Page 96 of Cursed Evermore
I smirked, shaking my head. “The book is wrong. Going to the Ravenwood Realm isnotmy greatest desire.”
“Maybe so, but that’s where you’ll find it. Whateveritis.”
I gazed at him and thought for a moment.
Magic.That had to be the answer. I used to spend hours dreaming of going to the Ravenwood Realm when I was little. I’d grown up on stories and legends that sounded like fantasies. Most of all, I craved the magic I should have had. All Ravenwood Realm mages gained their powers from the land itself. The Fray fed it to them like air in the lungs. I’d been starved of that magic my whole life, so, yes, the book was right. I just didn’t like it.
I hated the fact that this book—his book—could reach so deep inside me and expose more secret parts of me than I wanted to share.
My fingers curled into my palms, my nails biting into my flesh. “I can assure you I want to go home more thananythingelse and be rid of this nightmare.”
Wolfe’s grin blossomed into something cruel that tightened my lungs. “The book is never wrong. You may think you want to go home, but I assure you, you do not.”
“You don’t know me,” I argued, hardening my gaze as discomfort settled in the pit of my stomach.
He chewed his lip while keeping his eyes trained on me like a barn cat getting ready to pounce on a mouse. “Like I said before, Ziyka, I know enough about you.”
A flush crept up my neck as I recalled the last time he spoke such words. It was on the night he took me.
“If the book is so good, why don’t you use it to find the ring?” That was an attempt to shift my mind away from the memory, but it was a good question.
“I tried. The book can only find things or desires on this plane of existence. That’s why I first suspected the ring had been taken to another plane.” He released me and glanced at the book between us when the letters on the page began rearranging themselves again.
Before they could fully form into sentences, Wolfe plucked the book from my fingers and snapped it shut. But not before he glimpsed whatever truth it had begun to spell. That grin returned slowly, wide and savage.
“Better I hold on to this, little mage. Before it tells you how to win my heart.”
Bastard.He was so arrogant it made me sick. I wanted to slap that grin right off his face. “Why in the hells would it tell me that? That’s the last thing I want to know.”
“Not according to the book,” he whispered. “And that scent of yours tells me you still want me.”
My stomach folded in on itself. “I don’t know what you mean. There is no scent.” And did the bookreallyreveal that?
I wouldn’t know if he was lying to pull a reaction from me or telling the truth. I hoped it was lies.
Wolfe tapped the tip of his nose and leaned in like he was going to tell me a secret. “The Fae have sharp senses, Ziyka. We smell lies, truth, fear. Andarousal.”
That last word felt like a hand around my throat. I wanted to tell him he was lying. But deep down I couldn’t. The sudden ache pulsing between my thighs told me I couldn’t say anything of the sort, and I hated him for it.
I hated him for knowing how to unravel me. For peeling back the layers of my desires without mercy. I hated him for making me crave the hands that chained me.
But worse…
Gods help me, I hated myself more. And all the parts of me thatwantedto be caught.
“Like you said to me yesterday, believe what you want.” I would have commended myself for sounding so brave if I weren’t trying to conceal my lie.
“Fact is fact, Ziyka.”
“Not if it’syourfacts.” I needed to shut the hells up. I was digging that hole for myself again.
“I’ve seen the way you look at me,” he drawled, smugness dripping from every word.
“With wrath and disgust?” I smirked, glaring at him.
Dark amusement gleamed in his eyes, predatory and knowing. “You look at me like you want me to break you.”
Heat flushed through me even as my mind screamed in protest, then shame and desire warred in my chest, leaving me breathless and burning.
