Page 7 of Owned

The room didn’t answer. But something did.

“You gave them everything. And they gave you power.”

The whisper coiled in my mind like smoke, velvet and poisonous. The grimoire’s voice was unmistakable. It had been quiet, but now… now it purred with satisfaction.

I didn’t recoil.

I didn’t flinch.

I stepped closer to the mirror and studied myself.

“You’ve already begun,”the grimoire whispered. “See how they worship you.”

Valen’s eyes. The way they’d glazed as he thrust into my throat, desperation edging every sound.

Titus, growlingmine, mine, minelike a curse and a prayer as he split me open.

Bastian, grinning like a beast with my name on his tongue.

They had come undone in me.

For me.

I had shattered under them and somehow come out made of steel.

It wasn’t submission.

“Strategy,”the grimoire hissed.

They thought they'd used me.

But I was the one they couldn’t stop touching. Couldn’t stop needing. Couldn’t stop watching.

I could still feel their magic, tangled in mine. Blood-stitched. Desire-bound.

The bond hummed beneath my skin, a web spun tight around their souls—and they didn’t even know how securely they were caught.

I turned from the mirror and walked to the bath. The marble was smooth beneath my feet, and with a flick of my fingers water rushed from the faucet to fill the tub.

Steam billowed up to wrap me in a humid shroud. I pushed the negligee’s flimsy straps down and let it slip from my shoulders, pooling on the floor in a damp heap. I didn’t bother to twist my hair up.

I stepped into the tub and sank beneath the surface, letting the hot water scald my bruised skin.

The water curled around my thighs like velvet ribbons and I let my head tip back as I closed my eyes.

What if this wasn’t survival anymore?

What if this was the start of something else?

Something darker. Somethingmine.

“I could make them love me,” I whispered to the ceiling. “I could twist their hearts in my hand and squeeze.”

“You already are.”The grimoire’s voice was lower now. Hungrier.

“They want to protect me.”

“Because they know they cannot survive you.”

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