Page 57 of The Coveted
I wanted Nathaniel to fall.
“My Lord?” Nathaniel stuttered, taking a step back with his arms raised defensively. Confusion marred his features, and I reveled in the taste of his fear on my tongue.
I raised both of my palms in the air, calling forth a release of the fire burning its way through my body. Soon my hands were alight with flames that danced and crackled. They awaited my command.
“Oh my,” Lucius murmured, releasing the nape of my neck. “Do it.”
I shot both palms forward, the sweet release of my anger wracking its way through my body. Finally. How long I had waited for this moment—to finally use my magick and take back control. The fire shot toward my target, and in a deafening crash Nathaniel flew through the glass doors of the balcony, his form crumpling to the ground in a cloud of dark smoke.
Lucius stepped forward, as giddy as a kid on Christmas—or, rather, Solstice. “I’m sure he’s fine,” he laughed with a shrug. “What is it, brother?” he asked Daelon. “Afraid you’re next?”
Daelon stayed silent, watching intently as Lucius moved to stand in front of me. My breaths were ragged, my eyes frenzied. I wanted Nathaniel gone. I wanted to use my power again, like this, every single day.
“Now, now. That’s enough.” Lucius grabbed my fiery palms in his, willing them to extinguish, and I let him. He grasped my chin lightly. “See? What fun we could have if you just gave yourself to me. If you rejected your weak, heretic roots. If you looked to the future rather than the past.”
I still felt like I was on fire, and Lucius’s gaze did nothing to bring me back down to earth. I couldn’t think past my anger, nor the ecstasy of unearthly amounts of magick at my fingertips.
“Still bored?” Lucius asked lightly as he gazed deep into my soul.
“Not even a little,” I said, the truth beckoned forth effortlessly at the direction of his voice. With his power inside me, it felt like we were bound together in a way that couldn’t be denied. We held the world in the palms of our hands.
But from the shadows escaped the dim roaring of ocean waves, followed by a tune so quiet I could barely make out its notes.
I needed himout. This wasn’t me. This wasn’tmine.The fire in my lungs turned icy, and soon my entire body felt foreign and cold. “I need it out of me.” I felt the words tumble from my mouth in a voice I didn’t recognize.
Lucius frowned, pulling his hand away from my chin. I looked to Daelon, who was as white as a ghost. I lurched forward, my stomach suddenly violently ill. I coughed, ejecting what felt like a burning, slick ice from my insides. A slimy, black liquid burst from my mouth and onto the white carpet below.
“Well, that’s just great. That rug is new,” Lucius muttered, shooting me a glare as if I was throwing up dark matteron purpose.
I glared right back. “I’m not sure what you expected,” I spat, my palms tingling. I bent over once more, this time releasing black smoke and ash.
Lucius contorted his features in disgust. “I will forgive you, given the circumstances,” he said slowly, backing away from me. “I figured there might be… side effects.”
I fell forward, the room spinning. My vision erupted in splotches, and all I could feel was a sudden weight against my torso, keeping me from melting into the floor. Oh how I wanted to sink into the rug and disappear…
My stomach lurched again, spilling out more black liquid. Unconsciousness reached for me, beckoning to me through the veil of power behind my heavy eyelids.
Deep purple. That was all I could see.
“Are you sure?” a voice trickled through the thickening smoke, its deep notes resonating with the deafening static behind my eardrums.Daelon.
“Yes. Watch over her until she’s… better. I can fix this. I have a contingency plan already in motion.”
“What of Nathaniel?”
“He’s alive. I’ll mend him. Thank you, brother. And be careful—she may still be more willing to act out on her hatred for you.”
“I can handle her.”
Floating. I was in the servants’ quarters. I was in the kitchens. I was above the tower spires, above the clouds, above the planet, above—
When I came to, my entire body was still surging with energy and heat. My eyes fluttered open, aware of the faint sway of my body through space. Daelon peered down at me, and I realized he was carrying me in his arms. His chiseled features were tight, his eyes hooded. He sighed.
“Are you even aware that you’re doing that?” he asked softly, and I shot him a look of confusion until I realized the lights above were strobing wildly.
A wave of intense nausea coursed through me, and it took everything I had not to hurl more dark magick all over him. I closed my eyes again, unable to stand the flickering lights or the stone walls that seemed to pulsate and breathe. Everything about reality felt distorted and wrong, my poor body caught in a confusing turmoil of pleasure, pain, power, and sickness.
“You’re okay,” Daelon said, and I couldn’t tell who he was trying to convince. Worry seeped into his voice, even as his sturdy wall of energy reached out to ground and soothe me.
