Page 30 of Spelled By Truth and Tresses

I shrugged. “It’s all true. I mean, when I imagine being dead, I’ve never felt so loved.”

“You imagine that?”

“Do you find that odd?” I questioned, feeling uncomfortable.

“I think everyone does it now and again, but few people say it out loud.”

I smirked. “I guess I was born without that social filter thing.”

He smiled. “You are absolutely fucking perfect.” Jax paused, then ran a tattooed hand through his hair. “However, your magic severely needs training.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Why do you think that?” Unholy shit. I thought I had been doing well to conceal my magic’s true, wild nature.

Jax ignored my question. “We’re here.”

I had been so focused on my conversation with Jax that my surroundings didn’t register until now. We stood in a dark corridor, cast iron sconces hung on the stone walls between countless thick doors on both sides. As Jax strode toward the closest door on our right, the candles housed in sconces on either side ignited with a soft whoosh.

Without warning, Jax turned incorporeal and stepped through the locked door. I crossed my arms. I get stuck with being too beautiful and he gets to walk through walls. I rolled my eyes internally. Before I could continue my annoyed inner musings, a translucent hand pushed through the door. The tattoos covering his hand and fingers, still visible in phantom form, rippled as he crooked a finger.

I raised my hand, then placed it within his. An unnatural cold seeped into me through his palm, and I shrieked as he tugged me through to the room beyond. My breaths stuttered as I swayed, then bent at the waist and leaned on my knees.

“You okay, pet?” Jax asked, then chuckled.

I waved my hand dismissively. “Oh yeah, totally fine. I’ve been yanked through solid objects tons of times.”

Deep, seductive laughter rumbled out of him and quickly filled the empty room. Jax wrapped an arm around my shoulders, then led me to the center of the space. Our steps left visible by thin prints in the dust coating the hardwood floor as we moved.

“Is this an old classroom?” I asked as my gaze darted from a carved human skull placed on a large mahogany bookcase, spiderwebs stretching across both eye sockets, to the three haphazardly stacked towers of black desks.

“Yes,” he affirmed. “No one uses these rooms anymore, but none of the faculty would give me a simple explanation as to why.”

“Well, that’s creepy as fuck, Ax.”

He snorted. “Perhaps, but it makes for a quiet, secluded place to play with your magic safely.”

He pulled out his phone, then selected a playlist. Black Honey by Thrice drifted from the small speakers. The alternative rock song suited Jax perfectly and was just what I imagined he would listen to.

“Nice playlist.” I approved.

“This is the best way to entice your magic to the surface.” He told me. “Music can evoke powerful emotion in us.”

“I’m not sure if that is the best idea.” The thought of dragging more of my emotions to the surface was terrifying. My horror must have shown on my face, because Jax stalked toward me.

“It can’t hurt to try, pet.” He continued, then backed me into a wall. “You need to learn to control your powers before you end up killing someone.”

Unease scraped down my spine. Something in his tone sounded off. It was unsettling. “There are two paths. Light and dark.” His hand collared my throat but didn’t cut off my airway. “But creatures like you and I balance on the edge between both. You cannot continue denying your dark nature.”

I looked up into his molten gaze. “How can embracing something so sinister end up in anything but tragedy? It feels wrong to unleash the very thing I’ve spent my entire life caging.”

Jax pressed his body into mine, then cupped my cheek with his free hand. “Your methods are failing, pet.” He smoothed a thumb over my lower lip, then leaned down and bit it gently. “You will never gain full control over your powers until you embrace everything dark within you. One cannot exist without the other.”

The candle light glinted in his eyes, showing off a thousand shades of gold. I gazed into them, entrapped by his stare. My hips rose of their own accord, and I rubbed against his stiffening length. I stopped as soon as I realized what I was doing, but the damage was done.

He didn’t need any further encouragement to lust after me. My despicable beauty did that for him already. Everything about me lured people to me like prey. Maybe if I had control over my siren magic, I could learn to dampen the effects of my pull on others.

Jax closed his eyes and clenched his jaw. He took a deep breath, then his eyes slowly opened. “As much as I would love to make you scream around my cock, this lesson is more important. Are you ready to embrace the inky void?”

“That’s what today is,” I stated, not as a question. “You want me to go dark?”

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