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I blink, stunned.

“What?” I choke out. “Idid this?”

The life burns blue in his eyes, but all loving pretence has shattered in front of me, a glass mask exploding into a glitter of pretty confetti.

“I took the lashes for my mother, I stand between any threat and my sickly sister.” He snatches my chin, hard. A wince escapes me, but he yanks my face to align with his, and he hisses, “Then I met you. And for the first time, I knew what it was to love without all the poison, to be loved in return for who I am. Notfor what I sacrifice. You, Nari, were first to draw out the gentle nature of a child who saw such little kindness. And you betrayed me. That was the final knife I would take into my back—the final blow to my heart.”

A cry catches in my throat.

Daxeel’s hand drops to my neck and with a hard yank, he’s pulled me off the desk. My feet barely smack on the rug before he’s hauling me to the wall.

This past week, our tender flame of love that we cupped safe in our joined hands, all a lie.

A mask he wore to keep me in his bed…

To keep me complacent.

And I feel I might be ill.

The room becomes a blur of midnight blue and gold. He spins me around then pulls my spine to his chest. I’m pinned in place by the solid carved-from-fucking-stone arm that loops around me.

I face a tapestry, a stitched portrait of a shadow.

“Abraxlor,” Daxeel growls the name at the shell of my ear. “The first master of the Shadow Court. One of the original true dokkalves.”

I blink up at the portrait weaved and painted onto the tapestry. A male whose nose is too thin, eyes too black, jaw too harsh.

“They say he could manipulate the darkness around him.” His breath is hot on my ear. “He would blind opposing courts in battle. Blur the borders between lands. He made the shadows tangible, so one could just reach out—and touch it.” A nip at my ear flinches me. “His evate was the only one who did not fear him or his great gift. She might have enjoyed it the way you have done.”

The fierce burn of my cheeks is hotter than the simmering hearth.

The kitchens flash in my mind—shadows licking all over me.

“The gift was lost over time,” he says, “as were all great original powers and magicks. Many hunt for the return of their bloodline right. But I would have turned my back on this Sacrament,” his voice softens and he brushes his hot mouth along the shell of my ear before he plants a chaste kiss on the curve of my jaw, “for you, Nari. I would have done that—for you.”

I swallow, thick.

There is nothing seductive about this, his words, the caress of his mouth on my prickling flesh. Nothing that soothes the fear rinsing my insides out.

“Daxeel.” I breathe his name like a realization, an epiphany of all the ugly things. “Do you even love me at all?”

“Yes.” That answer urges out of him in a husky rush, like it’s the truest truth of all.

He spins me around and shoves me against the tapestry.

It wrinkles at my spine.

“I love you, Nari.” Softly, he sweeps his mouth over mine and I lean into it, the promise of a kiss never delivered. “The first time I saw you, there was—”

“Love?” I breathe the word, my lashes fluttering shut, melting into his declarations.

“Not love. A hunger for your body.Evate.” His lip curls around the word. “I wanted to fuck you, have you squirm beneath me, see what your plump lips looked like around my cock. I’ve felt lust before, but what it was with you in that moment… it was dangerous. I wanted to break your ankle so you couldn’t run, tieyou up and throw you in a cell so you could never leave. I wanted to force my bite onto you in front of everyone.Evate.”

“But you didn’t,” I whisper to his lips before I plant a tender chaste kiss there. “Because you know what is right, what is wrong, despite our more unevolved urges.”

He presses his forehead to mine.

His lashes tickle me as he confesses, “Some of my kind resist their evates. But I… I knew what you were to me. Evate. I suspected it at first, but I didn’t resist you. I wanted you, the bond, my evate. I wanted you forever. Then you revealed your handand it was poison.”