“You don’t speak to me like that.” Jaxon’s hand shot out, closing around her wrist with bruising force. “Ever.”
Araya flinched, wincing as she tried to pull away. “Jaxon—you’re hurting me.”
“I’m hurting you?” He laughed in her face. “Have you forgotten, Starling? You’remine. And so is your blood and your magic. I don’t have toaskfor what I already own.”
He wrenched her arm behind her back, slamming her onto the desk hard enough that her ears rang from the impact. She struggled, but pain lanced through her hips as he pinned her hard against the edge of the desk.
“This—this isnothing, Starling.” He leaned in, his breath hot on the back of her neck. “I could make this apartment your whole world. No more work. No more errands. No more distractions. Just you, me, and the child we both know you’ll give me growing inside you.”
Araya’s vision swam, tears falling freely as Jaxon pressed her into the unforgiving wood. His grip tightened, the bones in her wrist grinding together as he twisted her arm harder, making her shoulder scream.
“So what do you say, Starling?” Jaxon purred, his voice dripping with mockery and power. “Are you going to behave? Or do we need to call Kai to remove yourta’nararune?” He chuckled softly. “You’d still be better off than any unbonded fae female. Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted? Safety?”
Araya yelped as Jaxon’s grip shifted, pinning her forearm to the desk beside her face. But her panic didn’t spike until he shifted her hand to expose thely’ithrarune inked at the base of her thumb.
“Jaxon,” she started, her voice shaking as she tried to pull her arm away from him. But he only tightened his grip, pressing more of his weight onto her back until the room spun around her and she saw stars.
“Don’t fight me,” he warned. “I hate hurting you, Starling. Don’t make it worse.”
Araya’s tears spilled over, fear curdling into hopelessness as she realized there was no escape. She closed her eyes, her body trembling as she waited for the inevitable. Pain and terror twisted together in her mind, a whirlwind of agony that left her gasping for breath, yet a single, desperate thought clawed its way to the surface—survive.
Then Jaxon’s power surged into her like a thousand iron-tipped needles. Her vision blurred as her magic—already rising to meet him like a lover—recoiled at the violent assault, fleeing to some deep place inside of her. But Jaxon followed it—dragging it from her as she gasped in silent agony. The absence left her hollow, a puppet with its strings cut. She couldn’t even scream.
It was brutal. It was excruciating. It was relentless. And she could not stop him.
Araya’s scream lodged in her throat, only a choked sob escaping as her power fled her at his command. Her body trembled, each shuddering breath a battle against the darkness creeping at the edges of her vision. She was slipping, her strength draining away like sand through her fingers.
“You’re mine to use as I see fit, Starling,” he murmured in her ear. “Magic, mind, and body. That means if I want your magic, you will not fight me. If I want your blood, you’ll roll up your sleeve and offer your arm with a smile. And if I want to take you against the wall of that filthy cell where the heir to the fae throne can watch? You will spread your legs and show him exactly who you belong to.”
He released her, letting her collapse onto the floor behind his desk. With a monumental effort, she forced her eyes open, the room spinning around her. She tried to push herself up, but her arms gave out, and she collapsed back onto the floor, a pained whimper escaping her lips.
Jaxon clicked his tongue in disapproval. “Pathetic,” he muttered, before crouching down beside her. His hand gripped her chin, tilting her head up so she had no choice but to look at him. “Remember thisfeeling,” he said, his grip on her face hard and cruel. “You stand beside me because I allow it, Starling. But your place? That’s on the floor by my feet. Don’t forget again.”
Araya listened to his footsteps cross the room, flinching as he slammed the door and plunged the office into silence.
Chapter
Twenty-Four
The damp chillof the dungeon was as familiar as his own skin. The rough stone walls. The muted clang of distant footsteps. The lingering taste of iron in his mouth.
He’d thought Hale had killed him—that this was finally over. But Jaxon’s Healer had pulled him back from the brink, slowly and painfully knitting his flesh back together and forcing his body to recover. Her magic numbed his body, the tonic she forced down his throat softening the edges of his mind. It dulled everything—even his slow, creeping awareness of the shadows that slipped back out of the corners once she and Jaxon left. They whispered urgently, but the only thing Loren could understand washername.
Araya.They said it over and over again, their voices rising to a frenzied pitch.
He hadn’t seen her—not in his cell, not in his dreams—since Hale had torn him from her mind. It should have been a relief. But fear tightened around his throat like a noose. He had no way to know if Hale had gotten to her too. No way to know if she was safe.
He fought the sedative, trying to stay conscious as his vision blurred and the world dulled around him. He couldn’t help her likethis—but exhaustion rushed over him, dragging him under like a dark tide.
But then—fear. Not his. Hers—Araya.
Araya wasterrified.
Loren’s body jerked. He was useless in the waking world, but somewhere deep in his mind—something cracked open. Shadows surged forward, rushing into the gap as he latched on to her fear, cutting a path through the numbing weight pushing down on him. It was a beacon, dragging him steadily through the chaotic, fragmented jumble of their minds.
The dreamscape was fragmented—one moment, there was nothing but darkness. The next, he felt hands on him. The sharp bite of a hard surface against soft skin, the salty taste of tears. Her fear. Her memories.
The shadows lashed outward, trying to rip through the shifting dream and pull her toward him. But the dream fought him—her fear spiking, then pulling away like a string unraveling faster than he could catch it.
