Page 145 of His Darkest Desire

He turned her left palm upward and looked down at it as he ran this thumb across it. “What we share, my Kinsley, cannot be unraveled.”

She curled her fingers, grasping his tunic. Around them, the circle was tumultuous, fraught with unbridled magic. But as long as she had Vex to steady her, to ground her, she wouldn’t be afraid. The universe could fall apart around them, but she’d be fine.

Vex met her gaze. Something in his eyes made time stop, something so grave that nothing could escape its pull.

“Forgive me, my love,” he rumbled.

“Vex, I don’t—”

Vex’s claw slashed her palm. Hissing, she reflexively flinched and tugged her arm, but he held it in place, his lips peeling back to reveal his fangs in an anguished snarl.

Kinsley’s hand throbbed around the sting of the cut, from which glistening blood welled. She watched crimson pool on her palm and wondered why that sight—and what Vex had just done—was so much less troubling than the faint tremors she felt in his hands.

Color whirled around Vex and Kinsley, obscuring the rest of the chamber. Green, violet, dazzling white and electric blue, carried on an ever-intensifying wind that pushed and pulled at Kinsley’s hair and clothing but exerted no force against her body.

She was in the eye of the storm.

No. I am the eye of the storm…

“Vex, what are you doing?” Kinsley tugged on her wrist again, but he held firm. “I don’t understand.”

A shiver stole through her when he spoke. It wasn’t a reply to her questions, not at all; his words were in a language she’d never heard, a language that crackled with eldritch power.

And she understood every word.

“I call upon the ether that binds this world and all others.”

Kinsley’s heart thundered. “Stop.”

“I seize the veil,” he continued, “and will it to part.”

“No!” Tears stung Kinsley’s eyes as she fought his hold. She shook her head, begging him, barely hearing her own voice, her own words.

Vex raised her upturned hand. “Let this blood be the key and my words the command. Unlock the door.”

Kinsley yanked harder, yet his grip only strengthened. “Vex, no! Please, don’t do this! You can’t do this! Please, please…”

He drew in a deep, shaky breath. Kinsley’s eyes widened as the blood from her hand flowed up into the air—first a few drops, then a stream, swirling and weaving in a double column like a model of DNA.

Or like two intertwined souls.

The blood flowed outward to join the chaotic array of magic, adding a splash of crimson to the maelstrom.

Her right wrist heated further. The searing pain should’ve been debilitating, unbearable, but the ache in her heart was so immense that it swallowed all else.

“Open the way!” Vex called.

Kinsley cried out as she felt reality fracture. A chasm opened within her, around her, between her and Vex. She felt…split. Torn. Two contradictory forces pulled at her—one dragging her toward a far-off place, the other wrenching her from that place back to here, back to Vex.

The floodgates crashed open, and fear and panic washed through her.

With tears streaming down her cheeks, she met Vex’s gaze and leaned toward him, chest to chest. Her words were strained and raw, but she forced them out. “Don’t send me away. Don’t you dare abandon me. Please, Vex. I don’t want to go. I love you.”

Releasing her raised arm, he caught her chin in his hand. His eyes glistened with unshed tears as he stared down at her. “And I love you, Kinsley.”

She gripped his tunic. “Then let me stay. Keep me. Choose me.”

“My moonlight,” he rasped, brushing his trembling thumb beneath her lip. “I would sooner tear the heart from my chest than hurt you…so that is what I must do. You will understand with time, my love, that I am choosing you.”

---