Page 165 of Mud

I blinked at him—the audacity of this guy. “Withme!” I cried out, holding onto the tree to get to my feet because I needed to keep moving. I needed to release some of this tension that was apparently still right there where I left it when I passed out by this trunk.

“What did you do, Taland?! I almost killed a man withBlackfire magic—I almost killed him!” My voice became higher with every word. The more the realization sunk in, the more the idea that I had really killed Ben, left him for dead in that room, the more my panic grew.

Taland’s smile dropped all the way when he stood up, too, throwing the half-eaten apple behind him. His face was completely transformed from a moment ago, and if I had to pick a name for him right now, I’d saya murderous sociopathwould do it justice.

“You almost killed a man,” he said in barely a whisper.

And it pissed me off even more that he was so calm. “Yes, damn it, yes! What the hell did you do to me?!”

He arched a perfect brow. “What were you doing when that happened, Rosabel?”

A step forward. Ugh, I hated it when he used my full name like that.

“What were you doing to the man you almost killed?”

Goose bumps rushed down my arms.

Holy shit,thiswas the reason why he’d asked me if I’d killed someone accidentally, why he’d been so certain that I had never been with anyone else.Thiswas the reason!

Angry. It made me so damn angry I saw red. And despite the urge to lower my head and say something like,none of your business,I looked him dead in the eyes and said, “I was in the process of taking his shirt off.”

If I thought he’d turned into a murderous sociopath before, he was a straight up psycho now. His jaws locked and his head lowered, his eyes darkened and his fists tightened at his sides.

Fuck, I hated seeing him like that, and a part of me even insisted that I should be afraid of him, that this was the moment he killed me for real, that he avenged his freedom that I took.

Except this was Taland, and I still couldn’t process him as an enemy. It would possibly be the death of me, that very thing, but I couldn’t. So, I held his eyes despite how hard it was, and I kept my chin raised until he spoke.

“You kissed him,” he whispered, voice just as low.

“I almostkilledhim when I did,” I said through gritted teeth, and suddenly he was right in front of me.

“But you kissed him,” he insisted.

“Yes, Taland, I kissed him. And I was going to do more things to him, but then he stopped fuckingbreathing!” I said in a rush, desperate to get the words out, afraid I wouldn’t have the balls to say them if I gave it more thought.

His hand was suddenly around the back of my neck as he looked into my eyes. “Are you trying to make me kill every male player in this game—is that it? Do you want meto spill all their blood tonight, sweetness? Because it sounds to me like you do.”

I couldn’t believe my own ears.

“Don’t you dare, you prick!” I pushed him. I put my back to it, too, and I couldn’t even move him a single inch. “I almostkilleda man! How can you not think that’s serious—I almost?—”

“Serious?!” he cut me off, laughing like a fucking maniac all of the sudden. “Oh, I do consider this very serious, and you should as well.” His other hand was around my neck, and he came closer until our noses touched. “You are not allowed to touch other men, Rosabel. Do you understand me? You are not allowed tokissother men.”

His voice had transformed into something animalistic.

I grabbed his hands and this time when I pushed them off me and stepped back, he let me. “You’re not my parent, Taland. You’re not my boyfriend. You’re not myanything, and you almost made me?—”

He was right in front of me again, looking like he really might go around killing every person with a dick between their legs any second now.

“A murderer?” he cut me off. “Is that what you were going to say? I almost made you a murderer?” That insane, mad smile on his lips again as he looked at mine. “But you already are. You’ve killed before. No matter what you look like, you’re poison, sweetness—that’s what you do. Kiss another man, if you have to, to convince yourself of it. I promise you, nothing’s going to change.”

His every word was a stab in my gut. Tears in my eyes and he was close enough to see them, but I wasn’t going to let them spill, at least. “What the hell did you do to me, Taland?” I said, no longer bothering to move away. I could see my reflection in his eyes—they’d become thatdark—and he wasn’t going to give me any space, so why try?

“A simple spell,” the asshole said, his eyes burning holes in my lips. “One that’s fairly easy to do when you’re someone’s first, as I was yours.” Fucking hell, that smile… “You kiss other men—or women, for that matter—and the air in their lungs becomes Blackfire magic. Your saliva activates it, sweetness, and the closer you are to them, the more violently the magic tries to come out of them, killing them in the process.”

Yeah, impossible to stop the tears from falling now.

“Fucking prick,” I whispered with barely any voice because how could I speak now?

---