Page 80 of Inflamed By an Incubus

“Mackenzie, this is Evelyn.” The elf stepped up behind the woman, his black clothing a contrast to her burgundy leather corset and trousers, and gently clasped her upper arms. His violet eyes were tender as he angled his head and gazed down at her face, and Mackenzie continued to stare at her. “Evelyn doesn’t know she’s like you.”

Like you.

Evelyn swallowed hard.

Couldn’t deny the need to close the distance between her and Mackenzie.

She was a slave to her instincts as they overruled the part of her that screamed at her not to trust them, that this was all another lie to trick her into doing what they wanted.

Mackenzie lifted her hands and held them out to her.

Evelyn ached to place hers into them.

Fenix stepped up beside her, his green gaze as soft as the elf’s had been as he looked at her and she glanced at him. “Your phoenix is showing.”

What did that mean?

She must have looked confused, because he took hold of her shoulders, spun her to face the mansion, and guided her towards the bay window. She gasped as she caught her reflection in the glass.

Her eyes were glowing gold just like Mackenzie’s were.

Panic prickled down her spine and she shirked Fenix’s grip with a shrug of her shoulders and shook her head as her brow furrowed. “This is a trick, a way to make me stay with you.”

She cast a look at him, her eyes darting back to him again as he moved away from her, giving her the space she needed as she fought for air, as she was torn between looking at him and at her reflection. It had to be a spell. Magic. Some kind of deceit. They were playing her.

Fenix’s handsome face softened and his voice lowered to a tender whisper, “You know in your heart that it isn’t.”

Evelyn looked at the window again.

At herself.

He was right. She did know that the reflection of her was real. She could feel the fire that shone in her eyes burning inside her, an inferno she had felt so many times over the last few weeks and had seen every night in her dreams.

Now, as she stared into her flickering golden eyes, she could no longer deny that she wasn’t normal.

She was different.

A phoenix shifter?

Evelyn wanted off this rollercoaster, wasn’t sure she could take much more.

Fenix inched closer to her and his presence was a comfort, the scent of him soothing and calming her, grounding her. “I met you decades ago… in a little tavern in Hell. You were causing a heck of a ruckus. Drew me to you straight away. Gods, you were beautiful… are beautiful.”

He sighed, drawing her gaze to him.

Her brow furrowed again as she looked deep into his eyes and silently begged him to keep talking, to make the panic and the fear fall away, to make the ground beneath her feel solid and real again.

His lips quirked at the corners into a smile that was somewhere between apologetic or sad and relieved, and then his expression sobered again.

“Your name is Aderyn. When we met, you were beating the crap out of some wankers who had told you a fib about the location of a mage and phoenix shifters.” He looked as if he wanted to lift his hand and touch her face, but instead backed off another step, placing more space between them. Space she didn’t like. Instantly, an urge to close that distance swept through her, had her rocking towards him, and he noticed it. He cast a sorrowful glance at the gap between them and then looked into her eyes, his revealing pain.

He wanted to be close to her.

But he couldn’t.

And it hurt him.

That feeling he was speaking the truth grew stronger in her heart, had sorrow washing through her too, because she knew why he couldn’t let himself be near her—he feared she would fall for him and that she would die.

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