Chapter 3 #3
Her gaze snapped to him. He could read thoughts. Terrifying. Also, intriguing.
That mean he’d picked up on her fighting the drive of the full moon.
A hard swallow didn’t help her dry throat. “Perhaps I did something terrible and deserve death.”
“Did you do something terrible?” Curiosity laced his tone.
“Not yet.” She removed the dagger from her pocket and tossed it from one hand to the other. I’m going to kill someone.
“Tell me why you feel the need to kill someone. Does someone threaten you?”
She tilted her face to stare at the starless sky, wishing the icy rain would punish her for desiring the forbidden.
Topping the desire list was freedom. “My brother and father were executed a few months ago, leaving my mother and I without means.” Slaughtered over my mother’s dabbling with magic. They protected her.
All types of witch and mage magic was forbidden by the Lycan Council.
She wasn’t sure why, but they’d decided after decades of fighting witches and mages that it was forbidden.
Seemed to her that wielding the power of the enemy might give them an advantage.
“My mother seeks security for herself as can only be found with money. Her only asset to market is me.”
“She sold you into what?” His face tightened. Lightning struck a nearby tree.
“Arranged mating.” She jumped when thunder cracked loud enough to ring inside her ears. Had he done that?
“Are you a romantic who wishes for love before mating?” He stared straight ahead.
She shrugged.
“There’s no such thing as love.” The bitterness of his tone triggered chills across her shoulders. “It’s a human’s justification for the emotions stirred up from lust and attraction, maybe decent sex. In the end, it is fleeting.”
“Love is a fantasy?” she asked cautiously.
“A predestined future set down by mythical Fates is absurd too. I will control my own future.” She ground her molars.
“If he was a decent prospect, I’d mate him and forge a partnership.
The gutter lout plans to control every aspect of my life until he gets what he wants, which is children.
Once he has that, he’ll purge himself of me. ”
“He told you this?”
“He’s already done it once. His previous mate gave him no children after three years.” When she got no comment from him, she continued, “I’m either going to kill him and shape my own future, or I’ll kill myself.”
“You don’t truly want to die. You also don’t fear him or the match. You fear being locked in a gilded cage.” His face grew serious. “You should avoid getting imprisoned in that cage, Evie.”
“How do you know my name? How do you know this about me?”
“We’re each cursed with our own abilities. I know things.”
“Get out of my head. Tell me your name. I refuse to be judged by a nameless sorcerer who’s not going to help me.” She crossed her legs and stopped tossing the blade.
“Domini Tavalin.” He leaned back. “Death doesn’t like it when you take the cheat road. She tends to bite back.”
“You speak of Fates and Death as if they’re real beings, Domini.”
“It’s Dom, and they are real. They’re not the kind of deities you want to tangle with.”
“How old are you to suggest you’ve met both the Fates and Death?”
“Old enough. I haven’t met Death yet.”
“I’m old too. Over a hundred.”
His patronizing chuckle implied he was eons older.
“What do you think I should do?”
For the first time, he rotated to face her. His gaze pierced her soul.
She wanted him to see what rested in her defiant, black heart.
He took her small hand in his. Warmth around ice.
The callouses on his palm were from years of weapons handling or hard labor. Why did that make her want him more? She fantasized about his hands on her and of him between her legs.
He sucked in a breath and muttered, “Bloody hell.”
Did you just see that? she thought.
His pupils dilated and his irises turned a bright blue color. He let go of her. His voice went raspy, “Willem isn’t meant for your heart.”
“Who is intended for my heart?”
A startling expanse of white teeth spread into a grin.
“The lycan plotting death has a heart that isn’t as black as she’d like to think.
You have yet to feel the souring of love when you realize it’s a fantasy.
” He flexed his hand, which brought the ring on his left middle finger into relief. He stared at the dark gemstone.
“What of your heart, Dom?”
“It’s as black as this stone.” He stood. “It’s my fate.”
“You have compassion and…” She slowly grinned. “Desire runs hot in your blood, which means your heart isn’t truly black.” The second the words were out she wanted them back.
He glared. “You’re mistaken.”
You’re welcome for saving you.
“I don’t do life debts.” His eyes roamed her face. Somehow, his pupils dilated more than before. He sucked in a breath, then snapped, “My heart is dead. If you’re lucky, we’ll never see each other again.” In a flash, he disappeared.
Rain crashed onto her from above.
She chucked the dagger at the ground. The blade broke clean from the hilt.
She should have known it was an omen.