Page 74 of Shade of Ruin

When I stared at my Aunt and Uncle, I’d felt nothing but cold, heartless anger from them. Hazel, though, was nothing but warmth and happiness. “You’re going to live with us?” she asked, barely more than six years old.

I’d nodded to her, and she’d run across the floor and given me the tightest hug I think I’d ever felt at that point. “We’re going to be best friends,” she whispered in my ear. “We’ll get to play together every day.”

I remember not understanding what she’d meant by playing. I’d never experienced “playing”. My father had told me stories and sung songs and had loved me, but he’d never played with me. I’d never been around other children in Blackgrove, and I’d only been around Prudence and Trevor and Hazel a handful of times.

I had never played before. But Hazel had.

It was that day that I realized there was more to the world than my father and Vesta. I should still be sad that he was gone, but I shouldn’t be sad forever. Hazel showed me that I could still smile. She taught me to laugh and play and be utterly purposeless.

She’s my best friend. My only friend. She’s the person that taught me what it was like to be human because Vesta and my mother—and even my father—didn’t. Only Hazel.

I smile as the water flows over my body, washing away the stresses and reminding me of what’s important. Taking care of Hazel. I’ve gotten so wrapped up in everything else that I’ve lost sight of the reason I came to Draenyth.

Then I hear a voice. It’s so soft I know only I can hear it. “Don’t say a word,” it whispers. I slowly turn my head and see him. The black cloak only a foot away, the shadows of it rolling off and moving toward the water. The tendrils of darkness fade as soon as they touch the enchanted water. My hands move to cover my breasts, but the Shade isn’t looking at me. He’s turned to face the wall.

“You play a dangerous game, Maeve. Bringing a djinn out of the Keep, uncollared, to a place where nobles relax. You’re supposed to be keeping your head down, aren’t you? You’re risking my investment.”

I go to speak, but shadows wrap around my throat, constricting. It’s not enough to actually stop me from speaking, but it’s enough to make me pause and recognize he doesn’t want to have a conversation.

They flow over my skin and remind me of the night I’d repaid a debt. He’d shown me what he could do if he wanted. He’d shown me what it was to be desperate for him, to be willing to give everything to someone in return for nothing but his touch. He’d shown me how cruel a Fae could be.

The water splashes over my hair and shoulders, trying to pull my mind away from any kind of real thought. I should be lost in memories and feelings. The song of the nymphs calls to me, begging me to forget the world. I could be at peace here. I could be lost.

I can’t separate myself from memories and desires in this water. Under the spell of the nymphs’ song, I can’t control the shadows that uncoil from my fingertips and dissipate immediately. I can’t stop the fact that the Shade has spent every moment we’ve been together drawing out my desire for him.

He was the reason I felt my body throb for a man for the first time. He’s the first to touch me intimately. His voice, his body,and even the expressions hidden by his cloak make my core smolder. And he’s pushed me back at every turn.

The last time I saw him, he bound me in shadows and taught me what desire could be. The nymphs’ song fills my mind, making me lose all sense of reality. What’s right and what’s wrong. What consequences are. Why I haven’t let myself do the things that I want.

Here in the darkness, I won’t let him escape me again.

I won’t let him tease me.

He may be the Shade, but I am the Princess of Shadows.

The drumbeat is overwhelming in my core. My body aches to be touched by him. To feel those long, sharp nails over my naked skin. I stand up, the water running down my body like tiny rivers, and I reach out. My hand moves to the cloak, wanting desperately to see the Immortal under it.

No. The voice echoes in my mind.You do not want to do this, Maeve. The Shade cannot be revealed. Not here. Not by you.

It breaks me out of the almost dream-like compulsion that the waters had filled me with. Sia must have reached out to the Shade as well because he whirls around and stares at me. My body bared in the darkened world of the pool. He doesn’t distance himself from me, but he doesn’t look away either.

Shadows stream from his body, and they wrap around me, tightening and constricting until it’s almost painful. One tendril across my stomach. Another around my legs. Two more around my arms. And then they lift me into the air.

Supported solely by the shadows that the Shade controls, I keep my head up, not trying to cover myself at all as his shadows carry me to him. “Maeve,” he whispers so that only I can hear. “I thought we understood each other. Why would you try to look under my hood?”

I try to say something, but as soon as my mouth opens, shadows move to fill it, slipping into my throat and stifling anynoise I try to make. My eyes open wide as I realize just how easily he could suffocate me like this. Silently so that no one could know even in the middle of a locked pool.

No wonder the House of Steel was terrified of the House of Shadows.

“Maeve.” He says my name as soft as a caress, and the shadows blocking my breathing dissipate, leaving me gasping. The rest of my body is held tight. Naked and exposed, I stare him down even as he steps closer to me. Those black tinted nails run over my cheek just as they’ve done so many times before, and I shiver as they move to my throat. Then down to my breast, curving around it, but never actually touching them.

So soft, yet so impossible to ignore, his nails graze my stomach and keep moving down. I have to bite my lips as he traces the most intimate curves of my body. He stands inches away from me, so close that I can feel his breath come out as he looks down at my naked body.

“You owe me three debts. How would you feel if I held you like this for hours and teased you? What if that was how I wanted you to repay me? To be tormented for hours or maybe even days? What if the only reason I helped you was to see you bound and teased until you broke under my hand?”

I may be out of those waters, but the nymph’s song still beats in my mind. Just as loud and just as powerful as the drumbeat in my core. My body is radiating with desire. With the need to touch and be touched. Not like this. Not impossibly soft.

His words make me shiver. Do I want him to spend days doing this? Absolutely not, but does the thought make my very soul throb? Like never before.

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