His face is cold and hard as stone. “Do you want to hurt me?”
She presses all her weight onto his chest. If he were a human, this would split his bone in two. Her foot would push throughhim, flattening his heart beneath her heel. But he’s a god, and she can’t hurt him nearly as much as he can hurt her. Still, that doesn’t stop her from saying, “I want to kill you.”
His eyes flare with a surge of power. With sudden strength, he slips out from beneath her weight and leaps across the clearing. “Try.”
Stalking around the edge with a predator’s grace, Sidarphion turns this meadow into an arena. Claudia understands from his smirk: He let her slap him. He let her bruise his bones with her heel. She can inflict only as much pain as he allows. She can’t stop him. Can’t weaken him. Can’t best him. He’s the one with the power here. He’s the hunter—she’s the prey.
Anger burns everywhere. Her hands tingle with the need to hit something. She knows he’s stronger than her, but she can’t resist the chance to make him scream. Her guttural wail makes the trees tremble. She charges him and slams her fists into his frame, over and over, clawing at his skin so that his cold, black blood builds under her nails. It’s like fighting a wall of ice, but she doesn’t stop, even as every blow hurts her more than it hurts him.
The skin on her knuckles splits. Bruises bloom almost immediately over her forearms.
Sidarphion doesn’t falter. He stands tall and impossibly strong, absorbing every hit with ease. He smiles. It’s almost as if he likes it. As if he, too, finds pleasure in pain.
“HOW COULD YOU,” she screams as her strength gives way to exhaustion.
“I had to,” he says, unaffected by her violence. “I told Odette the truth of our bargain from the start, and it made her go mad. It made her fail. I wouldn’t let that happen to you.”
She slaps him again. Again. Again. Harder. Faster. “LIAR.” When she raises her hand to slap him once more, he catches her wrist, holding her hand at the level of his eye.
“You would do the same if you were trapped here like me. You’d lie.” He kisses her fingers. “You’d trick.” He licksthe blood from her thumb. “You’d kill.” He tries to bring her tired, breathless body into an embrace, but when her lips brush against his neck, she strikes again. She bites him, ripping a piece of soft white flesh from his throat. His black blood fills her mouth, and the taste of it grants her a high like she’s never felt before.
It’s stronger than his kiss. Better. More powerful. Infinite. Euphoric.
She knows now what it is—what makes a witch, and in turn, what makes a god.
It’s desire. Pure, divine desire.
That’s why his taste does this to her. She can’t stop. She presses her open mouth to the wound and drinks. She licks and sucks and moans.
He laughs. “There you go, Starling. Drink all you want.”
Her head is free from all thoughts, entirely consumed with want. She can’t help but hold him closer, tighter, desperate to keep him in her grasp forever until she’s swallowed every last drop of this power.
With his hand on her jaw, he guides her mouth to his and takes her in a violent, hungry kiss. The taste of desire is still there, but it’s nowhere near as strong as his blood. She pulls back, eyes wide with anger.
“I hate you. Don’t kiss me.”
He reaches up to touch her lips, but she slaps his hand away.
“But I so enjoy your mouth, Claudia.”
Her fingers curl into fists against his chest. She rears back and spits in his face.
He flinches, closing his eyes. With his hand, he wipes away her spit and licks it off his fingers with sensual, languid strokes. “Careful. You don’t want to end up like Odette.”
“How dare you. She needed your help and you killed her.”
“No, ourbargainkilled her when she failed. But you’re not afailure, are you, Starling? That’s why you’re the one who will free me. You’re better than her.”
She slams her palms into his chest, though it does nothing to push him away. “I will not kill Cassius.”
“Why not?” he asks, head tilted to the side.
“Because I love him.” A short gasp follows, for she can’t believe she just spoke that aloud. She’s never said it before. She didn’t know it was true until right now.
She loves him. She’s in love with him.
Sidarphion’s body tenses. Veins bulge in his neck. “What?”
