Something he needed to believe for a little while longer.
Because, sure, I could tear myself from his dreamscapes, but that would show my hand.
To stop him required us being in person, and me also being in Sanctus. I couldn’t achieve that here while we were on separate planes. Sanctus might be a magical construct, but it wasn’t phantasmal, wasn’t a dreamscape, it existed in true reality.
“I couldn’t,” I responded.
“Hmm. Couldn’t. Not wouldn’t. There it is.”
So that was his game.
He rapped his fingers on the creepy twisted bone armrests of his throne. “You are becoming disobedient.”
“That’s not—”
“Careful, youngling, more power can all too easily breed arrogance. And that’s something you cannot afford when dealing with me. I won’t take kindly to it, nor to you stepping out of place.” His eyes darkened. “Not when we have come so far and found such a wonderful understanding, one most definitely mutually beneficial.”
“It’s not that.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Enlighten me, then. What else might it be?”
“I just… I’m scared.”
He started. “Scared?”
“Yeah. I… when I touched that level of power… I just… I need more time to control it.”
“And as I already conveyed when I drew you to me shortly after such a mesmerizing performance, you do not need to concern yourself with maintaining control to that extent.”
“I know you said you’d take over there, control it, and guide my power to your liking, to what Sanctus needs, but I’m not just Necromancer.”
He stared at me for several moments.
I didn’t flinch, didn’t give myself away in the least.
But then his eyes narrowed anyway, and he rumbled, “This is not truly about that at its core, Winter.”
“What?”
He rose from his throne, then startled me as he teleported right in front of me.
His hand shot out and wrapped around my throat, the grip brutal enough to make me gag. “You are being dishonest.” He leaned in and breathed that magical warmth across my jaw and cheek, and I bucked as the glorious sensation slammed upagainst the pain and nastiness that this place had been causing me since I’d arrived. “We can’t have that, deathborn darling.”
Fuck.
He tightened his hold, almost completely cutting off my breathing. “Tell the truth. Now. Speak the correct words.”
“Is this… a… threat?”
“Consider this due warning. You have laid with your lovers so very recently. Their blood and fluids remain in your system. With our Spiral Thorn connection, it’s very much feasible for me to reach through you and into them. For just long enough to cause a significant agonizing assault.”
No. No. No.
“Don’t.”
“Beg.”
Urgh.
