Page 94 of Forbidden Magic
“Especially you.” The word resonates like an ominous choir you’d hear in a dark satanic ritual. “Onyx here isn’t meant to kill. She’s here to drive some much-needed self-preservation into your lot. If you stay, you’ll become a bigger and bigger target until someone decides to slit your throats while you sleep. Haven’t you heard the stories?” He stalks toward me like I’m the one being unreasonable. Like he’s doing me afavor.
He reaches for my hand, but I push my arms forward and aim every bit of magic I possess straight at his chest.
His tall frame is blasted a hundred feet back.
Strips of melted fabric fall off his tattooed chest as he stands. Shadows spill from his fingers, ice forging a way from his feet, his beast rattling at his side. “Is that all you got?”
And so, I run.
I cut myself on a rock, but I can’t stop. If he erased Bri’s memory and toyed with Allie, God knows what he’ll do to me.
My red and black plaid skirt is burnt to a crisp, my thighs tainted with charcoal streaks.
I’m at the edge of the cliff, a salty breeze coming in from the sea. Dark waves crash against the rocks below. Their stormy rolls sound like thunderous applause to my demise.
I could jump and take my chances, but he’s got wings.
He prowls up the path. His pale skin catches the moonlight, and the uneven thumps in my chest terrify me more than the cold glint burning in his eyes.
Sickening tingles rise up my neck as I hold his soul-baring stare.
His gaze softens for a split second. “Kneel, Fire Girl.”
“Never.”
The coastal wind beats my hair forward, the long dark strands undulating like snakes at the edge of my vision. “Don’t come any closer, or I’ll jump.”
He wraps his hand in my hair with a tenderness that devours my heart. “You won’t.”
What twisted game is this? Whatever it is, I feel like I’m losing.
He crushes his mouth to mine like he did the first time, stealing my voice and my resolve too. Two magnets pulled inexorably toward one another, but polar opposites. I don’t know anything for sure anymore, just that Cole Desirys is my enemy. I can’t trust one word coming out of his sinful mouth, but I can’t get enough of him.
Maybe I should start focusing on how he cursedme.
Because this crush, this plague, this abominable, needy hole in my chest.
It can’t be real.
I cling to that belief with both hands, desperate to hang on to a smidgen of self-respect.
My heartbeat pulses in my throat, my soul finding solace in the knowledge that I might not be entirely to blame for this dark addiction.
In a minute, I’ll find the strength to shove him off me. I’ll untangle this mess and get revenge. I’ll get the answers I so desperately crave.
Slowly, almost regretfully, he inches away. His hands fall from my hair to my shoulder and caress the skin. The languid brush of his fingers unravels the threads of this webbed disaster in such a way that I don’t know if I can trust my own thoughts anymore. His chest is heaving, his breaths coming out in rasps, and his mouth is swollen from the intensity of our kiss.
“The raven who crashed into the window… the one who led me to your hideout… it was you,” I surmise.
“Yes.”
“You’ve been lying this whole time.”
“Barely.” He shakes his head like I’m being silly. “And you’re not going to tell anyone about me.”
“Because you cursed me,” I say, thinking he’s finally admitting that I’m under his quite literal spell.
His cunning gaze pierces into mine. “Because you can’t afford for anyone to know I have a thing for demons…”
