Page 90 of Every Shade of Shadow

He sees the marks around my throat. “Tell me what happened last night.”

I thought he knew everything that went on in this castle, but apparently not. I do enjoy his concern, though.

“Like I said, rogue shadows attacked us.”

“Us?”

“Myself, Lily Evergreen.”

“I see.”

“And you successfully warded off the attack?”

I see the glint in his eyes, that tinge of excitement in the tone of his voice.

It all falls into place.

Yes, he fucking sent them.

He was testing me.

This was all part of his plan to show me how much my powers have grown. But what if it had gone sideways? What if I couldn’t fight them off?

You’d be like Stephanie or Dale—a bloody sack of flesh on the floor.

“Yes, risky indeed,” the Professor nods, reading my mind, “but yet here you are, relatively unscathed.”

“And the Charms classroom?”

He breathes in. “Now that, that was not my doing.”

I should protest. I should scream and shout and threaten to go to the Headmistress, because those things, his little shadow wenches? They almost killed us.

But I don’t, because when I’m around him, I’m powerless.

Naught under his gaze.

"Are you ready to begin, my pet?" And that voice. Fuck me. Silk and gravel and grit and everything that spells danger.

I swallow hard and nod.

The humid air clings to my skin as I descend the hidden stairs behind him. My heart pounds with each step, anticipation and nerves tangling into a tight knot in my stomach. The desire to confront him and the desire to bite his muscled chest war within me.

That is Damien—contradiction incarnate.

He waits at the bottom of the stairs, leaning against a stone archway. His eyes rake over me, a predatory gleam following.

He stalks toward me, circling like the wolf he is. My breath hitches when he stops behind me, his broad chest nearly touching my back.

"You were late tonight, little lamb.”

I almost start blabbing about our excursion to the library before biting my tongue.

“As you should well know by now, I don't tolerate tardiness. There will have to be consequences." His breath feathers across my neck, a whimper escaping my lips.

God. What's he going to do to me?

The possibilities race through my mind, each one more twisted and diabolical than the last.

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