I shove at him with a telekinetic blast that sends him spinning backwards like a horizontal tree trunk. The shadows binding me loosen, and I shake them off to make my pursuit. Ghoul lands, rolling over the concrete, and I leap onto his back, spiralling my tail around his, wrapping my body around him until I am taut, trapping him entirely. He hisses in protest.
“An excuse to get close to me?”he taunts.
“No,”I snarl.“And keep your hemipenis away from me.”
“You can put your cloaca wherever you like.”
There was once a time when I let a mate make a mistake. Allowed a mate to take advantage of me.“Xander might never recover from what he did. His regret means nothing to him. I’m not going to let that happen again.”I squeeze my body around his, like an anaconda around prey.“I feel your lungs,”I say viciously.“The air that’s trying to get in.”
“I feel the beat of your heart,”he whispers.
I try to unwrap myself, but it’s too late. We are tangled, and Ghoul, sensing my intentions, begins to spiral himself around me. His power coils around me, dark and intense. His scales against mine, now warm, sliding and loosening something inside of me. Suddenly, I want to breathe that dark power into the bases of my lungs and let it consume me until I’m drunk on it.
“I waited for you,”he says, just before my vision blinks out and everything goes black.
Chapter 73
Ghoul
Just over one year ago
She’s in our cottage, but this time, there’s a duffle bag on the couch, and she’s carefully counting the things inside it. She lets out a big sigh and rubs her eyes. I knew it was coming, but the sudden realisation hurts in a way nothing has before.
She’s going to leave.
Leaveme.
I’ve never been able to see a mark on her neck, but I know she’s mine. I let myself realise it as soon as she came of age. As soon as Mace Naga came to our bungalow and made her submit. That sealed things for me.
It’s finally time. And I have no other choice.
I’m a monster in a cell of all darkness, all silence, all cold.
And that’s a good thing.
It reminds me of when I was young and my family sent me away from the village to be alone where I couldn’t hurt anyone. Where my eyes wouldn’t kill my friends. All I remember of my guardians are whispers of “I’m sorry,” carried on a desperate breath. A frightened breath.
And now, in another type of confinement, I lie safe and sound, whenshecomes in.
I feel only relief at the power breezing through the steel door. That golden power holds a promise against my aching soul. An expert mind brushes against my spine. It twitches in surprise at first, then gently handles the power I bound around myself.
My regina has come for me.
It worked. Everything would be alright.
Chapter 74
Aurelia
Ghoul’s scales slide against mine, and I realise he has me in his complete hold, the full length of his powerful body completely wrapping mine. He’s supposed to be trying to kill me, so why does it feel comforting after what I’d just seen?
Every memory of his makes me reel. Makes my world spin on its axis so I don’t know which way is up or down. Like being caught under a violent wave that sends you tumbling in the undertow.
“What—”I manage to choke out.
Every time I see him watching me in his memories, it’s like another knife to the gut. Even in my darkest moments, he’d been there. As I’d packed my bags, he’d been there. I remember that moment, counting tampons in my bag. Counting my meagre possessions. If only I’d raised my head and turned a little, I might have caught sight of him. The edge of a shadow, maybe even the glow of a mating mark.
But how had we gotten from that first memory to the next?
