Lorant ruled the night.
“I hate you.” Her eyes blazed with traitorous tears. “I hate you! Let me go.”
While she bucked and kicked, I feathered my words across her ear. “Do youtrulyhate me, my pretty little bride?”
2
Reyla
Ifroze.Pretty little bride?
Merrick’s words—coming from Lorant’s mouth.
“You fucker. You asshole,” I snarled. “Don’t call me that. Never you.”
“I call you what I please,” he growled.
“Well, fuck that too. You used me. Twisted me with this nasty little secret. But it’s over. I know who and what you are.”
“Tell me,” he purred, his words tickling across my nape and down my spine. Heat spiraled through me, and I froze, tears of dismay pricking at my eyes. How could my body betray me like this, make me crave him like this, when all I felt for him and Merrick was hatred?
“Whoam I?” he asked. “Whatam I? Do tell.”
“You’re Merrick. You’re Lorant. You’re both ofthem. One of you controls this body at night while the other takes it during the day.” Fury roared through me. “You used me, played with me, while you two laughed.”
And that was the worst of it. They’d broken me when nothing else ever had.
Well, watch this.
My attempt to flit from underneath him fizzled, leaving me still at his mercy, pinned in place by his big hands and his big,nakedbody.
Desperation clawed through me. I tried to flit again. Over and over, and…nothing.
“Please tell me you’re not trying to leave me so soon, Wildfire. You came here for something, and I’ll happily oblige.”
“Fuck you. Take my body if that’s what you’re determined to do. Use me in every way possible. But know right now that while I might not be able to fight you off, I will find my revenge.”
How could I have thought I was falling in love with him—andwith Merrick? That foolish feeling had been cauterized away, leaving only ashes behind.
I gave him a slick smile. “You’re going to die, Lorant. Die! And in less than six weeks.”
“This could be true.” Sadness flickered through his deep green eyes, and seeing it punched me in the gut, slamming through my anger, leaving only stupid pity behind.
“Why?” I asked. So many whys with not one single answer. “Tell me why you used me.”
“I’ve wanted you from the moment I first saw you. All of you. Every scrap of kindness, joy, and caring you might deign to give me.”
How slick, how full of sappy emotion he sounded. But it wasn’t true. All this was a lie.
“I knew there was almost no chance I’d ever be able to haveyou,” he added with a wry contortion of his mouth. “Do you know what that did to me?”
“This isn’t about you.”
“Isn’t it?” His face took on a sardonic twist. “You avoided me night after night, leaving me standing in the tower. Alone. Waiting. Always waiting.”
“You said we couldn’t meet up.”
“I did not!”
