Chapter Twenty
A Place for Us
“I’m sorry, Onyx.” I peered into his black eyes as more of my heart chipped away. “I should’ve listened to you.”
With his gaze burning into mine, he grabbed me by the throat and pushed me against the wall. I lifted a trembling hand to his wrist, fear and grief clashing inside my chest.
This is my fault. All because I’d been reckless. Refusing to keep my distance from Onyx because I thought I could make a difference—thought I could use my powers and change things for the better. But I’d only made everything worse, bringing that very curse to fruition.
Onyx bared his teeth and squeezed my neck. Choking me.
A dark mass lunged from the wall beside us, slamming into Onyx and forcing him to loosen his hold. I sucked in a breath before spotting Rowan. He appeared within the swirling shadows and placed himself between me and Onyx.
“Ro,” I rasped.
“Leave, Evan,” he said without taking his eyes off the demon lord. “Maddox and the others should be here any—”
Onyx flicked his hand, and Rowan flew sideways, crashing into the side table. I screamed for him before I was grabbed again and slammed against the wall so hard it knocked the breath from my lungs.
“Mine,” Onyx growled before lowering his face to my neck. His wings curled inward, wrapping around me as he grazed his teeth over my skin, light at first before adding pressure.
And then there was a sharp sting at the base of my throat that made me cry out.
The door burst open and slammed against the wall.
Onyx drew from me, his wings no longer blocking my line of sight.
Maddox and Callum had barged into the room, but he didn’t look at them as he moved his hand and sent them flying just as he did to Rowan.
His attention was solely on me. It seemed everyone else was invisible lest they became an obstacle in his way.
“Release him!” Maddox sprang up from the floor and lunged at Onyx, only to be hit by an unseen force and sent flying back toward the door.
Lake and Callum charged toward us next and were met with the same fate. Callum crashed into the couch, while Lake slammed into the bookshelf against the far wall, releasing a pained grunt that shattered my heart.
“Stop!” I screamed.
Onyx sailed backward, his feet skidding across the floor before he righted himself.
I thought Rowan may have used his magic, but my redhead gaped at me. That’s when I felt the tingling in my hands. As I glanced at them, shock seized my chest. Instead of the sparks I’d seen before, it was a blue fire that traveled over both hands and up to my wrists.
Onyx released a deep roar before springing toward me again.
Shadows slithered around his legs and stilled his movements. That time, Rowan had used his magic. He kept Onyx in place despite the demon lord thrashing around and baring his teeth, his eyes so dark there were no whites to be seen.
“Mine!” Onyx roared, flapping his wings and trying to break free. Rowan’s shadows slithered up and wrapped around them as well, restraining him further.
“I’ve got you, love.” Briar appeared at my side. He rested his palm over my neck, and a warm glow emitted from it. He could heal minor wounds without elixirs and tonics. The ache from where Onyx bit me eased instantly.
Callum and Maddox lunged toward Onyx and pinned both arms behind his back, securing his wings as well. Lake joined them, forcing Onyx to his knees. Along with Rowan’s shadows, they had subdued him. The demon lord’s eyes remained on me, following my every movement like a predator studying its prey.
“I gave you my word, Onyx,” Rowan said with a shake in his voice. The shadows swirled up Onyx’s legs and traveled higher to his waist. “You made me swear to protect Evan at all costs. To kill you if I had to.”
It took me a moment to realize what he planned to do.
The Bone Crusher. The most powerful skill in his arsenal.
“No!” I stepped around Briar, panic filling my chest. “Don’t do it, Ro, please. There has to be another way.”
“Look at him, sweetheart,” Maddox said in a grief-stricken tone. “He’s no longer the male you love. The curse has claimed him. He will remain this way until either you’re dead at his feet or he’s dead at ours. But death is the only way to free him now.”
I touched the side of my neck. Recalling the sharp sting of Onyx’s teeth. Maybe I was wrong, but there had seemed to be hesitance in him. He’d had plenty of time before the others arrived to easily rip out my esophagus with his bare teeth or crush my windpipe with a single hard squeeze.
Which told me hope wasn’t lost. The curse had awoken, but I had to believe there was still a piece of him left, however buried it may be.
I stepped toward them.
“Stay back, Ev,” Callum warned.
The moment I moved, Onyx had tensed and tried to shake them off, his lips parting to show the teeth he wanted so desperately to sink back into my flesh. Despite the threat to his own life, like Rowan and his shadows, he still hadn’t taken his eyes off me.
