Page 23 of Sugar Rush

Iwas starting to really like Bel, Taj's cousin. Before we left, I put her in charge of guarding Dev and warned her if anything happened to him, if he got a single scratch or cough while we were gone, I'd peel the skin off her body and make a handbag out of it. She only blinked, mildly impressed, and promised Dev would be safe.

Taj trusted his cousin, and I trusted him, so even though it carved a hole into my heart—another damn hole to match the holes of Joseph and X1—I put one foot in front of the other and left the castle.

When we were outside the big gates—I checked to see if Gunn, my purple guard bestie was on the doors, but didn't spot him—Arkan pulled us over and took a breath.

"Am I going to split into hundreds of tiny particles?" I asked suspiciously when he held out his hands to me and Taj, his body nothing more than darkness and bleached bones.

Taj snorted at my genuine question. "You've watched too many sci-fi shows. He can travel through shadows, and we go with him."

"You're lucky I trust you," I told Arkan, slamming my eyes shut as I grabbed his hand—and screamed when the floor fell from under me.

I was dragged through a wind tunnel with no end or mercy in sight. This was hell. Actually this was more hellish than all of Hell.

I didn't stop screaming even when we landed on solid ground, and my eyes flew open. Wait, let me rephrase—when myasslanded on solid ground.

Arkan dropped to the grass in front of me in a puddle of shadow before forming as my kneeling mate, andhey, there was grass.Weird. There'd been grass when we left the fortress two minutes ago, too. Maybe we hadn't actually gone anywhere and—

"Oh, holy fuckingshitballs!"I squeaked when I lookedbeyondthe grass and saw not my big, imposing castle of a home but a sheer drop to certain death. "Nope.Nope,not doing this, not happening, no fucking way."

Big arms wrapped around me from behind and held me tight. "You're not going to fall."

I squeezed my eyes shut, immediately felt like I was falling, and flung them open again.

"So," I whimpered. "Fear of heights, apparently. That's cool. Totally cool. Wait a candy-coated fucking second—I don'thaveany fear. My fear's been faulty for years. But I was scared of heights when Dev held me in his giant hand, too…"

Arkan cupped my face in warm hands, peering into my eyes. "Breathe, princess. You're completely fine; we’ve got you. We'd never let you fall."

Logically, I knew that.

On the flip side, my emotions were screamingaghhhhhhhhhhh eughhhhhhhh heeeeeeeeeeeelp.

"What have you done to me?" I gasped, trying not to stare at the abrupt end of the grassy cliff we stood on. "I was a completely normal, emotionless person before I met you."

Arkan leaned forward to kiss my cheek. "Hold onto me; I'll help you up."

"No!" I panicked. "No up, only stay."

Taj groaned, grabbed me under my arms, and lifted me up even though I screamed my head off. He turned me so he could tuck my face into his shoulder, and took several, terrifying steps up the nightmare hill with his back to the terror-inducing drop.Why did he turn his back to the terror-inducing drop?

"Taj!" Arkan chided. "Can you stop scaring our mate?"

"I'm getting her to more solid ground; she'll thank me later."

"With a boot to your balls," Arkan muttered.

My rapidly beating heart skipped at how well he knew me. But I was too busy being scared to death to really appreciate the comment. I hadn't been this scared since—fuck, since London. I could smell the blood, hear the screams, feel the thrill of violence moving through me, until I came to my senses and saw what I'd become.

I'd done a lot of fucked up shit, but that … that wasn't me.

"There," Taj muttered, setting me down. "Solid ground."

He'd put me on a stone doorstep in front of a tall, shiny black door that led to fuck knew where. I glared up at him, clawing myself away from those traumatic memories, but Taj was too busy staring at my hands to appreciate my scowl.

"What?" I demanded, and then shrieked when I saw the crimson skin and black claws where blunt, tanned fingers should have been. "What the fuckis this?"

"What were you thinking about just now?" Arkan asked, catching my chin in his fingers and tilting my head up. "The bond filled with panic, and then your hands shifted."

I averted my gaze. "Nothing. Let's go get the sceptre. Where are we, anyway?"

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