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I wanted to deny him. To push him away. But I couldn’t. I didn’t want to.

Whatever he had to offer, in that moment, I knew I wanted it all.

7

KATRINA

Days passed. Or maybe it had been weeks. Time felt like it moved differently in the Dark Realm of Shadow Vale.

Each morning, I woke in the same grand room, wrapped in heavy furs, the scent of smoke from the ever-burning fire in the hearth filling the chamber, and the intoxicating scent of Blaylock all around me.

I dreamed of him nightly. Or maybe he’d been coming to see me, watching me sleep and adding another fur atop my body to keep me warm?

The bruises on my body faded to yellow, and the ache and wounds on my feet healed. Although I was still unsure of my situation, fear no longer consumed me.

Blaylock hadn’t locked me in. He never chained me and never forced anything. He let me have free rein, even walking with me as I explored, like my silent sentry.

He watched me.

Not just with those onyx, endless eyes but with an unreadable desire, a tension that I knew was passion. He never spoke of wanting me, but he didn’t need to. I felt itsurround him. I knew I stirred something in him that he didn’t understand.

And I felt the same way in my desire toward him becauseI watched him right back.

His massive, terrifying, masculine body. The way the ground seemed to vibrate under his steps.

The coldness of his expression when he looked at everyone and everything aside from me.

But I also saw the cracks—thin, fleeting moments—when something warmer flickered through. The slight pause when I met his gaze. The way his voice softened when he spoke to me.

I was falling for my beast, and I didn’t stop or fight it. I welcomed it like a lover’s embrace.

He’d even escorted me out of the castle to the lands just beyond his castle. He did this nightly, and I found myself finding beauty in everything I saw.

And when he asked if I’d like to go to another kingdom with him, to be introduced to the new human queen of the Dark Realm of Blood Ash, I had no hesitation in accepting the invitation. And it was an evening I’d never forgot, not even days later when I still thought about the horrific beauty of Blood Ash and how I’d never felt as protected amongst monsters as I was by Blaylock’s side.

Today, I wandered deeper into the castle than I ever had before, curiosity moving me along.

The hallways, once cold and quiet, felt warmer and like this could be my forever home. The monstrous servants I passed now offered curt nods, their large, robe-covered bodies seeming less fearsome.

I turned down a hallway I’d never ventured into before and came up to a dead end with a tall, metal door covered in intricate gargoyle etchings in the steel.

Curiosity gnawed at me, this hungry feeling clawing at my insides. I pushed the heavy door open, and when I slipped inside, I gasped.

The room wasn’t just a room. It was a garden unlike anything I could ever imagine.

There was no sunshine in the Dark Realm of Shadow Vale. Instead, there was this bright moonlight that felt warm and light enough to illuminate everything it touched.

And it made everything pulse with life.

The garden wasn’t beautiful in the colorful sense I had back “home”. Vines of ivy crept along trellises that traveled high enough to reach the open ceiling. Flowers of deep blues, greys, and the blackest of the black rose from the dark earth, seeking life from that giving moonlight.

The flowers were strange yet just as lively as any I’d ever seen before. A low, melodic vibration filled the air, and I closed my eyes and just felt it wrap all around me.

I wound my way further into the garden, and I breathed deeply, taking in the floral and earthy scent. It was heady—sweet and wild.And slightly intoxicating.

I walked around, letting my fingers brush a dark blue bloom, then did the same to a rich and dark purple one.

“It’s all almost as beautiful as you.”