Page 26 of Empire of Dark

“There are no deals in our world of violence.”

I twisted the raging fear in my gut into something resembling courage and sneered at him. “And what—no one better dare to challenge you, because you’re all powerful? That girl is your daughter—your damn daughter and you treat her like garbage.”

“You don’t know anything about it.” His grip tightened around my throat, his fingertips curling in and bruising the lines of my neck.

“Then what in the hell do I need to know?” My voice pitched high, desperate.

At that, he blinked.

His head shook slightly like he was coming out of a trance. Unhinged for a moment and then snapping back into control.

His fingers around my neck loosened, though they didn’t drop away from my throat. “I have just been trying to control her. Control her these past years. There hasn’t been time for anything else.” His voice held a modicum of calm that hadn’t been there a moment ago.

I jumped on that tiny opening. “How about empowering her instead of controlling her?”

His teeth clenched, he sucked in a wicked breath. “She needs no empowering—she has far too much power as it is.”

That slip of girl with her big eyes and her nervous twitching? He was mad.

I shook my head. “She has no fucking power.”

His fingers retightened around my throat. “Can you not say a single sentence without swearing?”

“Fuck you.”

“It’s what I’ve been working at.”

I blinked, my mind in whiplash at the tangent. I shook my head. “Asshole.”

The right side of his lip lifted in half a sneer, half amusement. But it relaxed his fingers on my neck, so I didn’t care which reaction it truly was.

I also wasn’t going to let him veer off the conversation.

“I repeat, your daughter has no fucking power.”

His eyebrows lifted, then straightened into a hard line. “She almost killed everyone on the entirety of the West Coast of North America. Did you know that with all your sanctimonious judgement?Thatis the sort of fucking power she has.”

I froze, the air leaving my chest in a defeated exhale. “No. How?” I couldn’t believe it. Not that tiny wisp of a thing. Scared to even look at me.

“Yes.” He shook his head, his hand dropping away from my throat, and he took a step backward, though his glare drilling into me didn’t waver. “Yes. That is the sort of power she possesses. And I have done nothing but try and contain that power since I first knew of her.”

My hands lifted, setting around my neck. The heated imprints of his fingers on my skin still throbbed and would probably leave some short-lived angry red marks. “What have you done to her?”

He moved several feet away from me, his gaze shifting to the window of his study for several beats, then he looked back to me, his jaw ticking. “Why do you assume it was me that did anything to her?”

My eyebrows pulled inward. “It wasn’t you? What happened to her? She’s a half-breed, isn’t she? My skin didn’t tingle like it normally does when I’m around malefics.”

“Your skin tingles around my kind?”

Shit. How had I just let that slip? Couldn’t walk back from it now. I met his gaze. “It does.”

“Is it tingling right now? Being around me?”

“Yes. But you’re a known entity after these weeks, so it’s subdued when threat isn’t imminent.”

His head angled to the side, as he studied me for a long breath. Though he didn’t appear like he was trying to delve into my mind. I wasn’t sure what was in his look, and I wasn’t sure I honestly wanted to know. His brown eyes had edged more towards amber and had turned…hungry…heated…was the best way to describe it. Even though I had done nothing these past weeks to encourage a stare like that.

I dressed in the least sexy clothes I could find—flannel would have been the best choice, but alas, no flannel had appeared in my wardrobe. My hair always pulled back in a ponytail. No makeup. I’d showered every day, but that was more for my own nose than for him.

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