He tilted his head to the side as he considered me, “Doing what?”
“Are you influencing my emotions?” I demanded, clutching the dagger tighter. “Making my fear fade? Making me feel—” I slammed my mouth shut, not wanting to admit to the other feelings he provoked in me with his mere proximity. His nostrils flared, and I knew he scented my arousal, as much as I wanted to deny its existence.
He drew in a deep, startled breath. “Your feelings seem altered?”
Now it was my turn to be startled at his quiet question.
“That doesn’t make any sense.” He continued, mumbling to himself. His head turned to the side, and I watched the flow of moon glow hair fall over his shoulder. When those purple eyes found me again, I felt trapped under their gaze. “I can’t influence emotions. Now, if you’d remove the dagger…”
He went to push it away and I dropped it into my other hand, bringing it back up instantly. He caught my wrist and I grappled with him for control of the blade. Our hands weaved in and out of each other’s as I tried to point the dagger at him, and he tried to lower it—until he finally bothered to exert a bit of force. The merest amount enough to overpower me, my frustration mounting as he took the blade from my hand. He held not only the dagger, but all the power too.
“What am I going to do with you?” He laughed, shaking his head.
I brought my leg up, taking the guard’s advice and trying to knee him in the balls, but his hand wrapped around my thigh, holding my leg in mid-air, a teasing smirk on his lips as he raised his brows at me. I glared at him, trying to surprise him with a punch to the face, but he grabbed my fist, using it to step into me while holding our arms to the side. Trapping me between him and the brick wall.
Our bodies touched in ways that shouldn’t thrill me as they did—lighting me up from the inside. My nipples grazed his chest,covered in that thin, scaled black armor. His sharp cheekbones caught my attention as I traced them with my eyes. He chuckled, his own eyes dropping downward, his tongue licking his bottom lip lightly before his sharp canine scraped over it—looking more like a true fang, the kind the now extinct Vampyres were said to have possessed than they had on any other Fae I’d seen. I was quickly distracted from that when I realized how exposed this dress truly left me under his gaze. I told Pris, this damn dress was nearly indecent.
But the heat I felt as he watched my heaving breasts? It was so,sowrong.
He raised his other hand and trailed his fingers down my cheek. “I don’t understand what you are doing to me, but it has to stop.” His throat bobbed on a gulp, and I watched the movement avidly. “Fucking Nox. You need to stop looking at me like that.” His whisper sounded like pure sex, melting me like a candle dripping wax.
“Like what?” I breathed out. Our eyes locked, and colors began to dance in his eyes: green, pink, blue—all mixing with the purple. The aurora existed within those orbs, and I was absolutely enthralled.
“Like you wantmore. Yousmelllike fucking sex.” He groaned, and I figured it was only fair, with the way he sounded. “I canfeelthe want radiating off you—your want for me, be it my body or spilling my blood. Such a violent little thing, aren’t you?” He growled, a rumbling noise I felt in my own chest, making me shiver. He let go of my hand finally, my arm falling limply by my side, but he brought his hands up, clasping both sides of my neck and tilting my head back. His lips came down, a millimeter of space between his and mine. A part of me begged for him to close that space between us.
The other part recognized this wasinsane. What was I doing?!
“Fuck! I would kill to be able to do this. But I can’t. I won’t.” He shook his head like he was trying to clear it from a fog as he stepped back, confusing me thoroughly.
“What—” I started, but his eyes snapped back to me, and I froze.
“Still think I’m a monster?” He whispered, tilting his head to the side.
“You’re still part of the Night Kingdom. You’re still Fae.” I whispered back, an answer, and a desperate reminder for myself of the reasons I had to grip onto my hatred with bloody fingernails.
He huffed a laugh, “So I am.”
He looked me over, his eyes felt like a sweep of shadow against my skin, and my entire body hummed in answer.
“I’ll see you soon.” He promised, grabbing my hand and placing the dagger back in it, wrapping my fingers around the hilt—and began to walk away.
“What do you mean?” I demanded, walking a few steps after him. “This is insane! You’re doing something to me. I want all of you Night Kingdom monsters dead!” All of my questions and doubts flew out of my head, nothing but rage sparking and firing through my mouth.
He stopped dead and turned to face me, smirking. Darkness began gathering, swirling into a cloud that surrounded him in a thick blanket of night, blotting out the sun. It took me a few moments to realize wisps of shadow were coming from his hands and drifting upward. I watched as those shadows reached out, strands aiming right for me until they consumed me entirely in their dark embrace.
My chest heaved as my breath quickened. It was just the two of us inside a cloud of unnatural darkness—and I had just essentially threatened him. I couldn’t see a thing, and my fear came trickling back in, knowing I was at a completedisadvantage. Stuck in the dark with a Fae who could likely see everything while I was left blind. An enemy Fae, at that.
“You’re right to fear me.” He spoke directly into my ear, making me jump. I hadn’t heard him approach at all. “I could kill you with a snap of my fingers. It would be so easy. Here in Dusk Kingdom, you’re better off trusting few. Strangers even less so.” I could picture the wry smile on his face at his tone.
“Why don’t you feel like a stranger?” I barely forced the words out. That feeling ofknowinghad pervaded me from the moment we met, and it hadn’t lessened since. Leaving me feeling off kilter and lost when it came to how to respond to him. Rage, lust, fear, peace…a swirl of conflicting emotions raced through me—all centered aroundhim.
He was silent, leaving me with nothing but the darkness for a solid minute. I swallowed and tried to look around, hoping for any glimpse of light in the darkness.
“That’s a damn good question, isn’t it?” He finally answered, but it was such a non-answer, I had to close my eyes for a moment to try to control my reflexive anger. It was pointless, in the end. I screamed in frustration, throwing my hands up in the air.
“Maybe I will stab you! If it will get you to answer an actual question!” I raged at him, needing to let some of it out before it burned me up from the inside.
He laughed,laughedat me, while my rage bubbled over. He let some of the darkness dissipate, and like a veil had lifted, my vision returned as I breathed a sigh of relief. As much as I loved darkness, I didn’t love being blinded by it. But I could now seehim. The current source of my trouble and a Fae I could attack with no compunction, no consequences—aside from him killing me if I failed, of course.
