Chapter 20 #2
I know exactly what Julia sees. I’ve kissed every inch of that skin in my bed, in her car, against my kitchen counter… I’ve tasted the spot where Riley’s shoulder meets her throat and felt her pulse quicken under my lips.
And now Julia is going to put her mouth there and draw sounds that only I’m supposed to draw from her.
My fingernails dig into my palms. The candle beside me flares higher, maybe responding to my agitation.
“Hannah.” Elizabeth’s warning is soft but firm. “Stay still. Any disruption could destabilize the triangle.”
I force myself to breathe. To watch.
Julia reaches out slowly—she’s savoring this, the bitch—and cups Riley’s face with both hands. Her fingers look pale and ghostly in the strange lighting.
Riley’s breath catches, just like mine did.
“Look at me,” Julia murmurs, and Riley’s eyes lock onto hers.
I’ve heard that voice before, velvety and commanding. The voice that made me want to surrender everything.
Riley sways forward, drawn by Julia’s magnetic pull.
Something hot and vicious unfurls in my chest.
Knowing what Julia did to Charlotte and having experienced what Riley is about to feel, I can’t stand this.
But is it Julia I’m jealous of, or is it Riley? Whose place do I want to be in?
Julia holds Riley’s face, just like she did with me. Riley’s pupils dilate as Julia begins the incantation.
“Tua essentia mea fit…” The Latin words flow from her lips, deep and seductive.
Riley’s back arches, her lips part, and a soft sound escapes her throat, like reluctant pleasure. It’s the same sound I made when Julia first fed from me. I know precisely what Riley is feeling as Julia’s first brush of power slides under her skin.
Heat floods my cheeks. This is how I looked, isn’t it? Desperate and wanting, completely under Julia’s spell.
Julia’s fingers darken as she unbuttons Riley’s hooded cloak, letting it fall to the ground. Underneath, Riley’s sleeveless top shows the lean muscles of her shoulders and arms.
Arms I’ve held, shoulders I’ve kissed, skin I’ve licked.
I have to watch, motionless, as Julia’s hands sweep up and down her bare skin, increasing the points of contact. Dark tendrils of magic trail behind her fingers in swirling, mesmerizing patterns, which I never noticed when I was lost in the sensations.
“Oh,” Riley gasps. “That’s so…”
Her head tips back. Her lips part. Her pupils dilate until her eyes are almost black.
This is the moment when Julia’s magic stops feeling like an invasion and starts feeling like the only thing you’ve ever wanted.
My hands tremble. I want to be the one making Riley gasp like this. Or I want to be Riley, feeling what she’s feeling. Or maybe I just want Julia to stop touching anyone who isn’t me.
God, I’m losing my mind.
The candles flare brighter. The green veins in the ceiling throb. Power builds in the sanctum like a gathering storm. The part of me that’s bound to Julia recognizes her magic, and it swells deep inside me.
My pulse quickens. Watching Julia feed shouldn’t make my core clench with desire. It shouldn’t make me remember how those hands felt on my body, and how her voice sounded as she purred in my ear.
Riley’s chest heaves. She grips Julia’s wrists, not to push her away but to pull her closer. Orange magic glows beneath her skin, like fire pulsing through her veins.
Julia’s fingers and eyes darken, and Riley trembles under her touch.
All I want is to push Riley away and take her place.
The realization hits me like a punch in the gut, taking my breath away.
It’s Riley I’m jealous of. It’s Julia I want.
The way she looked at Riley? That’s my look. Her fingers, her mouth, her tongue…they’re all mine.
God, what’s happening to me? Julia is turning me into someone I don’t recognize. Someone who craves danger, who’s addicted to the edge between pleasure and destruction. Is this what happened to Charlotte? Is my life doomed to end the same way?
Julia’s hands find the hem of Riley’s shirt next.
No. No, she can’t—
She tugs it upward, and Riley raises her arms, letting Julia pull the shirt over her head and toss it aside.
My vision goes red at the edges. Nausea rises inside me.
Riley is wearing her lacy white bra—the same one I’ve caressed, unfastened, left in a heap on my bedroom floor.
She takes Julia’s hands, guiding them over her bare midsection, her ribs, her chest. Like she wants this. Like she’s daring Julia to keep going, to take more.
