I twitch a smile. His laugh is contagious. Infectious. Annoyingly captivating.
As I clear my throat, I look away to face the door again. “Where is the cure?”
“I don’t know. If I knew, I would have it by now.”
“Then how do you know there is one to find?”
He taps his finger faster against the bed. “When Mother vanished, there was a rumour she left something behind. A piece of her to find. A silver tear. Even a rumour can hold a grain of truth, and from the voices of biohumans known as slayers, it wouldn’t surprise me if they knew where to look.” His eyes narrow, and the shadows clinging to him expand. “They’re always looking for something to ruin. Something to control.”
“You hate them?”
“What’s to love?”
I simply shrug in response.
Breathing another laugh, the shadows ease. “Your turn. What will you do when you leave Darkovish?”
My brow furrows. “I’m going to help my friends find their families.”
“And?”
“And…?”
“Is that all?”
My fingers twitch against the mattress. “Jax wants me to go to his settlement.”
The nightwalker straightens. “And you don’t?”
I press my lips together and pull away from those intense eyes, glaring down at my hands and the skin peeling around my fingernails. “What if one day, I cannot hold my glamour anymore, and I am behind the walls ofpeople who would see me as the enemy? So as much as I want to, I’m scared because I amthis.”
“You areyou.”
I give a slight smile, but it’s strained. “I don’t particularly like me, nightwalker. I was hidden away, unable to play with children my age. I was scared that one day, I would bite them. Drink from them. Become mindless and kill them.” I clasp my hands together as my body involuntarily leans towards him. “I still am.”
“You shouldn’t fear yourself.”
Facing him, I say, “Everyone has fears. I’m sure you have some.”
“Only one,” he admits with a slight incline of his shadowed head. “It’s a recent development.”
My fingers twitch against my clamped hands. “It is only fair you spill yours now that I have shared mine.”
He chuckles darkly as he leans closer into me and tilts his head to the side. Shadows tremor around him, basking in his emotions. “Very well, I fearyou.”
A hollow breath escapes me.
“I fear that when the red moon rises, you will die, and I don’t want that, kamai.”
“Why?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
There’s a gentleness in his eyes, melting into pools of liquid that lower to my lips. A tingling sensation crawls across my skin, and the shadows move to consume the exposed flesh, pressing like fingerprints all over my body.
A shallow breath escapes me, hollow, but not afraid. My muscles tighten as I lean towards where his mouthshould be. Something within me comes alive, ignited by soft words and receptive ears.
It’s difficult to place, but as his shadows dance around my body, luring me to him, I am trapped—like the first time he bit me. But this time, I want to be caught. Ensnared by a creature that could kill me in a heartbeat if he wanted to.
