Page 40 of Enslaved By Magic

Luke sighed and his eyes slid away from hers.

“Luke?” she asked, in a trembling voice. “You—you’re going to make the wish soon? It’s been two months since you made the second one,” she added, reminding him of how long she’d been waiting.

“Amari, it’s not that easy,” he said, sounding strained.

She inhaled sharply and suddenly the world around them fell away and she felt like she was standing on the edge of a cliff about to fall. Her chest hurt, everything hurt. “You promised.”

“I know I promised, and I meant it!” he said. “I swear I’m going to free you, Amari. It’s just… I’m”—he paused—“still thinking. It’s a tough decision.”

It was the first time that she’d caught him in a lie, and she felt the little world they’d built together starting to crumple as she realized he was going to turn out to be like all the others after all. How could she have trusted him? How?

“Yeah. Right, of course.” She turned and without another word she walked away but she didn’t get very far.

“Hey! Amari come back here and talk to me,” he called.

Because he’d loosened the bottle’s restrictions by telling her that she could ignore casual orders unless he said, “That’s an order,” she had the option of ignoring it, but in the end, where would she go? She stopped, took a deep breath before slowly turning back to face him again.

“What is there to talk about? You’re not ready. It’s a tough decision, and there’s no real reason to rush since it’s only my freedom we’re talking about, right?” The words were practically snarled, and he winced.

“Can you calm down please, so we can talk about this?” he asked but the placating tone just pissed her off more.

“What good does talking do, Luke? You promised me that you’d free me!”

“And I will, Amari. I have every intention of—”

She cut him off with a barked laugh. “You have intentions? Oh, well as long as you have intentions, I guess it’s okay then!” She’d never been angry at him like this. She’d never used that cold dripping-with-disdain voice when she talked to him before, and he clearly didn’t like it.

His thick dark eyebrows dipped low and his eyes narrowed, glittering dangerously. “Now, hold on a minute, Amari. I understand you’re upset, and maybe I didn’t explain it right, so I can see that you have reason to be mad at me, but you don’t get to talk to me like that,” he said, using his Dom voice.

And the worst part of it was that part of her was soothed by that. She could feel her emotions settling down because she’d learned to trust him in that role. She wavered on the edge, almost ready to let him have his say, but then she thought about what Esra had said and she knew she couldn’t do that. If he needed a push, she was going to give him one.

“Yes, of course. Please forgive me. I forgot my place,” she said in a cold voice that made it clear she meant the opposite. “I’ll return to my bottle now.” She turned, though it wasn’t necessary because her lower body had already begun to shimmer as it turned to smoke.

“Stop! Dammit, Amari, that’s an order,” he snapped firmly.

It was a shock, that he would use his power over her like that, but she wasn’t entirely surprised. She could hear the desperation in his voice, the need for her to listen so he could explain why he couldn’t free her—for whatever reason.

She was just as desperate; the riot of emotions boiled through her even as her body reacted to the order and solidified again. The tears that she’d been holding back by sheer force of will now poured down her cheeks. She couldn’t even say she was crying because she was hurt. These were tears of anger and frustration, and she didn’t want him to see them. For so many years her mantra had been ‘Never let them see you cry,’ but this time she couldn’t hold back the tears, and she refused to turn back so he could watch them roll down her face in streams.

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