Page 148 of At the Edge of Surrender

I swore that I could hear his teeth grind. Could hear the battering of the storm that roiled within his soul.

Sickness spun, and my throat tightened.

My own nightmare flashed through my mind.

Ripping me back to the place where it felt like we’d lost it all.

To that time when nothing had remained the same.

Both me and Emmalee changed in an instant.

Only my throat squeezed tighter because Kane angled in closer.

His presence overpowering where he towered over me.

Energy screamed down the hall.

Bashing and belting.

Emerald eyes flashed, striking in blackened, singed flames.

“I had no power then. No way to stop it. Too fucking feeble and weak to stand up when she needed me.” Hate was seeded in every word. “But I’m not weak anymore, and I can promise you that no monster will ever get to Maci that way. I’mmonsterenough to protect her from that.”

I should be disturbed by the clear, vicious threat.

By what he was promising me.

By the claim that was so evident in his statement.

But I couldn’t do anything but push out the hoarse whisper, “That’s what we all need sometimes. Someone who will slay our monsters.”

The chuckle he emitted was foreboding, and his head tipped to the side. “Whatever the cost?”

“There’s no cost too great when it comes to those who are most precious to us.”

I would have paid it. Would have given anything to have brought Jana back to us. But I’d been just as young and powerless as Kane had been.

Little more than a child who hadn’t understood or fathomed the consequences.

Guilt bloomed.

No doubt sensing the sudden turmoil, one of those giant hands suddenly slipped to my cheek.

I gasped at the contact.

Flames igniting. Searing and inciting.

Kane searched my face, his eyes flicking across every inch, as if he held the power to sift through my ghosts.

“Would slay yours, too, if you’d let me.” His words were gravel.

I tried to hide them—the scars that for him were in plain sight. My voice was shallow when I forced out, “I don’t let anyone get close enough for them to see my monsters.”

A shiver rolled through me as I thought of the sense I’d had for months. Maybe there were monsters hidden in the shadows. The feeling that I was being watched. Plus, the unsettling information that I’d found in my sister’s notebook and on her laptop? I couldn’t shake the overwhelming premonition that something was wrong. Wholly off.

Gaze deepening, he stroked the pad of his thumb under the hollow of my eye. “You don’t have to hide from me, Emery. I can see the monsters lurking in your beautiful eyes. Felt them the moment I saw you in my bar the first time. Felt them in your fingers when you touched me. Can feel them now…trying to dim the beauty that you are. But they can’t do that, can they, Little Warrior? Not when you’re so strong. Not when you’re aching to rise above where they’ve kept you trapped.”

A tremble rocked through me.

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