Page 16 of Psycho Devils: Aran's Story 2

Lightning lit the dark marble hall.

We turned the corner and walked down another long hall, led purely by instinct.

Fire and ozone filled my nose.

We turned another corner, and I balled my fists.

Lothaire was shouting and kneeling, and Arabella was seizing and twitching like she’d been electrocuted.

I growled like an animal.

As we stalked down the hall toward what was ours, her screams became whimpers.

Finally, she stopped convulsing.

Arabella’s ragged breaths were too loud in the quiet hall.

Orion whispered and his lyrical voice had a hard edge as he stared at Lothaire. “Never take Arabella away from us. Ever again.” He shook with rage.

Scorpius’s voice had a strange lilt to it as he said, “You dared to take her from us.”

He reached down to grab Arabella. His scowl disappeared, and he smiled tenderly as he ran his pale fingers across her cheek.

Eyes hooded with contentment, she nuzzled his fingers.

Scorpius’s tender expression transformed into horror, and he snatched his hand away.

Arabella scrambled backward.

“What just happened?” I asked as I shook my head to clear the haze from my mind as I pushed Scorpius and Orion behind me protectively.

Scorpius spat, “What did you just do to us?”

Arabella’s already fair skin somehow paled further. “Really? Screw you.” Her fingers trembled as she shoved the pipe between her ruby lips and mumbled, “I was the one in agony. Not you.”

Lothaire looked back and forth with his hands fisted, and he vibrated with rage. “What is going on?”

The possessive rage had drained away, and I was left with an uncomfortable mix of contentment and confusion.

I snapped at him, “You tell me.”

On the marble ground, Arabella made a choking noise and blanched like she’d realized something.

“What do you know?” I whirled on her.

Flames erupted across my arms, and I had the irrational urge to throw them at Lothaire for standing near Arabella.

He was a threat to her.

No. I shook my head again to clear my jumbled thoughts. Arabella is the threat. She killed Horace and deceived you.

Her voice cracked, and a sharp pang clenched my heart at the sound of her distress.

I ignored it.

She said to Lothaire, “You will supply me with every expensive enchanted drug in the realm, and you will never talk to me. Ever. Again.”

Lothaire arched his scarred brow just like his daughter loved to do and asked, “Why in the realms would I do that?”

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