Page 101 of No One’s Daughter

​What made it worse was the growing pit in my stomach that told me his fear was for me, not for himself.

​He moved like a storm unleashed, all precision abandoned in favour of sheer, brutal force as he tore through them one by one, bodies hitting the ground in rapid succession in his effort to reach me. It dragged me back to the forest—to the hounds and the way he had fought them, relentless and unyielding, as though the world itself had no right to stand between him and whatever he was trying to protect.

​He was unstoppable.

​Until he wasn’t.

​The room was plunged into darkness so suddenly it stole the breath from my lungs, the chaos cutting off as though the world had been silenced mid-scream.

There was a shift in the air as something—no, someone—entered the space.

​“That’s quite enough of that.”

The voice slithered through the dark, low and smooth, carrying something beneath it that made my skin prickle.

​The light in the room snapped back on and with a mere flick of the newcomer’s wrist, Davien dropped.

​One second he was standing, defiant and deadly.

​The next, he was on his knees.

​Like it was nothing.

​I tried to reach him, tried to surface my magic like I’d managed in training. But it was futile. Nothing happened. It was gone. As was my strength, and for the first time I was reminded of what it was like to be human.

​I quickly understood that whoever—whatever—this newcomer was, he nullified supernatural power. All except his own.

​I looked to Davien who seemed to have come to the same realisation as he thrashed against the hands holding him down.

​His look told me everything.

​We were fucked.

​We couldn’t fight.

​We couldn’t even run.

​“Who the fuck are you?” Davien snarled, confirming that this was unprecedented. He didn’t know what was happening either. “Release me at once.”

​The man sauntered toward him with a careless ease that honestly terrified me. He studied the room, his nostrils flaring. “Oh, how cute, this is quite the development isn’t it.”

Taller than any man I’d ever seen, his presence alone seemed to warp the space around him. Massive leather wings folded neatly behind his back, their dark sheen catching the light in unnatural ways, like oil over water. His frame was broad, powerful, the muscle evident beneath the structural lines of what looked like standard issue uniform, though nothing about him felt standard.

His skin held a warm, sun-kissed tone, and his black hair fell to his shoulders, loose and slightly tousled, framing his face in a way that made him look almost too perfect, beautiful in a way that felt dangerous.

He was like the guy that had come for us at the witch’s house but so much bigger and so much more terrifying.

​No one dared to breathe, never mind speak. He didn’t seem to mind, clearly enjoying the sound of his own voice. “Do you think that makes her yours?”

​My pulse was racing. Who the fuck did this guy think he was? Was he talking about me? “I don’t belong to anyone dipshit.”

​His attention snapped to me and then he laughed. Low and amused. “Oh, I see why you like her,” he said, tapping his finger idly against his chin as he moved closer. “I think I’d quite like a taste myself.”

​“Don’t even fucking think about it,” Davien growled, the sound feral.

​The stranger clapped his hands as though thoroughly amused at the whole situation. “Too late.”

He tilted his head as he looked at me, really looked this time and my chest tightened painfully under the weight of it. His green eyes bore into me, they were anything but soft and gleamed in a way that made my stomach twist.