Metal Slinger

I looked for you. In every market and podunk town, in every corner of every land, I searched each face for yours.

If you asked me for my life, I’m pretty sure I’d hand it over on a gold platter.

Beautiful and deadly, I mourn him already, and he’s right in front of me.

Everyone’s always muttering about the good gods, but the bad ones are way more interesting.

Acker doesn’t let go of me. Not in the center of the storm and not when we breach the veil of the storm’s eye. Not when the boat feels like it’s going to be ripped apart at any moment and we’re going to go overboard. He never lessens his hold, not even when his arms shake. He never lets go.

The only way through it is through.

She has beautiful eyes,” he says softly, like he’s lost to memory. “They’re brown and green and amber, like every color of every season. I’ve looked everywhere for eyes like hers, and nothing has ever been able to compare.

I can feel it in every stitch of my being that I am meant to be loved, and loved by him.

It is not your job to make anyone comfortable.

He gives me a look that clearly says he doesn’t believe me, but a smile twitches at the corner of his mouth. “You’re kind of beautiful when you lie.

I will sleep wherever you want me to. Whether it’s on the floor or in the dirt or in your bed, I’ll be there if you want me.

Dark hair, dark eyes, a gold ring in one nostril. Lips I somehow know often say crude things—or maybe it’s his entire demeanor that tells me that, but there’s something inherently vulgar in his beauty.

Acker smiles, but it’s straight filth when he says, “Shame. I was kind of looking forward to tying you up.

I am a starving man, Jovie. Don’t appear without clothes again.” “Or what?” I say, not recognizing the timbre of my voice. Lips tracing the outer shell of my ear, he tilts his pelvis toward mine, revealing the truth of his arousal. “Or I’ll make you finally confront the desire you’ve been so determined to pretend doesn’t exist between us.

Every gain of wealth and power comes at a cost. It chips away at your soul a little each time.

And you, metal slinger, have killed a hundred times for what your head is worth. Why should you get to live with so much blood on your hands?

sick of men who think they can control the world and everyone within it.

Know this, Jovie: I have zero doubts when it comes to you. You heard Olivia—I’ve always known you were it for me. I may have thought I lost you for a while, but I knew no one would ever take your place.” Bracing his elbows on his knees, he brings my hands to his lips, eyes closing as he holds them there. “I’m sorry I made you doubt me,

and I realize I trust this man unequivocally. I’m pretty sure I’d follow him anywhere, including to my own death.

I’m going to swim with the stars,

If you’re still virginized by then, I’ll do you a solid and suck you off myself, mate.

Human emotions are fickle, Jo. Yours, mine, Acker’s. They’re nothing but a wave in the ocean. What really matters is what you decide to do with them.

Then I’m standing in front of him, meeting the gray eyes so like my own. Open and inviting and warm. Familiar. Like home.

You can never get loving people wrong, Jo. There’s no shame in accepting your feelings for Kai, just like there’s none to be had for accepting them for Acker.

He accepts it but doesn’t let go, using it as a rope to pull me closer. “I am proud to call you my match.” Then he kisses me, in front of everyone, rules and decorum be damned.

The ocean has a way of doing that to you, sucking the life from your bones a little more every second.

I didn’t think you’d care,” he says, running a curved finger along my jaw. “But jealousy looks good on you.