He doesn’t move. Doesn’t push me away.
His hands go to my waist and hold me there, but there’s no passion, only detachment.
I don’t like it at all.
“I don’t, actually.” Slowly, he pushes me away from him.
I step back just as those words cleave through my chest. The rage of my Prod is a dangerous thing, but I keep it tightly leashed.
“What are you saying?” My eyes narrow. My heart beats fast in a rhythm I can’t control. Before, I would have worried that these emotions that threatened to overflow would have brought forth the destruction of the entity buried deep inside me. Now, I am in control.
Finally.
“What have you done, Izara?” His voice breaks on my name. Something about that sound threatens to break me, too. “Did you really think this was the way to control your Prod?”
There’s a vehemence in his eyes that can’t be held back. My heart is beating faster and faster, and my hands tighten into fists at my sides. “It was the only way, Malek.”
He scoffs and shoves long fingers through his dark hair. “The only way towhat? Look around you! It’s a fucking shit storm, and things can only get worse. Demons are killing Prods—”
“I know very well what’s happening.” The words grind out tightly from my lips. “You think I didn’t witness it myself?”
“Butwhy? Why didn’t you trust us to help you? We could have, if you’d given us the chance.”
A burning sensation rises within me. I’m losing him, I know it. “This was the only way to keep my Prod in check. I had to absorb her completely. It’s the only way!”
He suddenly looks old and so, so sad. “I wonder… do you keep telling yourself that, if only to convince yourself, even when you know deep down that what you did is wrong?” He starts to turn, to walk away from me.
I feel my heart shatter in my chest.
“Don’t walk away from me!” My wings flare angrily, and I reach forward to grip him by the forearm. He whirls around, his upper lip pulling back in a snarl that reveals growing canines.
“Let go of me, corazón,” he pleads in a painful, broken voice. “I cannot stand by and watch you commit the biggest mistake of your life. I cannot watch you destroy yourself like this.”
“Don’t abandon me.” It’s a command and a plea rolled into one. I am all powerful now. I should have enough power to make him stay. I should, but I know, by the look on his face, that I don’t.
“Let go, Izara.”
I know, deep down I know, he’s drifting away from me. Prepared to leave and never look back. It hurts; the pain rises in burning desperation, and all I can think is that I have to make him stay. Somehow, I have to make him stay and love me again.
So I press closer, and he doesn’t fight me. Maybe it’s the tears warm in my eyes. I want to cry, but I refuse. I can’t help the crash of emotions inside me. Not when he’s so close and so far away, and this is the only thing I can think of to keep him close to me.
I frame his face between my hands and lean forward. “It’s the only way,” I whisper. “And you can’t leave me.Please. Please don’t leave me.”
He sighs, and I know his answer before he says it.
“I can’t stay.”
It breaks me entirely. I steel myself against the raging emotions inside and grip him tighter. “Malek.”
His eyes close as I say his name, and I know he’s not as invulnerable as he’s pretending to be. He is, after all, still a beast, ruled by primitive instincts, and I’m his mate.
He can’t walk away from me.
I won’t let him.
I lean toward him and press my lips against his, softly, gently. “Please. Say you love me,” I whisper with a tremble in my tone.
I hear his heartbeat speed up. “I do.” His hands reach up to grasp my wrists. “Which makes leaving you so much fucking harder.”
