Ember’s eyes widened, and she scrambled backward, kicking at the covers until her back hit the bed frame.
The light brightened, but it did nothing to fight the expanding darkness. The bed vibrated more forcefully, makingher book tumble over the edge and thump on the floor. She grasped the metal bars behind her.
The darkness closed in around her.
Ember whimpered, curling against the bed frame, and squeezed her eyes shut as she ducked her head. There was a roaring in her ears, growing louder, and louder, and louder.
Then it all stopped. The roaring, the rattling, the prickling sensation on her skin.
Tentatively, she opened her eyes and lifted her head. Both the unnatural blackness and the bright light were gone, leaving her room in perfectly normal nighttime darkness.
Ember ran a hand through her hair, sweeping it back. “What the fuck was that?”
A sudden bang beneath her bed wrenched a cry from her, and she almost didn’t hear the muttered curse from below over the sound of her own voice.
There was a scratch on the hardwood floor, followed by a rasping sound as though something was sliding out from beneath her bed.
“Of all the impractical, undignified places to draw a summoning circle…”
Ember’s breath hitched, and her eyes flared. That was a voice. A voice! A deep, velvety, masculine voice with a hint of a growl that seeped into her, warming her from within. No voice should’ve sounded that alluring, that otherworldly, especially if it belonged to…to what? The monster under her bed?
A figure emerged from the darkness. Its shape was humanoid, but it seemed to be comprised of shadows blacker than the blackest night. As it shifted, a pair of eyes settled on Ember, gleaming like twin stars in the otherwise lightless void of space. Wings of shadow unfurled behind the figure.
More glittering stars blinked into existence across the creature, turning it into a tapestry of the night sky, and its bodysolidified before her eyes, distinct features forming from what had a moment before been impossible darkness.
The tall figure before her had a lean, muscled frame with broad shoulders and a narrow waist, and stood completely naked. Those shadowy wings spread wider, and she stared at them in awe—they were like tears in reality, magical windows revealing bright stars and nebulas against a dark purple sky.
His skin was also reminiscent of the night sky, blue-black with thousands of twinkling stars, even upon the gray colored portions making up his chest and face.
And oh God, that face…
It was the face of an angel, or perhaps more accurately, a seductive demon. His features were refined and sharp, with sculpted lips, a straight nose, and defined cheekbones. Thick, arched black brows rested over eyes that now shone brilliant blue and violet against black sclerae and were framed with long, dark lashes.
Short, tousled black locks framed that demonically attractive face, their ends curling roguishly against his forehead, cheeks, and neck. His ears were long and pointed, with silver hoop piercings on their lobes and helixes, each pair of earrings connected by two chains and adorned with a dangling spike. Two black, segmented horns sprouted from his temples, curling backward and up into lethal points.
Holy shit, he was…
“Gorgeous,” Ember whispered, unable to take her eyes off the creature.
Those unearthly eyes locked with hers and narrowed. “What did you say?”
Easing forward, she placed her hands on the bed and crawled toward him. She felt an inexplicable pull, a compulsion to be closer to him, to touch him. And shedidn’t fight it. He was a monster lover’s wet dream come to life. “Are you my wish?”
Frowning, he folded his arms across his chest. A long tail swished through the air behind him. “Your wish, mortal? I am your nightmare.”
Ember snorted with a roll of her eyes. “Hardly.” She slipped her legs over the edge of the bed and stood.
“Hardly?” Those wings stretched fully, and the room dimmed again, making the light of his eyes stand out even more starkly as he spread his arms in the mostbehold mestance Ember had ever witnessed in person. “I am the void, the vast, lightless emptiness between the stars, the cold embrace of a cosmos your mortal mind cannot fathom.”
She smiled as she approached him. “But you’re covered in pretty little sparklies.”
“Pretty little…?” His eyebrows slanted down sharply, creating a crease between them as he drew in his wings and stepped back from her advance. The moonlight made the silver spike piercings in his nipples glint. He bared his teeth at her, revealing a set of sharp fangs. “What are you doing?”
Ember continued closing the distance between them, the short skirt of her nightgown brushing her bare thighs. “Getting a closer look.”
“Stop, mortal. Immediately.”
Her smile widened into a grin. “Are you frightened of me?”
