Page 85 of Starkeeper of the Fractured Crown

I stopped, feeling his heartbeat against my spine, my own heart slamming painfully against my ribs. I could feel his cock pulsing against my ass. He wasenjoyingthis. Heloved it.

“I marked you,” he said, carefully easing the grip around my throat, “but the Mersine Berry cocktail I just gave you will erase it, unfortunately. Meaning I’ll have to do it again. Very soon.”

I swallowed against his hand, unable to look at the appendages in my sink. “Why would you help me?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

And despite myself, I felt my muscles relax just a hair.

It was enough for him to notice. He adjusted his grip around my throat, easing back from the counter enough to return blood flow to my legs, causing them to tingle. “Have you realized the truth yet?”

I nodded, staring at the steamed-up window, the water still running, Asilos Root dripping down my face, my hands, bloody cocks in my sink. “Yeah,” I breathed out, realizing only one thing.

I only had a month left with my brother before I lost him forever.

“I realized that you’re a cock-sucking, egotistical, arrogant, big-headed, psychopath who gets bored of his own wealthy, lavish life and thinks to himself ‘you know what’ll be fun, singling out a worthless, pathetic, fat, ugly, piece of fucking shit woman who has nothing in this life except for her overactive imagination to have as my own’. Until, that is, you get bored enough to move on.” Which I was shocked hadn’t happened yet.

Trick laughed a cruel, dark laugh and shoved away from the counter, my hand releasing from the edge of the sink.

He spun us around, releasing me to stumble back against the table, his shadows growing larger, darker.

I grabbed onto the table to steady myself, panting, as his eyes sparked in an animalistic kind of way.

“You’ve got it all wrong, baby.”

“You?” I bit.

“No, you,” he snarled. “You’re a fucking masterpiece. You areartwork.”

My breath caught at the feral way he spoke, at the words he said.

“You are the fire I want to die in, a craving I can’t satiate. You are every throb of my hardening cock, every beat of my blackened heart, every breath of my immortal life. You are a goddess among fucking men. And you. Are. Mine.”

My heart thudded, my mind memorizing those words against my will, memorizing the way he looked while saying them, the way he stood, breathed, the way his eyes flamed.

He was telling the truth.

Why was he doing this?

Whyme?

“You want to play games, Angel?” he asked, hands clenching at his sides, his magic swirling, pulsing,vibratingaround him. “Then run. No magic, no wings, no innate abilities of speed or scent. If you make it out of the Forest of Malice, I leave you alone for the night. If I catch you, I punish you for the rules you chose to break.”

My eyes widened, that zing of fear spreading down my spine, across my lower back, followed by a whisper of thrill. “And if I say no,” I breathed out.

One corner of his mouth lifted up. “Baby, you’ve alreadyconsented.”

I couldn’t breathe in the best possible way.

“Run.”

A one-word command I wouldn’t ignore. I spun around, jumped over the table, landing on trembling legs, and sprinted for the door.

I lunged through the door and towards the trees. No magic, no wings, no innate abilities of speed or scent. I had a chance. I knew these woods, knew the demons.

I had a chance.

I ran as fast as I could, heart stammering, trees blurring as I passed them. I didn’t know if he was actually chasing me, but I was sure he would keep his word.

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