"Because she lies."

"So do you."

His eyes met mine over his shoulder. The fire lit his face from underneath, turning his sharp features strange and dangerous.

"If you take it," he said, "you lose a year."

The room seemed to shrink.

"A year of what?"

"Your life."

"You're kidding.