Page 97 of Savage Crown

I inhale, steadying myself, but it’s no use. My body still hums from the chase, from the kill, from the heat of adrenaline still burning through my veins. From him.

He shifts, just slightly. His jaw tightens as he rolls his shoulders, as though shaking off an invisible weight.

Then he speaks.

“This is because of you.”

His voice is a blade, cutting clean, sharp.

I flinch.

But I don’t look away. I don’t cower. I never cower.

Instead, I take a step forward.

And so does he.

Slow, deliberate, like two predators circling each other in the dark.

The tension between us is thick, a coil pulled too tight, too frayed at the edges. It should break. I need it to break. If it doesn’t, if we keep standing here in this charged, unbearable silence, one of us is going to do something we can’t take back.

Can I even stop it? I don’t know.

I meet his gaze. His emerald eyes are dark, storm-ridden, caught between fury and something else, something reckless.

I don’t think. I don’t have time. He’s already on me, hands gripping, pinning, shoving me backward until my spine hits the wall with a sharp gasp. His body presses into mine, heat and muscle and something raw, something primal.

His breath is harsh, ragged against my skin.

“You—” His voice is low, nearly a growl, fingers curling against my arms, against my wrists. “You drive me insane.”

I tilt my chin up, refusing to shrink beneath his weight, beneath the intensity of him.

“Good.”

His grip tightens.

I shudder.

I hate him. I want him. I want to tear him apart, and I want him to devour me whole.

Rylan’s lips brush the line of my jaw, not a kiss, not quite, but enough to send a sharp, aching heat down my spine.

“This isn’t a game, Seraphina,” he rasps.

I laugh, breathless. “Isn’t it?”

He snaps.

His mouth crushes against mine. I gasp into him, but he swallows it, doesn’t let me go, doesn’t let me breathe.

Good.

I don’t want to breathe. I don’t want to think.

I want this.

The weight of him. The fury of him.

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