Page 12 of Stalked By Seduction and Shadows

This was my worst fuck-up yet. By a longshot. And the worst part of it wasn’t what was currently happening, but the terrifying realization that I had absolutely no control over what happened next.

And I was always, always in control.

I focused back on Scarlett. She smiled at a crass, disrespectful patron, and I could read its fakeness from a mile away. All the smiles she gave these men were fake. I knew what her genuine joy looked like, the faces she made when she thought no one was watching, and the two displays were nothing alike.

That was why my eyes narrowed when her first real smile was given to a young, rural farmer type who appeared downright terrified of her. I nearly snorted at the way his eyes stared at her dreamily when she walked away. He barely even glanced at her ass. I mean, he definitely checked it out, but his eyes didn’t linger like a fucking creep.

Only I was allowed to creep on Scarlett.

I shook my head. Gods above, I was well and truly doomed.

A bulky, handsome shifter her age strolled up to her behind the bar, and she gave him a real grin too.

Hmm. He was an interesting choice. Attractive, but not who I’d imagine her with for the long haul. He didn’t have enough of an edge. And the energy between them… it was familiar, but friendly.

This hunch was only solidified when she held up a finger to him as he followed her back to the farmer boy. She didn’t need a man that heeled to her, like they all surely did and would for the rest of her life. She would grow to resent that. She wanted a man to bring her to heel.

And now I imagined that tiny neck with a collar around it.

I stared up at the ceiling, inwardly groaning and berating myself so violently that I must’ve let a real sound escape. A confused human shot a glance my way, and I glared back in return.

Fuck off. Don’t look at me.

He couldn’t see past my glamour, and after a moment, whatever he’d heard was soon forgotten.

My hearing was better than that of most mortals, but it was hard to focus over the clatter of a busy tavern. Still, I managed to understand that the farmer boy was giving Scarlett a necklace.

“Put it in tonight’s gift pile,” the shifter said under his breath, and I stifled another snicker. This kid was funny. I’d give him that.

Of course, all the mortal men gave the little temptress everything she’d ever desired. It only made me want to deny her, to teach her some humility. Make her work for every ounce of pleasure, every modicum of relief.

“It reminded me of your eyes.”

This poor boy.

“I can’t accept that.”

But she did. And after stretching my hearing out to hear the words she spoke to the shifter, I understood why.

They were leaving, just as I’d hoped. I stopped listening to them. I didn’t want to hear them say where they were going—it was best I didn’t know. Even if every drop of blood in my body was burning in protest, my shadows itching to reach toward her and wrap her in their thorny grasp.

The thought of not knowing where she was ate me up inside. And that was all the more reason not to ever let myself find out. I only hoped to Helia it wasn’t Aristelle.

I focused on Scarlett’s eyes, letting myself drown in them, committing them to memory one final time. When they flashed an emptiness that mirrored my own, my heart skipped a beat. She was stuck for a moment as her friend walked away, bodies moving all around her and voices calling out. She stood in the middle of the space, her fake smile long gone, unmoving. When I blinked, I saw my lonely Little Flame, deep in thought while singing some mournful, made-up song with the voice of a goddess.

Then she snapped out of it and glanced around, her eyes nearly landing on me before more patrons called her over.

Not just any patrons. The human slave scouts.

7

RUNE

My fury was a scorching inferno as I watched the men attempt to entice Scarlett into coming to Aristelle of her own accord. I was glad to see she didn’t take the bait.

“If you want to manipulate me, you’d better try harder than that,” she said, her voice both a sweet caress and a vicious slap at once.

Good girl, I praised, satisfied.

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