Page 180 of Black Sea

His expression grew increasingly greedy. “And eventually, I will come back, stronger than ever, wielding all of Calien’s magic.” He paused to relish all my terror, all my anger. “You could say things didn’t go as I planned, but, in a sense, it’s even better this way.”

Before I could stop myself, I lunged and shoved Amlach against the wall. As he fell onto the bench, I positioned myself between his legs, grabbed the slave collar chain, and tugged his head back. He responded with a wicked smile that made my blood boil, so I took hold of his chin with my other hand and pressed my fingers into his cheeks in an attempt to distort his face.

“I’m still the Crystal’s keeper,” I growled. “Which means I can finally take my own life without you stopping me.”

I tugged the chain a bit more and had to hold back from biting and sucking the bulging tendons on his neck, whose muscles were very tense to resist the collar pressing on the trachea. He let out a deep, sensual yet menacing groan, and I felt his fingertips move up along my inner knee.

“The Crystal will vanish,” I continued, warring with myself to resist his touch, “and your soul with it.” I leaned in to hiss over his mouth, “Forever.”

“No, it won’t happen,” he replied. “Because the first thing my power did, once completely inside the Crystal, was to release you from it.”

I flinched, widening my eyes as my arms slowly fell limply at my sides.

“Calien’s Crystal no longer has any keeper,” Amlach went on cruelly. “And it will never have another. It’s . . .” His fingers crawled up my thigh. “Finally . . .” He slid them between my legs. “ Mine,” he finished, pressing them hard against my sex through my trousers.

I jumped back, devastated by what I had just discovered, feeling powerless against the intense, tremendous, and inexorable longing I still felt for Amlach, despite all he had done.

Despite the subtle and indelible evilness he was staring at me with.

“You deceived me,” I said, in a small, pain-soaked voice. “Again,” I added, so furious at myself for my naivety, my weakness. “You made me believe it was for me . . .” I dropped my head with a suffering grimace to hide the tears welling in my eyes. “Why?” I asked through gritted teeth.

“It’s my nature, Elf.”

My eyes snapped to him. His attitude, indifferent and cruel at the same time, provoked an uncontrollable fit of violence in me. The next moment, I lunged forward and grabbed his jaw with one hand, slamming his head against the wall so hard that the rock crumbled.

“Hmm,” Amlach moaned, giving me a look that was as murderous as it was excited.

“Tell me you love me,” I ordered on a whim.

His expression turned dangerously dark.

I pushed him against the rock once again, with more force. “ Tell me.”

His face grew harder than granite. “I don’t love you.”

I listened to the powerful rhythm of his heart, reflecting my own.

I studied the wrath burning in his eyes, locked onto mine.

I moved my lips close to his and whispered, “Who’s the liar now?”

I let him go with an abrupt gesture full of disappointment, then left without looking back.

100

I couldn’t breathe.

Not when I was far from him.

For the first time in my long life, I felt the nocturnal thermal excursion on my restless body, even though I still wore the robe and trousers of the armor Amlach had created. The cold air seemed to bite me like a pack of wolves.

But it was nothing compared to the desperation ripping me apart.

Why hadn’t I warned my father? If he knew the enemy’s new plans, he would definitely call off the execution. He would choose to keep him prisoner forever.

Amlach would live.

But why did I persist in keeping my mouth shut? I was dooming both the people of the Lands of the East and the humans of the Lands of the West.