Page 99 of Haunted

Think on my words, Niawen. You make me happy.

Surely she must know how I poured my heart into those words.

They are all I can give her in this moment after last night.

I tug her once more, hoping she will turn to face me. My patience will not hold.

I want her in my arms but know it will be too much.

“Do you know what I want?” she finally says as she turns.

“No.”

“More.”

“More?” I’m not shocked by this request, but I pretend to be.

“I’m not sure what we’re doing here.” Her voice is a grumble that makes my hair follicles stand on end. “Teasing each other. Testing each other. Revealing ourselves, but not all of ourselves.”

“I can give you only so much. Any more and I’d frighten you away.”

“You’ve already frightened me. You’ve already lied to me. You proclaim your deceptive nature as if you’re proud of it.”

“It is well ingrained in me,” I say.

“You act as though you don’t want to change.”

“I can’t.”

“Would you change for me?” Her eyes plead with mine.

I study the green in her irises, because I dare not look lower to her lips. “Niawen. You’re maddening.”

“Share yourself with me.”

I pull my hands down my cheeks. Wasn’t last night enough? “You don’t know what you ask.”

“You’ve as good as dangled your secrets in my face. Flaunted your dark side.”

When she’s daring enough to poke my chest, I grab her hand and hold it to my heart.

“Four ways to bond. I want you to give me one,” she says while looking into my face.

My galloping heart trips up, and I feel lightheaded. “Niawen. You don’t know what this will do.”

“You’ve bonded with no one, correct? Physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually?”

Truly? I do not know how to answer this. The empress and I bonded somehow, but not in any way that was normal. “Uh…”

She pulls her hand off my chest. “You told me no one before.”

I can’t lie, but I can’t describe the bond either. It was something akin to what Neifion and I had, even though a bond like that between me and the empress should have been impossible. I go with the bond that’s the closest since it’s easily broken. “I forgot about the emotional bond.”

“You would know if you had one.”

“I had one with Empress Rhianu, then.” More like we had some unholy coupling that had been forged by the Dark Master.

“Of course you did.”

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