Julia hisses as the contact increases. She slides one hand around the back of Riley’s head, leaning close as if to kiss her—but it’s not a kiss, and I know that. She’s taking her breath, just like we did on Maya’s balcony. Riley’s eyes flutter closed in something that looks far too much like bliss.
My chest burns. I clench my jaw so hard that pain shoots through my temples.
This isn’t right. I’m the only one Julia should touch that way.
The triangle amplifies everything. I can feel Riley’s pleasure low in my belly, even sense her life force flowing into Julia like a breeze passing over my skin. And underneath it all, Julia’s hunger intensifies, a deep ache that refuses to be satisfied.
The room pulses, a ripple passing right through me. The candles gutter and flare wildly, and cracks appear in the pentagram at our feet.
Julia spins Riley around, pressing her chest against Riley’s back. Her hands roam, one cupping Riley’s breast through the lace, the other sliding down her midsection. Riley’s head falls back on Julia’s shoulder, her breaths shallow.
“Please,” Riley whimpers, the same desperate plea I made in the forest.
Julia’s mouth finds the curve of Riley’s neck, and she grazes her lips up and down the sensitive flesh. “What would you like?” she whispers.
“Touch me. I want you inside me.”
No. Absolutely not.
“Julia,” I say, a warning.
But her grip on Riley tightens, and the incantation grows rough and desperate. The shadows on her fingers spread, creeping up her wrists and forearms like nightfall. The darkness around her eyes bleeds into the whites like spilled ink.
Something’s wrong. I’ve never seen her like this. The pentagram, the redirection ritual—it’s making the feeding too intense.
Riley grips Julia’s wrist, guiding her hand down to her waistband. “Please, I need…”
My heart stops. This is how it started with Charlotte. The addiction, the desperate need to keep feeding even when it’s going wrong. And Julia, drunk on power, can’t stop herself from taking too much.
Julia’s fingers slide into Riley’s jeans, making her legs tremble.
“Oh, God…” Riley moans, her knees buckling a little.
“Julia, that’s enough,” I say loudly.
Riley’s face goes ashen, the fire magic beneath her skin flickering. Her knees give out, but Julia holds her up, pressing their bodies together as she continues to feed. Riley’s head falls back, and Julia’s mouth hovers at her neck.
I look desperately at Elizabeth, who stands abruptly from her chair, her gaze fixed on the feeding. “Julia, stop.”
This doesn’t feel right. The magic is too chaotic, too hungry. Instead of weakening our bond, it’s making Julia’s power spiral out of control.
“Julia!” I shout.
She looks at me, and my breath catches. There’s no recognition. Just the blank hunger of a predator that’s found prey.
Riley goes limp in her arms, her skin gray and waxy. She’s dying, and Julia can’t stop.
“No!” The word rips out of me.
I rush forward, abandoning the plan, and the first step is enough to break something. The candle beside me explodes in a shower of wax and black flame.
Elizabeth shouts something I can’t hear through the whooshing in my ears.
The spell screams in my chest, a spasm that nearly drops me to my knees. I push past it, launching myself across the pentagram.
Magic lashes at me as I burst through the drawn lines, like running through barbed wire. Hot streaks of pain make my skin burn and my bones ache.
I don’t care. I can’t watch Riley die, and I can’t watch Julia lose herself to her hunger the way she did with Charlotte.
And between both those things hides the bitter truth: I can’t watch Julia touch someone else this way.
She’s mine.
The thought blazes through me with absolute certainty as I grab Julia’s wrists and try to wrench her hands away.
The moment I touch her, her magic slams into me.
If I thought the feeding in the forest was rough, it had nothing on this. A tidal wave of power and hunger crashes through me, right into my core, flooding my system with dark, intoxicating energy.
My back arches. My vision distorts. Pleasure and pain become indistinguishable as Julia’s magic pours into me, amplified by the broken ritual into something catastrophic.
I’m burning. Freezing. Falling apart.
“Hannah!” Elizabeth is shouting, her voice far away.
I convulse, sinking lower on my knees, but I refuse to let go of Julia.
Through the haze, Julia’s eyes snap to mine. She’s still holding onto Riley, but she’s frozen, breathing hard. The shadows around her eyes are creeping further out like dark veins, as if the power is consuming her from the inside out.
“Julia,” I whisper. “Please stop.”