I paused, grounding myself with a deep breath. I had so many questions my head could barely hold them in order. But the one thatcame out first was too simple. It slipped past my lips before I could filter it.
“Why did you move here?”
“Because I have nowhere else to go.”
I squinted. “You sure? Because I can count.”
“I’m not a fan of staying alone.”
I nearly laughed. “You expect me to swallow that?”
“Yes.”
Unbelievable. I pushed my head back, a sharp breath punching out of me. I ran my fingers through my hair, pausing at the roots as if they could deliver sense to me. His eyes didn’t leave me for a second, watching with that same unreadable calm.
“Don’t worry your little head about my intentions,” he said eventually. “So long they don’t involve killing you.”
“But you have intentions,” I pointed out. “Towards me.”
“Positive ones.”
A sigh, long and tired, escaped from the pit of my chest.
I was facing a man who had stalked me the day I arrived in Nimorran…the same one who had warned me about The Crater, saved me from the Pylath, and somehow paid double my rent just so he could move into the same space as me. And worse, he wasn’t bothered by the fact that I knew he might not be human. He was very relaxed, making me wonder if he had handpicked and cornered me, knowing I couldn’t leave this town.
My mother believed in the idea that danger didn’t always wear fangs, sometimes it wore beautiful skin and said your name like a vow. He wanted something. And thatsomethingcould be my life.
“What do you want from me?” I asked finally, voice raw with sincerity. I stared straight at him, demanding the truth.
“You want to know?”
Carefully, I nodded.
He didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he placed both arms on the counter and leaned in, stare unwavering and intense enough that I almost looked away. Almost. But I held it. And the longer I did, the more goosebumps broke out along my skin.
I was about to speak when he beat me to it.
And what he said split the world right down the middle.
“I want you to fall in love with me.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
SANORA
Three seconds. That was all I could manage before a laughter ripped out of me.
It started as a sharp bark, a very abrupt one, and then I doubled forward, slamming my hand against the counter hard enough to send a jolt of pain up my wrist. The sound that tore out of me was too loud, too raw, echoing around the house.
I managed a glance at him through watery eyes. He was just standing there, arms folded across his chest, watching me.
That only made it worse.
A fresh wave of laughter hit me, and this time I completely lost it. I dropped to the floor, my legs giving out beneath me as I clutched my stomach. My muscles cramped with the force of it. It hurt. It physically hurt. But I couldn’t stop laughing.
“What? Fall? In l—love?” I didn’t even know what was funny. Maybe it was the delivery or the conviction in his voice, like he was asking me to pass the salt, not to hand over my heart.
Thanks to that, one thing was clear now. He wasn’t human.
