Page 39 of For Love and Blood and Fury

Elena offered a lopsided smile. “Well, that’s not a universal truth.”

Annoyance came off Zuri in tantalizing waves. The woman had never half-felt an emotion in her life. Everything was full color, full throated, full blooded. If an emotion was worth feeling, Zuri felt it in its entirety.

“So you think two witches, for no appreciable reason, poisoned me. Not just that, but without my knowledge,” she added with an incredibly pointed eyebrow flick that shouldn’t have turned Elena on all things considered, but there she wasanyway. “With some mysterious substance that didn’t do a single thing to me, but somehow nearly killed you.” She raised both eyebrows instead of calling Elena an idiot outright.

Without warning, Zuri stood and positioned herself in front of her. “Go on, compel me.”

The offer was cold water dousing a flame. Jaw tight, Elena flicked her gaze up at her. “Zuri, I have never compelled you?—”

“Yeah, I know.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Let’s go. Do it. You’ll be able to forget this stupid theory and move on to an actual suspect.”

Elena stared at Zuri, her heart an icy knot in her chest. She’d never compelled someone she loved, never used her power to violate the trust that bound them together. But the doubt, the fear, it gnawed at her, a relentless beast that demanded satisfaction.

“Look at me,” Elena commanded, her voice low and steady, her gaze unwavering.

Zuri met her eyes, her expression a mixture of defiance and resignation. Knowing that she couldn’t resist Elena’s power andactuallybeing under its effect was a very different thing. Elena’s gaze intensified, her fangs lengthening. A subtle but undeniable threat.

“Did you poison me?” she asked, the words a rasp against the silence. Even as she spoke, nausea roiled in her belly. The thought of doubting Zuri, of violating her trust, making her hate herself more than she already did.

Zuri’s eyes glazed over, her pupils dilating, her body stiffening as Elena’s power wrapped around her mind, a silken but unbreakable collar. She opened her mouth, her voice a hollow echo of its usual vibrancy.

“No,” she replied, completely monotone. “I would never hurt you.”

Elena held her gaze, searching for any flicker of deception, any hint of a lie. But there was nothing. Only the truth, stark and undeniable, reflected in Zuri’s vacant eyes.

With a sigh, Elena released her hold.

Zuri blinked, her gaze regaining its focus. “Satisfied?” she snapped.

Swallowing the unusual bile in her throat, Elena nodded. It was impossible to maintain eye contact when Zuri’s hurt was simmering beneath the surface. When it was accusing her of betrayal.

Watching her like she was dissecting her under a microscope, Zuri’s anger returned like a boomeranging tornado. “You’re still fucking doubting me. You’re unbelievable, Elena.”

She wanted to make herself say something. To lie. But she didn’t.

Zuri watched Elena, her expression a changing canvas of emotions. Not a single one positive. Then, without warning, she reached out, her hand extended towards Elena. “Give me your hand,” she demanded.

Furrowing her brow, Elena was about to ask why, but Zuri’s rage was a sonic blast.

She reached out instead, placing her hand in Zuri’s. Her grip was firm, her fingers warm against Elena’s cool skin. The touch was intimate, reminding her of centuries of loss.

And then, Zuri did something she’d never done before. She opened her mind to Elena, letting her into the labyrinth of her memories, her thoughts, her emotions. Elena gasped, a flood of images, sensations, and feelings washing over her, overwhelming her senses.

It was a foreign experience, completely disorienting and more than a little terrifying. Severed from her body, she was a guest in Zuri’s most sacred space. Herself.

She saw Zuri, pacing her apartment, her phone clutched in her hand, her heart a tangled mess of worry and anger. She heard Zuri’s thoughts, a bitter symphony of resentment and longing, of the pain she’d tried so hard to bury. And she felt Zuri’s emotions, raw and unfiltered, the love, the fear, the despair. They spun around her, impossible to catch.

Elena forced herself to regain control. To learn fast and act faster. The moment she took a breath, it was forced out of her. The worry Zuri carried for the future of her coven was a thick, choking smoke. It filled Elena’s nostrils, her throat, her chest.

She’d been alone in her apartment and Elena couldn’t sense anything amiss in Zuri’s body. And then there was the moment she’d swallowed her pride, her anger, her feelings, and decided to reach out to Elena for help. There was desperation in Zuri’s eyes, the vulnerability she’d tried so hard to conceal.

Before Elena could settle into her surroundings or sort the memories she had of the little apartment where she’d spent so many nights, she was spinning again.

And then, Elena saw herself through Zuri’s eyes. Merged into her memory to feel Zuri’s emotions in her own body.

Pulse racing, Zuri had stopped breathing when she’d walked into Elena’s office. The surroundings melted away. Useless longing sliced into Elena’s heart like glass.

Zuri’s chest ached with the same yearning, the same hunger, that Elena had felt. The same undeniable pull that had drawn them together all those years ago.

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