Page 51 of Dark Elf's Good Girl

I stalk out of her room, rushing up to my brother’s. When I find it empty, and his study as well, I head back down to the main floor. Sometimes he likes to drink after dinner with our father on the terrace but when I walk out there, it’s empty.

My eyes scan the dark night and I see my brother, not too far in the distance. It seems he’s taken to walking tonight. I can still see the drink in his hand.

Gritting my teeth, I dash down the stairs, calling out to him before I can think better of it. “Calix!” I roar, and he spins around looking surprised.

“Brother!” He grins, as if my anger isn’t palpable.

“The cabin?” My voice is quiet, seething. “You’re taking her to the cabin?”

Calix’s smile drops “What business is it of yours?”

“We have negotiations coming up. Now is not the time to be distracted by bedsport.” The excuse tastes rotten on my tongue. I can’t stomach the idea of Calix anywhere near Isla, especially in bed, but I know it’s the right thing to say for him to postpone the trip.

Calix’s jaw works as he thinks over what I said. “I have time.”

His eyes flash, a silent challenge. It riles my magic up as he tests me. “You are jeopardizing us. Over your selfish desires.”

He takes a step towards me and he’s much more drunk than I thought. His movements are staggered, sluggish. I’m almost tempted to attack him. Not that I couldn’t take him when he’s sober, but this would be so much more entertaining.

“Watch yourself, brother. You forget who's older.”

I hold up a hand, letting magic leak between my fingers. “You forget who’s more powerful.”

He flings his hand down, spilling his drink everywhere. “You still believe that shit? It’s just something mom said to make you not feel so inferior.”

I’m at my breaking point with him. I stalk forward, throwing my hand out to catch him around the throat. My fingers squeeze, enhanced by my magic as icy air stuffs its way down his lungs.

Calix thrashes as I block his oxygen. “If you are more powerful,” I snarl. “Then stop me.”

He claws at my hand, and I laugh. Feeble sparks erupt from his palms, doing nothing against my intense waves of magic.

“Can’t you see, Calix? You can’t bully me.” I lean closer so that my face takes up his entire field of vision. “It's time for you to listen.” He tries to scream and another wave of icy air stuffs its way up his nose. “When I say you’re not taking her to the cabin, you’re not. I don't want to hear your shit reasoning.”

I lift him up until his feet leave the ground shaking him. He’s turning pale and I’m tempted to just finish the job, but it will bring down too much scrutiny on me that I don’t have the patience to deal with.

“Do not make me repeat myself again.”

His eyes start to roll back in his head for a second, and I imagine what it would be like to steal his life. But knowing the aftermath would be too much of a hassle, I draw my magic back, dropping him like his skin is burning my hand.

Calix collapses to the ground, sucking in lungfuls of air, and I sneer at him in disgust. “You’re pathetic”

He barely lifts himself up off the grass to look at me, anger written all over his face.

“Just remember,” I tell him before he is stupid enough to say something. “I chose to let you live.”

Then I turn and storm back into the house.

21

ISLA

The way these two elves are shouting about me should both anger me and chill me to the bone and, if I wasn’t a human woman who has been bought and sold so many times I’ve lost count, then maybe it would.

And yet there’s something about the way Aiken argues with his brother that makes the blood pool in the pit of my belly. Just the way he uses my name is itself some kind of declaration. One that sends a clear message to Calix that even though he may have paid for me, I am his.

I am his.

Those words are like some kind of magic—a force that speaks to every cell in my body. It should make me angry, cause me insult. I am no one’s if not my own. But I want to be his, to belong to him. To be owned by him completely and in all ways.

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