Page 70 of Inflamed By an Incubus

She huffed and softened as she turned to him, as she opened her arms to him and he bent and scooped her up, clutching her tightly to him with one arm around her back and the other under her bottom. She stroked her fingers through his blue-black hair as she whispered, “Just a little magic. You did good. I didn’t want the stinky Crow, really.”

Evelyn mentally checked herself over, realised that the initial wave of shock that had hit her had passed and she had no reason to be sitting on the damp grass with a group of non-humans.

Only she couldn’t convince herself to move.

Or stop looking at the spot where Archer had been.

The incubus had been right.

Archer wasn’t human.

And somehow, she had known it. She had dreamed of those black eyes and tattoos. Had she seen them before and forgotten them?

She forced her gaze to shift to Fenix, a weight settling on her chest as she remembered the other things he had said to her, things that had sounded like the ramblings of an insane or desperate man at the time.

But what if he had been telling her the truth?

What if she wasn’t safe at Archangel?

He had wanted to set her free. What did that even mean? She was free. Wasn’t she?

Her focus drifted back to where Archer had been. Archer, who had been hit by a spell and had transformed before her eyes, had become the man who haunted her dreams. She tried to convince herself that the spell the witch had used had caused those changes in him, but attempting to bury her head in the sand and make excuses wasn’t going to cut it.

He had teleported.

And he had looked at her as if he was sorry, as if he was hurt that she had discovered that he wasn’t human after all.

Evelyn wasn’t sure what to make of that.

Fenix slowly approached her and she could sense his wariness. And wasn’t that weird? Why could she sense things about him? Why did she feel… comforted… by his presence?

She looked up at him, aware that everything she was feeling was there on her face for him to see. There was no point in hiding it. She was confused. Hurt. Felt betrayed. Even used. Had she just been a part of Archer’s plan? Or had she really been his friend?

What had he wanted to tell her?

Part of her, some desperate, hurt part of her, wanted to believe he had meant to tell her what he was and all about his plan, but she would never know.

Fenix extended his right hand to her and his gaze implored her to take it.

She looked at him and then the trio who had remained where they were, all of them watching her now.

Waiting to see what she would do.

Trust the non-humans who had done something terrible to Archer?

Or run?

Chapter 21

Fenix could see the war playing out in Evelyn’s golden eyes, could feel how torn she was as she stared at the hand he offered, and was soul-deep aware of her hurt. It beat inside him too, had him regretting agreeing to Rosalind’s plan. If he had known revealing what Archer was, and apparently wounding that male emotionally in the process, would hurt his mate this deeply, he wouldn’t have agreed to it. He would have found a gentler way to convince her that Archer wasn’t all that he seemed and would have stuck to his original plan to wait until he knew how to break the curse before approaching her again.

Even when he knew there wasn’t time.

Whatever Archangel were planning to do with Aryanna, whatever Archer was planning to do with her, it was already in progress and as much as he hated the thought of losing his mate and beginning the curse cycle again, he couldn’t ignore that.

The whole world was in danger.

Including his mate.

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