“He’s little more than a beast now, Ev,” Callum said, glancing at Onyx. “Tearing you apart is all he wants.”
But I sensed that the male I loved was still in there. Fighting against the curse.
As I approached, my knights tightened their hold on Onyx. Lake stood behind him, hand in Onyx’s hair to keep his head still—probably so he couldn’t thrash around and bite any of them or jab them with his horns.
“Hey, you,” I said, kneeling down in front of Onyx. I kept a ruler-sized gap between us in case he tried to lunge at me.
But he didn’t. He only stared at me with those menacing black eyes. Growls rumbled in his chest, like a caged beast.
“You warned me so many times, but I didn’t listen.
” There was a pang in the pit of my stomach as I said the words.
“Guess I was selfish too. You said being with me was like finally feeling the sun on your skin, but that’s because you helped me find an inner fire within myself.
A confidence I never really had before.”
His nostrils flared as he watched me. But I got the feeling he was listening. Understanding, if only a little.
“I love you, Onyx.” I reached forward and placed my hand over his heart.
The second we touched, he growled low in his throat.
“Even when you’re stubborn and insufferable.
Even when you tease me with that mischievous smirk.
I love the moments when you show that kind heart you claim not to have, and I feel so…
at home when you wrap your arms around me. ”
Onyx breathed heavily through his nose and leaned toward me. Or tried to. Lake yanked him back again.
“But most of all?” Tears welled in my eyes as I traced the edges of the tattoo-like mark on his bare chest. The remnants of the curse that had already been unleashed.
“I love the way you make me feel. Like I’m flying.
Being with you is exhilarating and addictive.
Loving you is an adventure I refuse to let end before it even really began. ”
And then, I flattened my palm over his heart. Just like I’d done in the greenhouse, only now, I wasn’t filled with a desperate need to save him.
I thought only of my love for Onyx. How I wanted to warm that cold, dark place inside of him so he’d never again know the frigid chill of the ice.
Closing my eyes, I envisioned the glowing ember between us and replayed all the moments with him where he’d revealed his softer side.
Moments where he’d laughed so freely, as if for that brief time, he was unburdened by the curse hanging over him.
I recalled the softness of his lips and his smoky, masculine scent as he wrapped me in his arms, our bodies tangling together. In his bed. In our cave.
My hand tingled, like that feeling when it fell asleep. Tiny prickles like static electricity. My palm heated even further, and I imagined that heat seeping into him. Comforting rather than harming though. Never to harm.
“Gods,” Briar softly said.
I kept my eyes closed and tilted my head forward, still with my hand on Onyx’s chest. A pair of trembling lips met mine. Woodsmoke and cedar wrapped around me as the kiss deepened. There was a tickle of hair against my cheek before something wet and warm landed on my skin.
“Little bird?”
I opened my eyes. Ruby irises stared back at me, no longer pitch black and radiating rage.
Instead, I saw my demon lord again, one whose glassy eyes shone with an achy tenderness as our gazes held.
The red and black scale-like markings beneath his skin started to fade, returning to his porcelain complexion.
His horns retreated back into his scalp, and the leathery wings curled back into his body.
Neither of us seemed willing to look away from the other.
“You did it, love.” Briar gaped down at us. “You… you lifted his curse.”
“No,” Onyx said, his voice hoarse. My other men still had hold of him, but he rested his forehead against mine. “He didn’t lift my curse. He shattered it completely. Chased away the darkness in my soul with a type of warmth I’ve never before felt.”
“His love for you,” Lake said, relaxing his hold on Onyx.
The world around me started to blur, the edges of my vision going wonky.
“Ev?” Callum released Onyx and dropped beside me, placing a hand on my lower back to keep me steady.
“I’m… okay,” I said, surprised by how difficult it was to say those two words. A dizzy spell came over me, and I blinked a few times.
“Perhaps you should lie down, sweetheart.” Maddox neared my other side.
I slumped forward, my head lolling on Onyx’s shoulder. And everything went dark.
***
A light pressure sat on my chest. The first thing I became aware of as I started to wake up. It shifted a bit before settling again. Something soft batted at my nose.
Cheep.
I opened my eyes to a fuzzy, orange face. Pumpkin stared back at me and wiggled his butt, releasing adorable chirps. The sound must have alerted others in the room.
“Sweetheart.” Maddox knelt beside the bed and grabbed my hand, pressing it to his lips. “Thank the gods you’re awake.”