22

EVIE

O ut of breath and panting, I reached an arched brick tunnel under a bridge and collapsed against the curved wall inside. Students passed overhead, chatting about revolution and young love and the strange weather, oblivious to the deadly witch beneath them.

“It’s no good that you’re always on the run, baby,” a distorted voice spoke.

I whipped my head to the side. My guts turned inside out at the vision of him standing there at the entrance to the tunnel, masked and hemorrhaging darkness.

“It makes me fucking crazy, in fact,” the vampire said as he stalked forward. Behind him, rain and harsh gusts of wind rocked against the brick foundation. “Because I’m a hunter. When I see vulnerable little meadow nymphs on the run, I’m going to chase them.”

I hoped my glare really was deadly.

“You’ve seen my magick,” I said, my rage multiplying as I stared at the cause of all my grief, all my despair.

I pushed off the wall and faced him, refusing to cower and get his cock hard from my fear. My fists clenched as I stared into that impassive mask of onyx.

“You know that I’m not a meadow nymph or an angel. I’m not a green witch. I’m not innocent or light or pure or fucking harmless. ”

As my voice rose, lightning struck the earth in a violent crack nearby, briefly illuminating the walls of the tunnel. It reminded me of the library and those strobing lights.

A tremor rolled through me. My vampire hunter stood stock still, watching me in silence.

“You know what I did to that witch—you saw it.” My voice steadily rose.

I remembered how the witch’s eyes had popped out of her skull, and I wanted to vomit.

“ I’m a plague on this world! ” I screamed.

My voice crashed in a boom of thunder, like the violence in my veins that I couldn’t run from.

I couldn’t run from myself.

Shadows circled the vampire’s feet, and I heard their whispers, heard the way they wanted me.

When they reached for my ankles, I didn’t move. I let them tickle my skin, coil around me like snakes made of smoke.

“Take off your mask!” I yelled. “Take it off !” I took another step forward. “I know who you are, K?—”

His hand covered my mouth before I could finish his name. “Uh-uh,” he scolded. “You can throw your scary tantrum, my innocent , adorable little angel. But let’s be careful with our words, hmm? Some things cannot be taken back.”

I tried to bite his palm, and he pushed me back against the wall. His hand went around my throat next.

“There are a lot less dramatic ways to ask me to take you over my knee, baby,” he cooed, the condescending note in his voice making me want to attack him with everything I had. “If you want to be punished for your wicked ways, you need only ask.”

I could hear the grin in his voice, as if he wasn’t taking me seriously.

The pressure had built up too much, for too long. I had to release something. All I could think of was Idris in harm’s way, leaving me behind for good.

Alone. I was about to be all alone.

Because of him.

A feral noise escaped from my throat. Waves and waves of panic and anger and burning wrath spilled from my lips and fingertips, my throat and my heart and my solar plexus.

A wave of darkness rippled outward, an ear-splitting explosion ringing through the world.

Kylo flew back against the other side of the tunnel.

If not for his helmet of shadow, he might’ve split open his skull.

I could hear every single beat of my heart as blood rushed to my head. Water streamed into the tunnel along the cracks in the dirt path. The wind was impossibly loud, and for a moment, I worried I’d conjured a cyclone.

Kylo was motionless for two long seconds before he peeled himself off the wall and tackled me to the earth.

Mud was thick and sticky beneath me, and flood water splashed from the impact.

He straddled me as I writhed, his shadows suddenly suffocating, obscuring my access to my own power as I flailed and panicked.

I knew he was powerful, that he’d been hiding the sheer magnitude of his magick by keeping it carefully tucked away.

But gods above, I didn’t realize he was this powerful.

My bones quaked, fighting his shadows’ call for me to submit. Limbs held me down, too many to count, and a strong hand closed around my throat.

The mask was two inches above my face. “ Yield, ” the voice boomed, and my blood recoiled, nausea and heat turning me inside out.

“No,” I said, my voice a hollow rasp. “Promise me. You have to promise me not to let him join.”

Laughter rumbled through his chest. “I don’t think you understand how leverage works, angel. But I’ll give you a hint: You currently have none.”

