Page 29 of Claimed In Darkness

I cackle, throwing my head back in laughter.

I reach out—slow, deliberate, because I know she won’t move away.

She lets me touch her.

I drag my thumb over her cheek, down to her mouth, smearing the drying blood against her lips.

She doesn’t flinch.

She just keeps staring at me, her eyes raging an inferno that threatens to demolish me.

I lean in, my breath brushing against her mouth.

“See?” I murmur. “You were always mine.”

Her lips part—but not in submission.

No, she’s taunting me. Challenging me.

And hell, if that doesn’t make my blood run hotter.

Her fingers curl into fists, her nails biting into her palms. I feel it, the need to strike me, to hurt me, to ruin me.

But she doesn’t.

Instead, she tilts her chin up and smiles.

Like she’s already plotting how she’s going to destroy me.

Good. It will make my life more interesting.

I release her, stepping back, watching the way her chest rises and falls, too fast, too sharp.

“We’re done here.”

She doesn’t move at first. Doesn’t blink.

After a long, seething moment, she finally turns away, stepping past me without another word.

She is not the same woman who walked into this pit. She never will be again.

I made sure of that.

I watch her disappear into the crowd, my pulse steady, even.

I exhale a slow breath.

And I smirk. Perfect.

11

NAIRA

The blood won’t come off.

I scrub until my skin burns.

Until my fingers ache, raw from the harsh scrape of my nails against my flesh. The water in the basin is dark now, a sickly shade of red and ruin, swirling down the drain in lazy, mocking spirals.

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