Page 8 of Queen of the Underworld

His mind emptied of anything that wasn’t her, his focus obliterated by her. She was all he knew as he watched her from a distance, struggling to comprehend the powerful and intense feelings she stirred in him, or the incredible pull he felt towards her.

And suddenly, he knew how the souls in his realm felt when they first came to him and why they often wandered to the far reaches of his lands, or remained curled up and sobbing for weeks.

Because he feared losing sight of her. He feared her leaving.

He feared her being taken from him.

The thought she might be stolen from him and he might never see her again was like a blade in his heart, twisting deep. Sheer agony rolled through him and his mood darkened, turning blacker than night. If anyone tried to take her from him, he would destroy them.

She was his.

Clouds gathered above him in response to his shift in mood and his dark power rising with it, blotting out the bright sunshine and plunging the area of forest where he was into shadows.

The darkness only gathered faster as one of the other females said, “My lady, we should return.”

“I will be but a moment.” The sound of the delicate redhead’s voice was pure bliss but sheer torment at the same time as he realised something.

She intended to leave.

That fear she would be taken from him and he would never see her again was about to become a reality.

A desperate need to make her notice him grew rapidly within him, surging through him and stealing command of him as easily as the darkness could at times. He growled as he moved into a position where she would be able to see him and stared at her, willing her to look at him now.

Wild with a need for her to see him.

Even when he felt deep in the black pit of his soul that it wouldn’t go as he desired.

Rather than wanting him, she would be terrified.

Such a delicate creature would never choose a beast like him.

That feeling clawed at him, shredding his insides to allow oily black to spill into the lacerations. It poisoned his mind, drawing up the darkness, until he seethed with a need to seize hold of her and take her, and had to fight to hold it back, waging war against it and aware that if he gave in to it, he would destroy everything.

She would never want him.

She crouched, her pale green dress pooling around her bare feet as she returned to picking flowers, a melody still playing on her tempting lips. The sound soothed the raging beast of his darkness, dulling the sharp edge of his mood enough that he could let go of the urge to grab her and entrancing him so thoroughly that he couldn’t have convinced his feet to move even if he had wanted to carry out his plan to take her.

She plucked a bloom and added it to the bouquet before rising and moving on, continuing her walk through the forest.

Not leaving.

Warmth curled through him, softening the hard reaches of his heart and loosening the hold of his darkness even further. He frowned and examined the intriguing shift in his mood, and his eyebrows rose as he realised he was pleased. Not the usual kind of dark pleasure he took from his daily work, but a lighter kind, one that satisfied him almost as much.

And the source of this curious feeling was the female.

She had shown him she was intent on remaining rather than doing as the other female bid and leaving, and that had pleased him.

Her sweet song continued to soothe him as she meandered through the trees, drifting towards the next patch of flowers, and he soaked up the sight of her, an irritating feeling growing in the back of his mind.

He couldn’t be here much longer.

His power was already affecting this world and it wouldn’t be long before she noticed it.

And then noticed him.

He was torn by that.

Wrenched between wanting her to see him and not wanting it.

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