“Your promise to me is binding, Darci.”
I’ll never let you go.
He didn’t have to say it. The words were there in his eyes, in the determined set of his jaw.
“Then you should have stated clearly what you wanted from the get go. Hey, I’m good with no strings attached sex,” she lied. “Hell, you sure are better than my other lovers—”
“Don’t.” He rose, his pale eyes sparking in anger.
She stood there for a second, struggling to breathe. Unable to stop the growing pain in her chest. What lovers? She only had one. Her life had been so empty the last few years. She had no idea why she’d said that, maybe because she just wanted a reaction from him. To break through that icy reserve he suddenly seemed to wear.
What would be the point? He didn’t want anything more from her because if he had, he would have spoken to her, not closed up and shut her out.
Darci walked out of the dressing room, refusing to let the ache inside of her slip free. She’d followed a chance at happiness, only she hadn’t expected it to turn around and kick her in the heart. Or turn her into a sex toy for a fallen god.
Chapter 17
Blaéz scowledat the empty doorway. His injuries from the cage fight a dull ache now, they barely registered.
Did you really think she wouldn’t come to know about your depraved needs?
His jaw clenched. How could he explain to her that as much as he needed her, he needed pain, too? He rode a blade’s edge with the constant pull to give over to his dark side, especially when out on the street. Pain reminded him of who he was.
But her words bothered him.
Sex toy? Fuck buddy? Why the hell would she think that? Did she not understand anything? He didn’t want anyone, just her…with or without a soul, he realized.
And other lovers? He wanted to go find those nameless males and kill them for daring to know her in that primal way. Irrational it might be, but he didn’t give two fucks. She was his.
He left the room and went after her, only to stop in the foyer. He stared at the corridor leading toward the library. With the mood he was in, it would probably make things worse, so he made his way to the kitchen instead.
The tense air there had him glancing at the other occupants.
Echo was seated at the oak dining table, hunched over an open book. She cast him a quick, wary look. Aethan leaned against the counter opposite the table and watched Echo with a grim set to his jaw.
No, Aethan couldn’t have fucked up worse than he had.
The warrior sighed roughly. “Echo, you’re fretting over nothing.”
“How can you say that?” She jerked to her feet and started to pace, rubbing her arms as if she were cold. “It’s not nothing, it’s really not. This thing—this awareness inside me has been growing in the last few days… Something’s wrong. I sense it.”
A pin drop would have shattered the sudden silence. Blaéz wanted to leave, except he had a bad feeling about this.
Aethan appeared beside her in a flash. He grasped her arms and stopped her erratic pacing. “Echo, look at me. Tell me.”
At his soft demand, she inhaled a shuddering breath. Her mismatched eyes took on an eerie glow. “Something’s pulling at me, I can’t shake off this sense of urgency—I need to go.”
“Go where?”
Her hands flew out to encompass everything. “Same sensation like that first time when I was at Gran’s, then ended in the alley near Times Square—” Her gaze widened as if in realization. “Thereisanother rift. And no one told me—”
Aethan tensed, said nothing. She turned accusing eyes at Blaéz.
He kept his mouth shut. What could he say? So far, he’d been handling his relationship with all the finesse of a charging bull. He couldn’t see himself dealing with Echo’s anger any better than he had with Darci’s.
She glared back at Aethan. “How couldyounot tell me?”
“You’re not strong enough—”
