Page 109 of Wickedly Yours

A scream rang out ahead, and then I was flying faster, wings beating furiously behind me to reach the sound of the noise.

Her heartbeat was louder now. Closer.

Another demon bared his fangs at me, but I threw my sword, impaling him in the heart without blinking as I marched forward. With my magic, I summoned it back to my hand before plunging it through the chest cavity of yet another demon, black sludge spewing out onto the dirt.

And then there was nothing—no one to stop me from claiming my mate.

“So this was where they hid her?”

They’d thrown her in an old wine cellar at the edges of the palace grounds. This was too easy—atrap.Hair rose on the back of my arms.

But my feet were frozen in place as I entered the dirt cellar and saw her below. It was hardly more than a pit now. There was no ladder to climb out with.

“Baby,” I whispered the word, staring down at her limp form. My wings carried me down slowly, like the entire world existed in between each heartbeat.

She was bound and gagged, wearing nothing but a loose, bloody shift. It looked like it had been torn. Like she’d put up one hell of a fight. Her body was shaking like a leaf, as if the dampness of this dirt cell had seeped into her bones.

I reached down, pulling the gag from her mouth and slicing the bindings from her wrists.

Her eyes raised to meet mine, but it wasn’t the stare I knew and loved. The bright green gaze that had looked up at me each morning was gone. They werewhite, pulsing with energy as it swirled through her.

Like they had the night she’d seethed with anger. But this was different. Like no life was behind her irises.

“What did they do to you?” I asked, brushing a hand over her skin. It was shimmering, just like that night in bed right after we’d been bonded. We’d lost ourselves in each other, inthe pleasure of how right it was together. Though there was no pleasure in this. She felt no comfort, only pain.

Her body was ice cold.

“Luna.” Beams of light nestled in her palms. “Who did this to you?”

Whoever it was, they’d be dead if they weren’t already.

“Moonbeam,” I begged, nestling her against me as if I could bring some warmth back to her freezing body. “Come back to me.”

Her hand reached up, and she ran her fingers over my jaw. “Zain.” Her voice was a croak. She tilted her chin, her gaze finally meeting mine. “I don’t know how to stop it. Whatever they did to me, I?—”

It was why they’d shoved her in here. Because they feared her, they should have. But they’d been even more scared of me.

“They’re all gone,” I promised. I didn’t want to think about the blood I was wearing. How many lives had been lost tonight? I lost count. “I took care of them. Let’s go home.”

“No,” she protested weakly, scooting away from me even as I tried to wrap her up in my arms. A sob worked free from her lungs. “Zain, there’s something wrong with me.”

I shook my head. “There’s nothing wrong with you. There never has been, baby. Just breathe.”

“Stop!” she screamed, the light flaring brighter. “I don’t want to hurt you! I can’t—” Her power shot out of her hands like two beams of light, baring holes into the dirt floor.

“You won’t.” Even as tears streamed down her face, I ignored her worries, pulling her into my arms and soothing her with calming words. “Youcan’t, Luna.” Wrapping my arms around her, I rocked her back and forth as she cried. Her magic was still haywire, but she couldn’t hurt me. I didn’t know how—maybe because of the darkness that lived in my veins—but ever since she’d attacked my training dummies, I’d suspectedthere was something different about how my powers reacted to hers.

Her light should have burned my eyes, my skin. Instead, I wrapped her with mine. My shadows covered her light as I held her tight against me. As I kissed her forehead, letting the warmth of my body seep into hers. Burying my nose in her hair, I inhaled her scent, the only thing that could calm me right now.

“I killed them,” she cried. “My attackers dragged me out here, and I-I killed them. I ran, but t-the branches were so thick, and they caught me, and I-I—” I could barely understand her through her tears, but I heard enough to understand.

The light in her eyes was dimming as she burned her way through whatever magic-amplifying drug they’d given her. Slowly, they were turning back to that brilliant shade of light green.

“Luna,” I soothed. “You’re okay. You’re safe now, I promise.” I kissed the top of her head as she buried her face into my chest, her hands gripping my shirt.

The sobs wracked through her slight frame, her chest heaving from the motion as she cried.

“Your father, he?—”

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