Page 58 of Stalked By Seduction and Shadows

Was her friend in trouble? Perhaps with money, which could explain why she was so concerned with making it despite the danger. That still didn’t explain her behavior with the born, knowing full well the threat they posed to humans like her.

“Why do you call me that?”

“Stop deflecting,” I snapped.

The way her nostrils flared and chest rose and fell rapidly for a moment was disarmingly endearing. I let the tip of one of my shadows stroke her cheek, and she looked downright bloodthirsty.

“That’s why,” I said. “At any given time, you’re likely the weakest and most vulnerable being in the room.”

She lifted a brow. “Ouch.”

I laughed, and the anger momentarily slid from her features, watching me with a level of curious captivation.

“And yet you burn. Despite everything you’ve endured, all the pain and the loneliness and the grief and the betrayal, you burn fucking blindingly, like you can’t help but be anything less than radiantly alive. In you I see hope that never dies, and some might call it weak or naive, but I think it’s the most beautiful thing about you, this radical choice to be open and warm in a world that is overwhelmingly cold and brutal.”

She didn’t speak. I caught the slightest tremble in her bottom lip. All the fight left her body as if she’d been cut open and made victim to her own vulnerability.

“I don’t understand,” she said softly, her brows creasing. “How can that be what you think of me? You’ve seen what I do here in Odessa. And you clearly hate it. You wish I was someone else. You wish I was what you just described, not the person that I truly am.”

“The woman I described is exactly who you truly are.” I allowed my shadows to loosen, to slowly recede back to my skin. When they left her body, she still didn’t move, remaining plastered to the wall as if I was still holding her there. Good girl.

Frustration mired her wide eyes. “How could you possibly know that?”

“And I don’t hate the way you wield your own magnetism,” I said, ignoring her question. “I hate when you put yourself in danger. Big difference.”

Who did Scarlett think she truly was? Something told me the people she’d grown up with, especially her sister, had poisoned her against herself, all in desperate, envious attempts to dull her vibrancy. It would now be my job to help her undo that damage, to see past their lies and free herself from her own limiting beliefs. Scarlett’s darkness was just as captivating and endlessly intriguing as her light.

“I am always in danger,” she said bitterly.

I peered down at her, watching the rapid rise and fall of her lungs, savoring her sweet and sultry scent. Her black dress was tight around her perfect form.

“I’m beginning to understand that,” I said through clenched teeth. She’d successfully distracted me from my initial probing question, but unfortunately for her and her bratty tendencies, I had a long memory. “Why did you come to Aristelle? Tell me what you need, and it’s done.”

She searched my eyes, warring with herself. “Why would you help me? When you don’t even help your own citizens? Your clan killed mortals who only ever wanted you to put an end to slavery. They just wanted to be heard. They hate you.”

I lowered my head and rested my hands above her. “Public opinion is fickle, and it thankfully matters very little to me.” Her clear blue eyes nearly pulled me under her waves, where I was unable to conjure a single coherent sentence. I snapped out of it by staring at her plump, inviting lips instead. “Like I’ve already told you once, I know best how to protect this city and this island. The turned did not instigate the violence in the square, but order must be maintained.”

This tiresome, repetitive talk had my mind drifting to all my moving pieces on an increasingly complex board of opposing powers. I’d sent my most skilled eye, Gerrie, to Ravenia last week, and he was set to return any day now. Though tensions here in Valentin only continued to escalate, our clan war paled in comparison to the threat of a kingdom-wide conflict. However, if the tides were to turn in favor of the mortals and turned in greater Ravenia, there was a chance alliances could be forged that could serve my ends against Durian and the born.

Turned clans existed under the kingdom’s rule, but they were considered nothing more than petty criminals and godless bastards. It wasn’t uncommon for King Earle and his armies to wipe entire clans out in one fell swoop when they emerged from the underground. Just like Durian, Earle and the other born detested us. At any moment, I had to be prepared for the possibility that Earle would decide to take back Valentin, consequences be damned. As of now, our resources and exports were just lucrative enough to keep him at bay.

And whether the kingdom admitted it or not, they knew I was a damn good ruler. This island had never seen such peace and prosperity before I took power.

I tuned back in to Scarlett, nearly rearing back when I saw the intensity in her piercing eyes. She was watching me intently. She read each movement in my features, her mind working just as furiously as mine.

“I will earn your trust,” I said. “And then I will demand everything from you. Your secrets, your desires, your needs, and your every last dream. I will make sure you live the life you have always deserved.”

“Do you mourn yourself?” she asked, her head tilting closer to mine.

I faltered. She soaked in every unconscious twitch of my facial muscles, and damn this woman, I despised her for it. When I had watched her from afar, the vulnerability she conjured from my depths was mine and mine alone. It wasn’t safe for me to show weakness, not even to her. Maybe especially not to her.

I’d asked for her secrets, and she’d carved into my flesh to pull out mine instead.

Luckily, we weren’t in Crescent Haven anymore. I didn’t mourn in Aristelle, not in this city I claimed by blood and shadow.

“No,” I said, and I didn’t feel good about speaking this half-truth, but it was all I could offer her.

Being this close to her was dangerous, and yet the thought of being anywhere else threatened to bathe this city in my darkness. I remembered the way Liza and Frederick had tried to lure her away from me, no doubt to make her into a blood slave.

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