But truths were meaningless when I knew I could bend them to my will, shaping my own reality.
As could he.
“Do you…?” Glossy waves tumbled over his forehead as he curtly shook his head and took a deep breath. “Do you remember how I hurt you before?”
A hundred different words rushed to the tip of my tongue, only to vanish before I could speak them. I couldn’t answer him. Pressure clamped down on my chest. How could I not answer that?
Did it even matter?
Yes.
No.
My stomach churned with hunger, and my chest squeezed with uncertainty.
“Okay.” He drew in another breath, this one stilted as he came closer without me realizing he was moving. “Let’s start over. Your name is Poppy. You’ve probably already gotten that.” A brief, wry grin appeared. “My name is Casteel, but I…I love it when you call me—”
“Cas—” The word burst from me, coming from somewhere deep within.
“That’s correct,” he said softly, the aura behind his pupils intensifying at my sharp inhale. “What is the last thing you remember?”
Shadows and gold flashed before me. Gold bars. I opened my mouth, but the only word that came out was, “Pain.”
He flinched again as the taste of icy agony gathered in my throat. It wasn’t mine.
My eyes widened as I stared at him. It washispain—the kind that went deeper than physical wounds. It shocked me that he allowed me to feel it. That he would allow himself to be so vulnerable. But I didn’t want to feel that. I couldn’t.
I shut myself down.
It was like closing a door. All at once, his pain disappeared, leaving only the feeling that I should be surprised by how easy it had been. Like I had struggled to do it in the past. Butwhywould I have struggled with something so simple? I was a Primal god.
“What pain do you remember?” he asked, several inches closer now.
I couldn’t answer that either. An image flashed in my mind: crimson and dull-white—blood and bone.
“Okay.” A muscle flexed along his jaw. “We’ll figure it out together.”
Together?
“But first, you must be hungry,” he said.
An ache rippled across my jaw. I was.
“So very hungry,” he murmured, his gaze never leaving mine. I didn’t even think he blinked. “Right?”
I stayed silent, but my hands opened and closed. It hurt to speak. It hurt to breathe. My head ached, and when I thought too hard, all I saw were crimson-laced shadows in my mind. All I heard was instinct warning me not to trust him.To…Get out before he grows even more powerful.Take him down.Do it—
“Stop,” I hissed, pressing my hands to the sides of my head.
“Stop what?” Concern colored his tone. “Poppy?”
I lowered my hands and saw him eyeing me like he could see right into me. It made me squirm. I lowered my hands the rest of the way. I needed to focus. I needed to…
Do it now. Do it before it’s too late. Don’t be—
“Weak,” I whispered as the beautiful man across from me watched.
“You’ve always been so weak and fragile,” he whispered. “I love that about you.”
