Kaden’s shadows whipped out across the clearing, and I heard the trunks of several nearby trees crack. But I kept going.
“It’s just one more wall for you to hide behind so you don’t have to show your hand. Or let yourselffeel.”
I knew I’d gone too far, but somewhere in my tirade, I’d had an idea.
Judging by the stiff set of Kaden’s muscles and the uncontrolled movement of his shadows, something was happening.
Gone was the charming demon prince. His face was all harsh lines, half hidden by locks of midnight hair. Blackness leached into his irises like spilled ink, spreading into the whites of his eyes.
Fathomless, glittering darkness met my gaze, and I felt the bond between us growing fainter. Kaden himself seemed to fade away, stuffed behind the wretched evil that now peered out at me from my mate’s face.
Semphrys.
I staggered back as the Dark King regarded me with the face of the male I’d come to love.
There was no trace of Kaden left. No sarcastic wit. No gentleness. There was only a chilling emptiness that came from greed so insatiable that it left its host starved.
White-hot rage spilled into my bloodstream as I staredup at the Dark King, and for a moment, I was so incensed that I forgot to be afraid.
Here was the male who’d taken everything from Kaden before he was even born. He’d raped his mother. Bound Kaden to centuries of servitude as the Taker of Souls, forcing him to plunder his own beloved kingdom.
He’d imprisoned him.
Tortured him.
Combed his mind for information on me and destroyed his home.
After everything, Semphrys just stood there, peering out from his host. He’d cost us so much already, and he was never going to stop. He would continue to use Kaden until there was nothing left.
But Kaden had been right about one thing: I was a huntress. I’d been born to stalk the shadows and exterminate evil. I didn’t believe that there was some divine purpose for my kind.
I was a predator. And I was going hunting.
Moved by a sudden burst of insanity, I reached out and gripped the sides of Kaden’s face, smashing his forehead to mine. Those cold black eyes widened in shock, but I’d already delved into his mind.
Endless shadows billowed around me, somehow darker than before. I cast around for the glimmering golden light of our bond, but there was only that wretched black mist.
Cold air burned my lungs as I sprinted through Kaden’s mind, my own mental barrier firmly in place as I surged in to confront Semphrys.
A low, ruthless chuckle broke through the shadows, reverberating in my chest. It was Kaden’s laugh, and yet itwasn’t. It belonged to his father.
I whipped around but saw nothing. Only endless, choking shadows.
Taking a deep breath, I stopped searching and instead concentrated on the demon king’s essence.
While Kaden was steeped in night, his soul like a quiet laugh in the darkness, the depraved immortal I sought had an essence cobbled together from the stolen souls of thousands.
Strange smells and sounds bombarded my senses — snippets of lives that didn’t belong to Semphrys yet had somehow been woven into his being. There were no traits to latch onto — only the stew of rotten sludge that lay beneath the surface.
Closing my eyes, I reached for the residue that clung to his stolen essence, and my hands closed on something rough and sticky.
Instantly, I was hit by a wave of hunger. Greed. A deep need for control that hummed through my bones and nearly brought me to my knees.
Screams flayed my eardrums, echoed by moans of pain. The sounds of souls being ripped from their hosts in the dark, dank corners where monsters thrived.
Peeling my eyes open, I looked down at the frayed, rotten thing clutched in my hands. It was thicker than the mating bond and coated with a tarry black substance that reminded me of demon blood.
The sire bond.
