Page 38 of Stolen
And what will it cost me if I do?
Chapter8
Alaric
The Eyrie–Approachingthe Library
My brothers leave after we finish putting wards around the crown.
But I remained standing there long after they’d gone, with Kael’s parting words haunting me.
“Maybe this idea of yours, that humans are soft and easy to fool, that you could trap one with your magic and charm, isn’t exactly what you thought, my old friend. Maybe it’s she who’s trapped you?”
Fucking Kael. Lord of asinine comments.
I growl my frustration.
I need to refocus. This isn’t about her. It never was.
It’s about the crown.
About the realm.
About doing what none of my brothers have managed so far—claiming the Prime seat before the SoulTakers breach the veil and reduce everything we’ve protected to dust.
Jules is a piece in that puzzle.
Nothing more.
So why the fuck do I keep thinking about her mouth?
Her lips parted when I lifted her chin.
The heat in her eyes when she asked me why I brought her here.
The way her body reacted before her mind caught up.
Curious, open, wanting.
I grind my teeth as I stride down the corridor, every torch I pass flaring slightly at my presence.
My magic is restless, coiling under my skin like a storm in waiting.
It’s time to turn up the heat.
Time to shift from restraint to charm.
Seduction.
I’m good at it.
I’ve made gods beg and monsters purr. Mortals aresimple.
One taste. One touch. And they bend.
Beneath the glamour I cast so I appear more human to her—palatable, familiar, safe—I can feel the truth of me stir.
My wings stretch in the space between realms, aching to unfurl.
