Page 177 of Collared by the Vampire Prince

I shake my head.

My chest feels split open, raw in a way I cannot explain. I had expected nothing from him. Somehow, he has wounded me anyway. Besides, I am in no state to run. Every part of me aches, and even standing upright feels precarious. But refusing the collar is the only choice left to me. So I cling to it.

“Kira.”

“No.”

He does not seize me or force my wings against my back. He simply waits, the collar resting between his open hands.

Rain whispers past us.

My left wing trembles.

“Please,” he says.

The word catches me off guard. “Why?”

His gaze moves over their dark spans. “Because I do not want to be the reason they disappear.”

The answer strikes somewhere deep and defenceless.

“Coward,” I hiss.

His jaw tightens but he says nothing. He just stands there, waiting for me to obey as though that makes the choice mine.

I bare my teeth and hold his gaze. Then I make him wait a long moment—not nearly long enough.

Only when my left wing begins to tremble do I draw them in, slowly and carefully.

Nathaniel watches every movement, his expression taut, but does not touch me until both dark spans are tucked away. Then he raises the collar.

I turn my face aside. “One day…I will be your undoing,” I promise.

“Yes,” he answers quietly. “I’m afraid I know that too.”

After several long seconds, he lifts the collar to my throat.

His movements are cautious, but the enchantment is not. The collar leaps from his fingers, cinches around my neck, and buckles with a decisive click.

I gasp as my magic is torn away from me. My awareness of the wards below vanishes, leaving the Academy nothing but a hollow mass of stone. Even the rain feels duller against my skin, as though some vital part of me has gone numb.

My wings shudder, pulling painfully into my back and disappearing.

The loss is worse this time. I had them. I used them. For a few impossible seconds, the sky held me.

Now my chance of freedom is gone. Perhaps forever.

The full weight of tonight crashes over me, and my knees buckle.

Nathaniel catches me. “Come. Let’s see to your hands.”

His breath warms my temple, his lips brushing cold skin. I hate the care in his voice. Hate the way he holds me against his chest.

I should push him away. Whatever sick, twisted affection I feel is a betrayal of everything I stand for.

The bastard has collared me again. Taken my magic, my freedom and the last hope I carried onto the tower.

Perhaps I was the one seduced. It’s a dreadful thought, one that makes me want to rage. To claw at him until his blood covers my hands. But my palms are already bleeding. Try as I might to stand, my legs will not hold me, and every muscle trembles with exhaustion.