Page 71 of The Blood Crown

He tossed the daggers to the stone floor with a clatter. “Good.”

His full lips curved into that familiar smirk. Taunting and infuriatingly enticing. Making her want to do anything to remove it as heat blistered her fingertips.

She gave no warning as she threw an arc of lightning at him, thunder booming just beyond the fortress. A wave of shadows rose around him in answer, blocking her attack.

White wreathed her hands once more as she threw spears of light, trying to pierce the heavy veil of darkness that swirled around him. Blasts of crackling heat pummeled his shadows, each of them swallowed up in the dense black, until she could barely see him.

Her attack began wild and erratic—but with every strike, her aim was more focused—sharpened. And as she drew on her power, the sky outside darkening with her pent-up rage—she couldfeelthe shape and force of it. Siphoning her magick from wherever it dwelled within her veins and slowly honing it, bending it, tempering it to her will.

Her ears rang with the deafening cracks of thunder, enough to shake the stone Ledge beneath them. Sweat slicked her brow, curling the dark waves of her hair at the nape of her neck as gold veins of her power splintered across the black wall of Ven's magick.

Aurelia risked a glance toward the railing above.

Asher still stood there, watching. His eyes wide with something that wasn’t quite fear as he witnessed her power for the first time. But she was not afraid of him seeing it anymore. She would not hide herself. For anyone.

Dropping her hands to her sides, she offered Ven a small reprieve. The charged air lifted the fine hairs dusting her arms as his shadows dispersed in dark tendrils around him and they began to circle each other once more.

Above them, she heard Karro murmur to her brother, “Right—well. Best leave them to it. Might be awhile." He steered Asher down the corridor, a thick arm thrown over her brother's shoulder. “Have you been to the kitchens yet? Excellent ale . . .” His words trailing off as they disappeared from sight.

Something primal flashed in Ven's eyes as her attention focused on him again. His features sharpening, changing—as if some of the ancient predator their kind evolved from still lurked under his skin. An echo of the male who had claimed her.

“You have more than that,” he uttered. His bare chest gleamed with sweat, knuckles cracking as he flexed his hands, ready for the next attack—making her body respond in a way that made her silently curse herself. He was provoking her. Much like the first time he’d brought her here to test out her magick, before either of them had known exactly what kind of power she possessed.

She took the bait, hurtling blast after blast of blinding light at him. Ven’s shadows danced and eddied around the hissing white branches. Swallowing them, deflecting them. His eyes were wild, the crimson glittering in a way that made him appear half-beast, as if hewantedall of her rage.

“Unleash yourself on me!” he growled, frustration bleeding through his usually controlled façade.

And she did. The fortress shook as thunder rattled the windows and she ripped lightning from the sky itself, raining down depthless wrath.

Every strike landed with lethal precision, until at last Ven began to give up ground, his steps slowly receding toward the sharp edge of the stone in the haze of blinding white.

His shadows seemed to lose their depth as she pushed her advance, until finally one of her strikes breached his defense, ricocheting off the copper crescent around his neck.

His head whipped back as he was struck, and the breath left her lungs—her heart stuttering to a halt.

Ven’s eyes blazed like liquid fire as he pressed his fingertips to his cheek, the red mark already fading as he pulled them away. “It will take much more than that to harm me, Love,” he murmured. An echo of the words he'd spoken to her in that quietcavern when she'd gone into stasis, her magick leaving his skin blistered and burnt. A prod at her defenses.

And then his lips curved up into that taunting smirk, making her see red.

Heat flooded her palms again as she lunged for him—throwing her entire body at him as he braced for the attack.

She spun into him, tucking her hip into his as she grasped his muscled forearm. The surprise was enough to flip him onto the unforgiving stone of the Ledge—just as Nira had instructed her.

With a knee on his chest, Aurelia fought to keep his arms pinned. He was much stronger than her—she knew that well enough. And it wasn’t long before he had broken free of her grasp and managed to get his legs underneath him. But Nira’s voice whispered in her head as she locked her elbow under his chin, circling his waist with her thighs.

All it would take was a little more pressure, and he’d be fighting for breath.

She knew it.

He knew it.

Ven struggled, and she tightened her hold. He could have disappeared into a wisp of shadow—but he wouldn’t. It was exactly where both of them wanted to be.

“Do you yield?” she hissed.

He stilled. Breath ragged in his chest as he said, “For you—always.”

She released him, but in a single fluid motion, he pulled her on top—her thighs falling across either side of his hips, palms braced against his shoulders as his hands gripped the curve of her waist.

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