Page 45 of Tortured

Riahn sits on a boulder in the dark, frozen, staring into the distance, yet I know she’s keenly alert. She never dozes on watch.

I step on a twig, and it snaps.

Riahn doesn’t turn her head. “This was one of the worst for you. You were standing there for some time before you collapsed.”

I grunt as I stop in front of her. “You told me once how you could sense my light. How it’s different from mortals and different from emrys.”

“Yeah. So?” She narrows her silver eyes at me.

“Can you take it from me?”

She snorts and then shakes her head. “You don’t want me to do that.”

“I do.”

She slides off the rock toward me, making me back away because of her forwardness, the sudden eager tone in her voice. Her demon is hungry for me. It has always been curious. Yet Rhian says, “You’re angry. You’re upset. You don’t know what you’re asking,” as if her human side is trying to dissuade me.

Though her commanding aura makes me nervous, I say, “I do. This has to stop.”

“You know how I extract light. You know what I would have to do to you.”

“I have to be rid of him.” My words are hard.

“What did he do this time?”

“He killed her.” My voice catches, and I swallow. I channel all the sorrow I feel for Niawen into rage for Caedryn.

“Why not make him suffer? Do one of your self-torture things to make him pay.”

I glare into her dark eyes. “It’s not enough.”

Riahn trails a finger down my jaw and across my chest as she paces around me. This is her demon in control. I’ve piqued its interest.

Her voice drops low, soft, and seductive. “Your light is everywhere in you.” She stops behind me, and her nose touches my ear. Her body heat mixes with mine, making my skin sweat. “I won’t lie. I’ve always wanted a taste.”

I pinch my eyes shut. “I’m offering it freely.”

Riahn pulls away enough that the heat from her body leaves me. I draw a deep, nervous breath. I’m desperate enough to let her dig her claws into me.

“Have you been with a woman?” Her voice changes, taking on a menacing edge as her demon fully emerges. I don’t have to turn and look into her eyes to know. “All this time that we’ve been together, I’ve never once known you to disappear to bed a woman.”

“Once. A long time ago. Another lifetime.”

Riahn throws her head back and laughs with such force I whirl around.

“This is not fun—” I snarl.

She pushes me against the boulder she’d been sitting on. “Young prince,” she hisses, “this is going to hurt.”

My body tenses. “Just don’t stop until it’s done.”

Her hot lips land on mine, and she thrusts her tongue into my mouth.

Momentary disgust courses through me as she eagerly moves her mouth. Her hands slip up through my hair and then down my shoulders to my waist to undo the belt at my pants.

I almost push her off. Almost yank her hair back and rip her lips away.

But then a hurt stabs through my chest. The hurt of sorrow, the hurt of dreams never being realized. Everything that I had ever wanted has been taken from me. My life. My love. My family. My friends.

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