"Your entire mortal life would pass in a blink." He leaned in, lips nearly brushing her ear. His words stirred the fine hairs at her temple. "I want all of it. Every year, every day, every breath. Until the forest claims you completely."
The finality of it crashed over her. She shoved at his chest, surprised when he actually stepped back. His smile said he'd allowed it, that her resistance amused him.
"This isn't a game!"
"No." All amusement vanished from his features. He looked at her the way winter looks at spring—hungry and patient and inevitable. "Now choose."
The forest held its breath around them. She could feel her pulse in her throat and the ghost of his touch burning on her skin. But stronger than any of that was the image of Allegra's face, trusting her big sister to fix everything like always.
"If I agree..." Her voice emerged as barely a whisper. "What happens?"
He moved closer again, and this time she didn't back away. Couldn't. Some magnetic force held her in place as he invaded her space. "Three days to say goodbye. Then you return to me." His fingers found her chin, tilted her face up to meet his gaze. The touch sent heat racing through her veins. "Forever."
"And if I don't?"
His grip tightened, just enough to make her gasp. The sound seemed to please him. "Then I drag you back myself." His thumb traced her lower lip, and heat pooled low in her stomach despite the ice in his words. "And you'll learn what happens when someone tries to steal from me twice."
She jerked free, anger finally overriding whatever insane reaction her body was having to his proximity. "Fine. I agree."
"Say it properly." His voice dropped to something ancient and commanding that seemed to resonate in her bones. "Words have power here. You give your life to the Forest King."
Briar lifted her chin, met those inhuman eyes even as her knees threatened to buckle. The forest pressed close, waiting. Watching. "I agree to your bargain. I give my life to the Forest King in exchange for my sister's."
Fire lanced through her wrist, immediate and consuming. She cried out, clutching at it, watching in horror as dark lines bloomed across her skin. Thorned vines wrapped around her wrist in an intricate pattern, sinking into her flesh until she couldn't tell where the mark ended and she began.
"Exquisite." He caught her hand before she could pull it against her chest, thumb tracing the largest thorn. The touch sent heat racing up her arm, pooling in places that made her hate herself. "Does it hurt?"
"Yes," she gritted out between clenched teeth.
"Good." He brought her wrist to his lips, pressed a kiss to the mark that made it pulse with dark fire. The sensation shot straight through her, electric and wrong andundeniably pleasurable. "It should. Every time you think of running, it will remind you who you belong to."
She snatched her hand back, cradling it against her chest. He smiled like he'd won the war, not just the battle.
A fruit appeared in his palm, plump and glowing, crystallized starlight given form. It pulsed with its own heartbeat, casting strange shadows through his fingers. "She must consume every drop, every seed. Leave nothing."
She took it with shaking hands, the fruit warm and alive against her palms.
"Three days, little thief." He stepped back, and suddenly the path to the road blazed clear before her, lined with golden flowers. But his eyes held her pinned, made promises that terrified her more than his threats. "Dawn of the fourth day. Don't keep me waiting."
Briar said nothing.
She ran.
She looked back only once. The forest stood empty, as if he had never existed at all. But she could still feel his gaze burning into her back, could still taste the wild green scent of him with every breath. The mark throbbed with each heartbeat, a constant reminder that whispered with his voice:
Mine.
And the worst part? Some traitorous part of her answered back:Yes.
Briar stumbled from the tree line gasping, her legs shaking with each step toward her car. The normal world of asphalt and metal, felt too bright after the impossible forest. Had it all been just a terrible dream? No. The fruit in her hands felt warm against her palms, too real to be a hallucination.
Her car. She needed her keys—
A sudden weight in her jacket pocket, as though something had been dropped into it, nearly made her sob. She pulled the keys out, fingers shaking. They were solid and real and absolutely impossible. Had they been there the entire time? She spun back toward the forest, but the tree line looked innocent now. Just trees and empty shadows. No sign of the otherworldly being who'd just claimed her life with a kiss to her wrist.
But she could feel it, feel him, watching from somewhere beyond the green darkness. The mark flared once, hot and possessive, and she yanked her sleeve down to cover it.
Three days.
