I tilted my head mockingly. “Are you fucking her?”
“Watch your mouth.” Black horns grew from his skull as his chest rumbled in warning. “Don’t insult her.”
“It’s insulting for her to be fucking you? Isee.” Laughter belted out of me, and I swiped my hair out of my face with a rake of my fingers. “Soft spot for her, huh, counselor? Sheisquite the fascinating soul eater. I can’t seem to get the way her tears slid down her rosy cheeks out of my head. She’s been on my mind all night.”
His breath hitched, but his skewering gaze never wavered. “And what is it about her that's been occupying your thoughts?”
I leaned forward, lips twitching in excitement with how worked up he was getting over her. It seemed like Darkmorereallyliked the little soul eater. They were totally fucking. “I can't help but want to possess her, to make hermine.”
His nostrils flared. “She’s not yours, though, Shadowheart.” He reached for his coffee cup and downed a few gulps before setting it down with a thud. The scent of caramel wafted from it, mixed with fae magic. “Messing with her and hurting her isn’t a way to make her yours, either.”
I smirked, leaning back against the sofa. “Are you drinking caramel fae wine out of a coffee cup? I bet caramel has nothing to do with Pandora,” I mocked him. “Her sweet scent would never make its way into your diet, would it?”
“Don’t change the subject.” Anger laced his voice, and pure rage wafted off him, filling my reserves. “Pandora is not a woman to be controlled. She needs to be genuinely cared for.Can you do that without causing her further harm?”
A chuckle bursts from my lips, dripping with sinister amusement. My shoulders shook with mirth. “Care for her? When did I say that I cared for her? I said her tears were pretty, Counselor. I enjoy your reactions, but I amobsessedwith hers.”
“That isn't healthy, Shadowheart. You can't treat others like objects to be manipulated for your own gain. She deserves to be respected and treated with kindness,” he growled out the words as his eyes flickered to a glowing white.
If she and Darkmore were fucking, that didn’t concern me. All I wanted was her pain and negative feelings, anyway…so why did the thought of them together set my teeth on edge?
I uncrossed my legs and rose from the sofa, feeling a dark smile smear over my face. “You don’t get it. You don’t know what it’s like to crave something so intensely that you'd do anything to possess it. And believe me, Darkmore, Iwillhave her, whether you like it or not.”
With a roar, he stood, and I could feel his magical energy growing rapidly as he glowered at me from behind his desk. “I won't let you hurt her. Now, sit down, or I’ll have to put in a request to have you switched to a different counselor. Thatwould inform your parents since they were the ones who sent you here.”
Scowling, I gritted my teeth and sat my ass back down. I didn’t care about much, but I did hate pain. If my parents found out about my lack of cooperation, pain would come all too soon. “I make no promises.”
“Let’s talk aboutwhyyou’re so hellbent on pursuing Pandora.” He took his seat as well.
“What’s it matter?” My jaw ticked, and I glanced behind him at the map on the wall with all of the red Xs. “Why do you have so many fucking Xs on the map?”
“It matters because understandingwhymeans we can get to the root of the problem.” The glowing in his eyes faded, and his regular white and gray-ringed eyes came back. “It’s for my second job, but we aren’t here to talk about me.”
My gaze narrowed at him. “I’m not broken. I don’t need to get to the root of any problem.”
“No one is saying you’re broken, but what you did to Pandora wasn’t okay.” Rage simmered in his eyes as if talking about it bothered him more than me. Not that itdidbother me. “She asked you not to, and you struck her anyway. Consent is important.”
“It’s not like I fucked her,” I grumbled. I knew what consent was. I wasn’t stupid.
The room shook with his vengeance magic,and I could see him struggling to hold back from killing me.
“Consent is important in more than just sex, Shadowheart.” His voice rumbled in his chest with every word. “Feeding should be consensual when you have to cause the energy to feed on.”
My lips curved into an amused smile. “So since your anger is filling up my reserves without me forcing it, it’s cool to eat it up without consent?”
“You know how consent works with feeding. Do not test my patience.” He let out an exasperated sigh, face scrunched up like he was constipated. Maybe he was. He was unusually grumpy. “You need to take responsibility for hurting her and feeding on her pain without consent.”
“Responsibility? You want me to take responsibility for something I’m hardwired to do?” I scoffed. “I’m a fucking shadow demon.”
“You need to acknowledge the pain you've caused her and the damageyou'veinflicted,” he told me in a haughty tone.
“What’s it matter? It’s just pain, Darkmore,” I growled. “I’m a shadow demon. We’re all fucking demons here. Pain is nothing!”
“To her, it is,” he said harshly.
I flinched like I’d been hit by his magic, and maybe I was. But why would pain meansomething to a pampered soul eater? Easy answer, it wouldn’t. Which meant either Darkmore was talking out of his ass, which was possible, or there was more to her than meets the eye. “Can we talk about anything else?”
Darkmore’s glower intensified, but he nodded. “Can you tell me about your parents?”
