Page 45 of Empire of Dark

Damen sat on a simple wooden chair behind one of the big easels, staring at a canvas I couldn’t see.

His look didn’t veer to me in the doorway as I panted from running up the stairs. “How did you find me?”

“I was searching for you and I followed your scent.” I hadn’t. I could barely smell the difference between a rose and a lilac, but Damen didn’t know that. While I was fine with threatening Rupert, I wasn’t about to put him into Damen’s line of fire.

“Why? You shouldn’t be up here.”

“Why?” I snapped out of the hesitation I’d fallen into upon entering the room. I charged toward him, screaming as I weaved in between the mess of canvases. “Why? Because you tried to fucking kill your own damn daughter.”

He was to his feet in an instant, a wall of muscle in front of me, and I had to throw my hands up to stop myself before I full-on rammed into him. My palms landed on his hard chest and I yanked them away, the touch of him detestable after Venetia’s revelation.

“You saw my daughter again?” Fury instantly sparked in his brown eyes.

“No, you don’t get to turn this on me.” I stepped in on him, my words livid. “You tried to kill your own daughter and you think that I would ever—ever—let you touch me? Ever let you create another child? No. Not if I can help it. Never. I’m leaving.”

I started to back away.

What the hell was I doing up here, coming after him? Stupidity. Leave. I needed to leave. I’d been so hell-bent on finding him, needing to scream and rail at him—the fury surging through my veins needing to escape somehow—that I reacted instead of stopping to think.

When what I should be doing was packing the bag I’d come here with and getting the hell out of this castle. Out of this land—his land. Back to the Academy.

Back to what I knew and could trust.

Lightning quick, his hands snatched my wrists before I could take two steps back, his hold near to crushing.

“You aren’t going anywhere.” His voice rumbled low, lethal.

I growled, trying to jerk my wrists out of his grip. “So now you’re keeping me a prisoner? Really? Just like your kind, no matter what Triaten told me. I never believed him and I was right on this accord.”

“You’ve always been a prisoner here, Ada. We just never told you.”

His words gave me a second of pause before my head flew back and forth. “No—no—Triaten would never do that to me. Never.” My right foot flew up, wedging onto his thigh and I shoved with all my might.

His right hand broke free, but his left stayed attached to me.

I twisted, screaming. “Leave me the fuck alone, you monster. You fucking malefic.”

The fury in his eyes twisted, darkening his look more than I’d ever seen it.

Kill me. Now is when he would try.

Torture me.

I always knew it was coming.

Why would Triaten do this to me? Give me to this heathen?

Words seethed from his barely parted lips. “You’re not leaving the room just yet.”

“Like hell I’m not.” My left fist swung out to hit him across the face as my foot lifted to stomp at his instep.

Before I could make contact in either area, he twisted my arm and jumped behind me, locking my hand high up onto my back. Locking me down.

Teeth bared, his mouth went to my ear, his breath fire on my neck. “You will calm the fuck down and listen to me, Ada.”

I contorted, desperate to break free, but he only yanked my hand higher up on my back, forcing me onto my toes so my arm didn’t pull out of my socket.

I stilled.

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