"It makes you feel nothing!" he roars, knocking the vial from my hand. It rolls across the floor, coming to rest against the wall. "That's the magic talking! It's not real!"
"How would you know what's real?" I challenge, anger rising to meet his. "You haven't felt it. You don't understand what it's like to have someone else's emotions mingling with yours, to sense their thoughts, their desires. To be bitten, marked, claimed."
"I understand watching the woman I died for—the woman I loved—spread her legs for my murderer."
His words find every tender place where my guilt lives, pressing until I can't breathe. "That's not fair," I whisper.
"Fair?" he laughs bitterly. "Was it fair when Malakai's shadows tore me apart while you watched? Is it fair when I wake up trapped in another man's body, forced to watch you surrender to him over and over? Forced to watch you complete the mating bond with him?"
A flicker of movement catches my eye—a flash of silver at the window. Ivy hovers outside, her tiny fae face contorted with panic as she beats silently against an invisible barrier. Her mouth moves frantically, but no sound penetrates the cottage walls.
"She can't help you," Asher says, following my gaze. "The barrier isn't just magical, it's iron-laced, woven with the one element that drains fairy power. Each time she strikes it, it weakens her further, but she keeps trying anyway."
His eyes flicker between amber and a darker, flat black, as if two souls are fighting for control of one body.
"Asher, please," I say, trying to keep my voice calm despite the fear building in my chest. "This isn't you. Let me go, and we can figure this out together."
"Together?" he laughs, the sound sharp and unfamiliar. "Like you and Malakai together? Fucking against walls where anyone could see? Did you scream my name like that when I was alive? Did you beg for my knot the way you begged for his?"
"Stop," I whisper.
"I watched you surrender to him," he continues, stalking closer. "I watched you melt for the Alpha who tore me apart. And you want me to let you go back to him? Back to your mate?"
Outside, Ivy throws herself against the barrier with increasing desperation. The cottage trembles with each impact, dust raining from the ceiling, but the barrier holds.
"You're not yourself," I say, moving around the table to put distance between us. "This is Cade talking, not you."
His expression shifts suddenly, the eyes that stare down at me cycling between Asher's amber, Cade's dark brown, and something else entirely—a black void that suggests whatever magic brought Asher back came with a terrible price. "Does it matter? He hates you, too. We all do."
He lunges across the table, faster than I can react in my weakened state. His hand closes around my injured arm, fingers digging into the open wound. I cry out as pain lances through me, fresh blood welling between his fingers.
"I love you," he snarls, face inches from mine. "I would have died for you willingly. Instead, I died because of you, and you reward my sacrifice by opening your legs for my murderer. By letting him knot you, bite you, mark you as his Omega."
Terror floods my system, and suddenly the fog in my mind clears slightly—adrenaline burning through whatever drug is in my system. With unexpected strength, he hurls me across the room. I hit the wall hard, my head snapping back against the wooden planks with a sickening crack. Stars explode across my vision as air is forced from my lungs. Before I can recover, he's on me again, his fist connecting with my cheekbone. The impact sends my head sideways, and I taste blood as my teeth cut into my lip.
"Asher, stop!" I plead through swelling lips, struggling against his grip. "This isn't you!"
"Isn't it?" he challenges, backhanding me across the other cheek. The force tears my lip completely, blood trickling down my chin. One hand moves to my throat while the other grabs a fistful of my hair, yanking my head back, exposing the fresh mating mark on my throat—Malakai's bite, permanent and visible. "How would you know? You replaced me the moment I was gone; let another Alpha claim you."
I bring my knee up sharply, connecting with his groin. He doubles over with a curse, and I shove him away, scrambling for the door. But the drug and beating have left me weaker than I realized. My legs give out halfway across the room, sending me crashing face-first to the floor. Wood splinters bite into my palms and cheeks.
He recovers too quickly, grabbing my ankle and dragging me back across the rough planks. I kick and fight, my fingers clawing at the wooden floor until my nails tear and bleed, but I'm no match for his strength. He flips me over and drives his knee into my ribs. I gasp, the wind knocked out of me.
He straddles me to immobilize me, his weight pressing against my bruised ribs. When I continue to struggle, his fist crashes into my left eye. Pain explodes through my skull, and I know it will swell shut within minutes. "Drink it, and this all ends."
"No!" I twist beneath him, but he captures my wrists, pinning them above my head with one strong hand. Through the pain and terror, I feel the mating bond flare—Malakai sensing my distress.
"Then I'll make you," he growls, reaching for the vial with his free hand.
I buck upward, trying to throw him off. The movement makes my dress ride up, and something in his expression changes—darkens with an intent that sends ice through my veins.
"So eager to move against me now," he says, voice dropping to a dangerous purr that sounds nothing like Asher. "Were you this responsive with him?"
"Let me go," I demand, renewing my struggles despite the pain.
His hand leaves my wrists, but before I can capitalize on the freedom, it clamps around my throat instead—right over Malakai's mating mark. My vision clouds as he squeezes, just enough to restrict my air without cutting it off completely.
"I could take what you gave him," he says, his other hand trailing down my body to the hem of my dress. "Show you the difference between a man who loves you and an Alpha who only wants to possess his Omega."
