Seduce Me in Flames by Jacquelyn Frank Page A

renunciation. She had questioned herself, had toyed with the idea, had gone back and forth about it in her head as she spent these hours pacing a dark, wet cell and staring her potential death in the eye. But when it came down to it, she would never give up on what was rightfully hers.
    But neither would she sink to her brother’s level anddo him any kind of harm. It would be up to fate to play out the cards that each of them held.
    Unfortunately, in her passion, she forgot about the cameras watching them. It was one thing for her uncle to keep her alive when he thought prison might soften her resolve, might encourage her to sign the renunciation, but if he watched the passion in her declaration to this other prisoner, he might realize just how futile that hope was and be forced to take more drastic measures.
    “I shouldn’t speak to you anymore,” she said to him, and went to push away from the door.
    “Wait a second there now, Blue Eyes!” The call made her hesitate, and she leaned back into the window so she could see him.
    “Yes?”
    “I was just noticing, you’re not like the rest of your people. You talk to me like I’m a person. Not an idiot or some dumb hunk of brutish muscle.”
    “We’re all equal in here,” she said softly. “I can’t say how I would have acted if we’d met on the street.”
    “You’re terribly honest. Even when it makes you look bad. You shouldn’t ever go into politics.”
    She gave him a wry little laugh. “There isn’t much I can do about that.”
    “And hand in hand with your honesty are your cryptic comments. You’re intriguing as well as pretty. Clearly a damsel in distress. You’re my downfall in a perfect package.”
    “Only I don’t expect you to rescue me. Rescue would be a fool’s effort.”
    “Call me a fool then,” he said sotto voce.

 
    She barely heard him, but when it became clear what he meant, she felt her entire body clench with a combination of dread and exhilaration. She felt it well up in such a way that she was ready to burst with questions, wanted to demand he clarify, but they both knew that she could not ask any more than he could answer. All she could do was reach up a hand to grip the cold steel bar crossing the window. She watched as he reached into his mouth and, with a chilling pop, yanked out his tooth. Only it wasn’t a tooth. It was white and encapsulated and close to the shape of a tooth, but the bloodlessness of the extraction and the way he snapped it in half told her it wasn’t a tooth and he wasn’t performing random dentistry on himself.
    She wanted to call for Suna, but the less attention she drew, the better. Great Being, was she actually entertaining the idea of the impossible? No. It was insane.
    He disappeared behind his door for a second and then he was back.
    “Back away. I don’t want you to get hit.”
    Hit?
    She did as instructed, but only to the edge of the distance that still allowed her to see out the window. Ambrea almost jumped out of her skin when a violent bang echoed into the hallway. She leapt forward toward thedoor instantly afterward, ignoring Suna’s exclamation of surprise. She could hardly believe her eyes when she saw that the locking mechanism had been completely blown out of his door. He kicked at the door, and only then did she realize that during their conversation earlier he had been working his way out of the cuffs they’d left on him. How had he done that? The electronic bracers were notoriously hard to decode, never mind doing so with your hands behind your back. His kick was resounding, the locking panel flying off the door and crashing into the opposite wall. He didn’t hesitate. He came straight to her door and then reached down to pull a seemingly decorative stripe off his pant leg. He carefully and quickly shaped the stripe around her lock.
    “Back away, Princess. You’ve got five seconds.”
    “And in three they’ll be pouring through the door,” she said as heart-choking panic