Page 68 of The King has Fallen

But I had assumed that was only rumor. Similar to some of the more ridiculous stories that haunted the Nephilim.

I snapped my head around to look at her, uncertain whether I was angry or afraid.

Her eyes were wide… and her cheeks were red.

I swallowed hard. “Did you… was that—?”

“Thank you. For saving me,” she breathed. “That was… thank you.”

Then, as I sat there stunned, she laid down on the cot, pulled the blanket over her bad shoulder and rolled herself up in it with her back to me.

I gaped for a moment, confused and turned on and…

And suddenly fucking furious.

23. Curiosity

~ MELEK ~

“Don’t you turn your back on me,”I snarled, my chest, already tight from the shock and arousal, now constricting against the fire of rage. “What the actualfuck?!”

She jerked a little, like she’d been able to roll over, but her shoulder must have hurt, because she hissed, then slowly leaned up on her good arm before pushing herself up to sit, then turning to face me, pulling that blanket around her.

Her chin was low and she looked up at me warily from between the black curtains of her hair. “I wasn’t turning my back, I was just—”

“How the fuck did you do that? You can just insert thoughts in my head? Just make me see things?”

“No! No… Melek, it wasn’t… Not like that. It was… I can form visions… show you things your mind would conjure, or-or that youwant—”

“Don’t fucking tell me what I want!” I shoved out of the bath, heedless of the water splashing into the dirt and sliding down my body. “I didn’twantthat! I didn’t ask for that! You’re lying!”

“No! I’m not!”

As I stalked towards her, Yilan’s eyes got wider, but her expression got fiercer too.

“Fucking Fetch and your fucking mind games. Is that why you’re here? To turn my head and—”

“No! I can’t put anything in your mind that you’re opposed to receiving!”

“Bullshit!Ineverwantedthat!”

“Are you lying to yourself? Or to me?” she asked quietly, still keeping her chin low even though I now stood dripping at the bars, looming over her.

I was breathing heavily, arms at my sides, hands loose, but ready to grab for that fucking cage—forher!

But she just stared. I caught the little bob of her throat, but she didn’t look away.

“I cannot create false awareness,” she said warily. “I cannot make you see the real word as if it isn’t there. I can…showyou things. But I cannot create your thoughts. Those are all yours.”

“Influenced by your mind-fuckery and—”

“All you have to do to stop me or any of my kind from…showingyou anything is resist,” she said carefully. “If you don’t resist…well…”she shrugged, and a tiny light of amusement lit in her gaze.

I glared. “I don’t believe you.”

“I cannot enter your mind if you defend it, Melek,” she said blandly. “And even when I can, all you have to do is push the image away if you don’t want it.”

“So you say, but—”

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