Malakai began to circle me. “I am inclined to agree, but my sources say otherwise. If we were on the same side, it might prove quite powerful. Perhaps powerful enough to figure out what happened to your missing friends.”
My heart skipped a beat.
“What do you know?” I asked, my voice low.
“First, I need your loyalty,” he said. “Then I shall tell you.”
I shook my head. “That’ll never happen.”
Malakai pursed his lips. “That is too bad.”
“Tell me what you know about them? Did you kill them?” I asked, my voice hollow.
Malakai smiled innocently. “Truly. I am flattered. Goodness, look at you. Are you going to scream for Blake? Do you think he will come to your rescue? He might, the way you have him focused on that slender waist of yours. The Blake I knew before—he would not even hear you.”
What was he talking about?
“I don’t need him,” I seethed, my body tense with adrenaline.
“Are you sure about that?”
He slowly reached out, slipping a piece of hair behind my ear. A shiver ran through my skin where he touched me, and he let out a quick, taunting laugh.
“You are like a little doe, lost in the deep dark of the woods,” he said.
His eyes flickered down to my shirt, wet with the drink Draknir spilled all over me. The tug at his lips made me glance down.
I faltered. There were bright red stains across my shirt. My skin crawled as I smelled the metallic scent clinging to me.
“What’s going on?” a soft voice called.
Reece was stirring.
“Reece,” I called. “I want you to come to me, now.”
I withdrew the daggers I had hidden within my blazer.
I saw the thick red substance in the goblet Malakai held earlier and our eyes met, but the moment they did, his trailed down my face and stopped on my neck.
A chill descended my neck and down each limb as my grip tightened on the daggers. Something was stirring within me, deep and unnatural, collecting in clustering flares of combustion that left me shaking with energy.
I felt it pouring into my hands and slipping into my blades. Displeasure emanated from him.
“This is no fun,” he sneered. “I thought you wanted to see me alone?”
I took a breath, keeping tabs on everybody in the room.
“I did, but now I want to kill you,” I said, lowering into a threatening forward stance.
Reece was awake now and looking around in shock.
She tried to get up, but one of Malakai’s lackeys grabbed her shoulder, shoving her onto the sofa.
“Let her go,” Malakai said.
Reece got up and rushed over, standing behind me.
“Grab the torch,” I told her, never taking my eyes off Malakai. “I’ll be right behind you.”
