“Come home with me.”
I hike up my skirt and rip free the dagger sheathed at my thigh. Kylian’s eyes sparkle—either at the flash of skin or the idea of a challenge. Probably both.
“So it’s to be a fight then?” He makes a show of patting his pockets and cocks his head, fanning his heavy lashes.
“I’m afraid I left my lucky sword at home.”
I clutch the blade in one hand and hurl out a wave of fire with the other. Kylian chuckles, shadows sprouting from his body, curling through the air like thick smoke. I swing my blade on reflex, my mind emptying of all Jace’s training.
I’m on edge. Flighty. Unfocused.
I grit my teeth and eject a ring of fire around myself, but Kylian flicks his hand, and a wave crashes against it, dousing the flames entirely. When I call that fire again, it refuses to come. It’s like my spark has been stolen. I try and try, but only steam rises in the air, and I know it’s Kylian’s doing.
I reach for my shadows, willing them to buy me some time. I won’t get close enough to kill him this way. Without the element of surprise, I’m no match.
You lack control.
I start at his words in my mind.
But he’s right. No matter how powerful my blood may be, I have no idea how to use it when it counts. Luck won’t be enough this time.
I try anyway.
But when my shadows appear around my ankles, they flow toward Kylian. I try to rein them in, but they mingle with his—embracing like old friends. I stagger back a step.
How is he doing this?They’remyshadows.
I can show you.The bastard smiles at me and shrugs his shoulders like this is just a harmless game.
Then I feel something sharp inside my head. Like claws sinking into my mind with lethal precision, taking hold of me, eager to shred straight through my consciousness.
I can’t move. I can’t breathe against the intensity. My head is screaming.
I can show you how to do things no one else could ever teach you. Like how to shatter a mind with barely a thought.
I grind my teeth, groaning beneath the paralyzing pain.
All that beautiful anger—that rage—I can help you control it. Turn it intosomething magnificent.
“I don’t want your fucking help.” My voice trembles under the weight of his attack. I grunt, trying to shove back against the riot in my head.
“Fine. I’ll play fair. No magic,” Kylian says in earnest, waving a hand.
The pain subsides as the razored claws retract. I suck in a loud gasp. He crooks a finger at me, inviting me to strike. When I don’t move, he zaps in front of me faster than I can blink.
My reflexes kick in as I latch onto him and plunge my dagger into his side. I feel his flesh part around the knife, feel his hot blood leaking out around my shaking fist. He lets out a cruel laugh, sinking to his knees.
I rip the dagger free, angling it above him to strike again, but he’s quicker. His hands fly up, redirecting the blade toward me as he rises to stand.
“Silly witch. That wasn’t my heart. But you already knew that, didn’t you?”
He backs me up a step. And then two. My arms quake as the stiletto nears my own heart. He smiles, barely exerting himself.
With a wild cry, I finally shove backward, ripping myself loose. I hear something tear, but I can’t look away from him to see what. He clasps my dagger as I clamber backward, tripping over my damned hoop skirt.
Heart hammering, I pedal backward on my hands, suddenly overwhelmed. Suddenly helpless.
“Go ahead. Run. I’ll even give you a head start to go find your little captain. Or your familiar. I can’t quite keep track of your many trysts these days.”
