Page 31 of Touched By Darkness

“Look at you playing with fire.”

The small flames on my fingertips flicker out, and I look up at Dmitriy as he lowers himself down beside me on the lounger next to mine. “Why do you have a pool? Isn’t it always too cold?”

His shoulders lift and fall in a careless shrug. “It’s a heated pool.”

Oh… I guess I should have figured it out earlier when I sat gazing at the steam that floats on the surface. But my brain is occupied with replaying last night’s events on repeat. As if I haven’t tortured myself enough.

“So, the fire?” He lifts his chin, and I rub my finger and thumb together as if I can still feel the flame.

“What you saw is what you get. I can’t do anything else yet.”

“It’ll come. The more you let the darkness in, the easier you’ll manipulate hellfire.”

“What’s your secret?” I ask him.

He sucks his lips between his teeth in thought as he regards me. Dressed in black jeans and a black button-down, Dmitriy looks like the night brought to life. “Hellfire is a destructive energy at its core. You need to find a way to channel it, either through anger, fear, or grief. Whatever darkness is inside you, lean into it and let it guide you. One thing is for sure, you can’t manipulate hellfire with light. It belongs to the night.”

“You’re different than I thought.”

With his elbows on his knees, he rubs his palms together. “Why is that?”

“I don’t know,” I reply. “You were cruel when I first met you.”

“I’m still cruel where Daemon is concerned.”

“Can I ask a question?”

Dmitriy’s eyebrows rise, then he nods. “Sure.”

“Have you ever done something so bad that you felt like you were drowning in your own darkness?”

His eyes scan over the pool before returning to me. “I think you need to ask my father. According to the stories, the original angels struggled with the darkness at first. Some got lost to it.”

“What do you mean by ‘lost?’”

He shrugs again, then looks back out over the pool. “I don’t know. It consumed them to the point of self-destruction, I would assume. You should ask my dad. He’ll be able to tell you.”

“I think he’s been here too long. What I experienced last night…” I drift off, and Dmitriy looks back at me.

“He told me.”

I nod my head slowly. “I don’t know what came over me. I killed that woman in cold blood.” My eyes meet his. “I tortured her for hours. I even taunted her with her dead family because the scent of her fear awoke something so dark inside me that couldn’t be leashed. It scared me, Dmitriy. I’m scared.”

He drags a hand over his face and blows out a breath. “To answer your question, in a fashion, I was born of the darkness. It has always been a part of me. I have never known light the way you have. The way my father has. The same moral compass that guides you north, guides me south. It’s in my very nature to inflict pain and instill fear.”

I consider his words in silence while he looks up at the stars.

I’m just about to open my mouth to speak, when he says, “Show me the flame.”

Holding my hand up in front of me, I calm my mind and focus on centering my breath. A small flame flickers to life in the middle of my palm and my lips spread into a smile. When I look back up at Dmitriy, his eyes sparkle with something unfamiliar.

An emotion I can’t place.

“You’re doing it wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

“Instead of calming your thoughts, let your mind wander back to last night. What was the one thing that brought you the most depraved pleasure? What fed the monster inside you? Was it the look in her eyes? The sound of her crying children? The blood? Her screams? What was it? Bring it to the forefront and focus on it.”

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