Suddenly, the water was so high that it was threatening to submerge my body.

“Promise me!” I cried. “You can have whatever you want. Just please, please don’t let my brother join your clan. Put him on a blacklist, ask your leader for a favor, whatever you have to do.”

As I writhed, water splashed, and soon it was up to my face. I could only lift my head a few inches. The hand around my neck was unrelenting, unyielding.

That same laughter echoed against the walls. “Evie, my sweet, pure, harmless little flower petal…”

He was going to let me drown.

“I have no leader. There is no greater authority in Etherdale than my own.”

The water overtook my head, and I was too panicked, too emotional to fight through this wall of power. He held me under as I thrashed.

As soon as a trickle of water entered my lungs, I was pulled back up.

A bare face greeted me. I stared into Kylo’s deep blue eyes. I was lost in them, the way they swam with yearning and reverence and rage and awe.

I sucked in deep breath after breath. I had to get out of this ravine. I had to stop leaking power, or I was going to drown the whole world.

“Promise me,” I begged. “ Please. ”

That was when I noticed that although his mask was off, his fangs were bared, his tattoos crawling up his neck and down his arms. He was in his true form.

Kylo. The first man who’d made me feel like maybe, just maybe, I wasn’t so alone. That I deserved someone who saw me, understood me, and adored all the parts of me that others had shunned.

But he wasn’t a man at all.

I shut my eyes.

“Open those pretty, storm-cloud-colored eyes, Evie,” he said, and his voice was his own. No distortions. No masks. “ Open .”

When I refused, he shoved me back underwater.

My lungs burned, shadows continued to coil around every inch of me. And the most fucked-up part of all of this was that for some demented, nonsensical reason, my body was reacting to Kylo’s murder attempts with arousal.

The place between my thighs was raw and aching as I struggled for air. The more helpless, disoriented, and heartbroken I became, the more desperate for his touch.

Kylo yanked me back up. My eyes flew open. He still bared those fangs like a feral beast as he trembled with dark, godly magick.

“Do as you’re told,” he growled. “You commanded me to take off my mask. You attacked me. Your words and actions have consequences, angel. Even when you’re upset. Especially when you’re upset.”

The way he scolded me like I was a child didn’t only enrage me, humiliate me. It also spread that wicked, forbidden heat through my core. I stared at his mouth, those fangs that I hated with all the marrow in my bones.

Those beautiful lips rose into a smirk. “Because your God is gracious, and you are so cute, I will allow a deal to be struck. The terms you offered were incredibly stupid, on your part, but I will take advantage of them as I see fit.”

The rain outside continued, but the wind was less violent, and the thunder had ceded.

“Your brother will be blacklisted from clan recruitment,” he said.

An exhale of relief escaped me. My magick slowly gave in, submitting to his power.

“And you will go out on dates with me, anytime and anywhere, so long as it doesn’t interfere with your witchy business schemes. I also have full rein to pick out your adorable outfits.”

I stared at him. “You—I— what ?”

I offered him anything at all. He told me he was going to take advantage of that. And this was what he wanted?

“Additionally,” he said, staring down at my lips.

A shadow teased one of my nipples, and I squirmed.

“If you ever try to hide from me, I will ensure you are never able to try it again,” he snarled.

Another shadow dipped between my legs, brushing over my soaked panties.

“Tell me you understand.”

In the aftermath of my magickal and emotional explosion, my shell-shocked body began to tremble. My teeth chattered. I was helpless and overpowered beneath Kylo’s hold.

He could kill me in an instant. He clearly knew who my brother was. He knew where Mena and I lived. He knew everything about me.

“I understand,” I whispered.

My life was in his hands. His identity was now in mine.

He watched my trembling jaw for two beats before lifting me into his arms. “Good girl.” He kissed my forehead.

The most confusing mix of pleasure, relief, and anger warred in my blood. But I was also enormously depleted. My limbs were heavy, my once activated mind growing dim.

“I’m going to clean you up,” he said softly. “You are now under my protection and care.”

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