“Leave me alone,” I snarled, flicking my hand out toward him.
He hopped backward but lifted off, shooting up to land on my shoulder.
I wanted to shove him away, but when he pecked my cheek with affection, all I could do was sob.
Drask was a bird. He might also be a spy, but his bird-ness remained. I’d rescued him, and I doubted anyone had made the effort to hurt him that badly solely because they thought I’d come across the poor creature and work hard to save his life, let alone befriend him.
Vexxion had manipulated Drask just like he had me.
That thought made it easier to stroke the crow’s back, to let him peck my face once more.
Tears continued to razor down my cheeks. The floodgates had burst wide open, and there was no stopping the rush now. Sometimes, it made more sense to let the water rip. It would churn across everything in its path, cleansing it, leaving a clean, wide-open space behind.
That could be me.
Like always, I felt Vexxion arrive behind me before I saw him. And when his hand landed on my hair, stroking, I wrenched away, crawling around Glim fast enough to make the beast jump and skitter sideways.
Drask weathered the storm by clinging to my shoulder.
Vexxion stalked me with a flit, landing in front of me and latching onto my upper arms before I could flit somewhere myself.
“Let me go.” I broke his hold and scrambled backward until I slammed into the stone wall. Only knowing that Will might overhear and investigate kept me from screeching.
“Never,” he vowed, the scars on his neck standing out vividly against his skin. His jaw tightened. “You. Are. Mine.”
“The person I gave myself to no longer exists.” If he hadn’t blinked, I’d flit so far from him, he’d never find me. The fact that I remained here, still talking to him, told me how well he’d worked his way into my heart. I hated it. Hated that my knees shook. It was all I could do to hold myself back from crawling to him. Begging him to love me. I ached to stroke away the pain etched into his face. “What the fuck do you want from me?”
“Everything, Fury. Everything.”
“You don’t have the right to call me that name any longer.”
He snapped forward in another flit, and before I could flee, he lifted me with his threads and trapped me against the wall. He caged me in place further with his palms on my shoulders and his body tight against mine.
Drask squawked and flew down to land on the sandy floor.
“You will always be mine.” Vexxion’s voice came out deadened for the first time, as if he spoke the words he truly believed, but he’d lost the ability to inject his usual snarl.
You have no right to hold me,I shrieked in his mind.You’ve forced everything. I hate you.
You don’t. You love me.
I hate you!
If you did . . . If youtrulydid, I’d let you go.
Then do it.
Not yet.
“You owe me a favor, tiny storm.” His sapphire gaze locked on mine. “I’m collecting it.”
5
TEMPEST
Aflash, and we stood in a small meadow surrounded by woods. The grass had been clipped—or eaten to the nub by creatures—and what remained was carpeted with a billion flowers in various shades of purple.
Vexxion stared down at me with so much desperation on his face, it gutted me. His hands gripped my shoulders tight enough to pinch.
