Page 226 of Claimed By Fangs and Darkness
Kylo handed the papers I’d taken from Conrad’s journal to Blade. “Mail these to Kole Tefar. He will ensure Earle knows he has usurpers in his council. They’ll be forced into hiding. The deaths of Conrad and Aster will sow further destabilization among lords. Not to mention adding fuel to Earle’s increasing paranoia. All very useful for us.”
Blade nodded. “Gladly.”
Kylo smiled at me, and I released a long exhale. The cheering had only grown louder around us. The attention I used to shy away from was unavoidable now as word spread about my displays of goddess-like power.
“I’m glad something good came from my blunder,” I muttered.
Kylo tilted my chin up with his index finger. “You gave us everything we needed. Our enemies are dead. Political ammunition has been gathered. And we won our first battle against thecrown.”
He slowly pulled me out of the crowd of moving bodies, away from our friends. Idris was arm-in-arm with Clarke and Vesper, laughing. He didn’t notice our absence.
Kylo pushed me up against the door of an empty shop. “Now, was my intuition right? Yes. It’s always right.”
I rolled my eyes, and his hips pressed against mine.
“I said if you returned, Aster wasn’t going to let you go. However, I will admit that your intuition wasalsocorrect. My angel is safe where she belongs and completed what she set out to do, albeit in quite possibly the worst way possible.”
I snorted. “That’s generous,” I said. “You were right that I’d underestimated them. Juliette, Conrad, Aster… I knew they were evil, but I was too careless in that den of venomous snakes. I’m?—”
“Don’t,” Kylo said, putting a finger to my lips. “Don’t be sorry. You paid enough.” He stared at my bruised cheek and blistered neck. A muscle in his jaw hardened.
“I’m done atoning for other people’s sins. I’m done trying to fight my battles alone, thinking I’m protecting those I love. We’re more powerful together.”
Kylo released a breath. He kissed me briefly, his lips soft and warm. “I need my blood down your pretty little throat.Now.”
I smiled sadly, looping my arms around his neck. “Yes, Kylo. Yes,please.”
“You know how much I love those perfect manners,” he growled, picking the lock behind me with shadow before pulling me inside the quiet building.
We found ourselves in a furniture store. Kylo dragged me to the back, and I conjured a dim witch light and let it hang above us. We were both covered in blood and sweat, caught somewhere between the animal and the divine.
“Evie, first, I have to know. For your safety. Did they…” Kylo trailed off, anger coursing through him that was hot enough to feel on my skin.
I shook my head. “Aster kissed me, and you know, fed from me.” I looked down at the ground, but Kylo gently grabbed my face, forcing me to stay with him. “They both tortured me—Conrad with pain and Aster using methods from my childhood, like kneeling on rice, and um, a belt. Conrad tried to do more.” I shuddered. “But Aster stopped him.”
Kylo closed his eyes, bleeding darkness.
I fought the urge to cry, my throat tight.
When he opened his eyes again, heartbreak had eclipsed every drop of his rage. “You’re safe now, baby, do you know that?”
I stared into those deep pools of blue. My shadows billowed around his ankles. “Yes. Thank you for always protecting me—all of me, but especially my heart.”
“I love your sweet, vulnerable, feral little heart,” Kylo said, leaning in as his breath tickled my ear. His lips brushed the shell, pressing against me when I shuddered. “I’m so sorry, Evie. For all of it. I wish I’d been the one to do it, but I hope everyone who has ever hurt you is being tortured in Lillian’s hells for an eternity where they belong.”
I placed my palm over his heart. “I might not have been the one to kill her in the end. But I’m glad Juliette is dead too. Most of me is fucking ecstatic, actually.”
My fiery possessiveness mirrored his. I fisted his shirt, pressing against him and still feeling like I couldn’t get close enough.
“We only kissed—I’m so sorry, angel. I knew on some level it wasn’t you, but I thought you were dead.” He shook his head. “I wanted you to be alive so badly that I ignored every last one of my instincts.”
“It’s okay. Well, it’s not okay, but I don’t blameyou,” I said, plagued by those thoughts of Juliette kissing him, torturing me with it. The fact that it had only been kissing didn’t soothe me as much as I’d hoped.
The tension broke when we closed the distance between our lips at the same time. We consumed each other. Our hands and lips and bodies moved hungrily, desperate to reclaim.
We ended up on the carpeted floor, kissed by the faintest glow from above.
“You’re mine, angel, forever,” Kylo growled, grabbing my face instead of my blistered neck. “Do you fucking understand me?”
