Page 22 of Soul of a Witch

He took a step toward me, hesitated, then held out his hand. Arm outstretched, palm upward, as if inviting me to touch, to hold…

To trust.

“What’s the harm?” he said. My eyes darted between his face and his offered hand. “If I wanted to kill you, I would do it here and now. The moment you stop fighting fate is the moment you accept death. Take command and choose your path.”

I took his hand. “This is all madness.”

“Then we’ll be mad together.”

8

Everly

Callum’s hand was warm around mine. The contact between us was the only thing I could focus on as he led me through the halls and down several short flights of stairs.

I couldn’t recall the last time I’d held someone’s hand. The last time I’d been embraced or kissed.

I’d never even been intimate with another person.

Isolating myself was habitual. Any friendship I formed ran the risk of dragging someone innocent into a horrific underworld they didn’t deserve to be exposed to.

As if he could read my mind, Callum’s fingers tightened around my own.

“Don’t scare yourself,” he said. “Remember the sigil. If I misbehave, make me regret it.” He winked at me, and that simple gesture turned up the heat on my already flushed skin.

He’d proven himself to be beautifulandcharming. Perhaps not entirely sane…but charming.

Oh, God, what was wrong with me? Demons weren’tcharming; they were predators, tricksters! For all I knew, this one was leading me to my slaughter.

We didn’t encounter any wraiths as we made our way through the house, but I could hear them. Distant shrieks echoed in the hallways, setting my teeth on edge and making the hairs stand up on my arms.

“How do all these plants stay alive?” I said, marveling at the number of potted plants we encountered. Many of them were so large they were sprawling from their pots, roots bursting out and tendrils crawling up the walls, encircling the windows in their search for sunlight.

“The land this house is built on is protected,” Callum said. “Not only by me, but also by other beings who struck deals with the coven throughout the years. The plants are connected to the forest itself. They’re part of the barrier that hides this place from unfriendly eyes.”

We reached an area of the house that looked different from the rest. The walls and floors were stone instead of wood, the ceiling high and arched like an ancient cathedral. It was colder here, and I shivered slightly in my thin blouse. Callum led me down another series of short stairways into a wide corridor that ended with a set of tall, narrow glass doors.

His fingers loosened, pulling away. My grip tightened, and he looked back at me in surprise.

“Oh, shit — sorry.” I immediately winced at my apology, snatching my hand away. But I regretted the absence of his touch. It was ridiculous. Foolish, even.

However, the way he was looking at me, it was like he regretted it too. It was a little glimpse of the monster he’d been last night; suddenly eager, suddenly ravenous. The way a starving man looked at a feast he’d been told not to touch.

He stepped closer, leaning down so he could stare directly into my face. It was unnerving to look into those black eyes, even more so when I realized he wasn’t breathing.

Did demons need to breathe? Did their heart need to beat, their blood pump, their organs function? Or was it all an illusion, an elaborate costume they put on for Earth and nothing more?

Against my better judgment, I looked down. Down, toward his unbuttoned trousers, toward that one crucial part of him that almost certainly needed blood flow to function.

Or perhaps he wasalwaysthat hard. Damn, it was like a fifth limb down there. Was that normal?

He made a soft sound as he smirked, two fingers tapping lightly beneath my chin to encourage me to lift my gaze.

His voice was a dark, crooning whisper as he said, “If you apologize to me again, I’ll eat you.” He leaned even closer, so close I could feel the heat of his skin. “I will eat you slowly. I will savor every inch of flesh and suck every tender morsel. I’ll savor you like a goddamn dessert.”

His teeth clipped together on the final word, and he turned away, proceeding toward the doors. But I was unable to move, unable to think a single comprehensible thought, as the heat of a thousand suns drenched me in a blush to end all blushes.

His snapping fingers brought me back to reality.

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