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My core clenches, demanding more. Demandingeverything.

Calysian’s hand slides to my waist, one thumb brushing my ribs in a gentle caress. I shiver, the tenderness so at odds with the way he’s plundering my mouth.

Just that thought is enough to seep into my awareness, and I let out a yelp, the sound muffled against his mouth. I slam my hands against his chest, wrenching my face away. “This isn’t happening.”

Calysian raises his head, giving me a slow smile filled with dark promise. “Oh, it’s happening.”

The satisfaction in his eyes sets my teeth on edge and I shove at him again.

His smile widens and he steps back, allowing me to pass. “You never should have let me taste you. Now I’ll stop at nothing to make you mine.”

I let out a low groan. What was I thinking?

Turning toward where we left the horses, I stumble. Calysian is immediately there, his hand gripping my elbow as he steadies me.

“You’re dizzy.” The heat in his eyes is gone, along with the teasing note in his voice. If not for the way his gaze lingers on my lips, I’d think it had never happened.

“I’m…drained. Exhausted. What did you do when you…”

When he took my hand. When he turned into someone I didn’t recognize.

His expression tightens and he releases me. “You have access to the grimoire’s power. Don’t you?”

I hesitate, but there’s no point lying about it when he can see the evidence. “Yes.”

“How?”

“I don’t know. It might be because I used it once before. It might be because I spent so much time with the grimoire pressed against me as I hid it in my cloak while traveling to this continent.”

His eyes gleam with something that might be realization.

“The last time I saw you, I felt a sudden urge to chase you. It was an instinct I couldn’t ignore.”

I frown. “When?”

“You were boarding a ship in the hybrid kingdom. You had my grimoire then, didn’t you?”

My stomach churns. I never saw him.

“Yes.”

“So you took the grimoire, hid it, and then you somehow used that power—my power—to kill any who attempted to enter your tower. And to escape.”

I nod, my mouth dry. “At first…at first I couldn’t use it. There was just…nothing. And then one day after Kyldare visited, I was filled with such burning rage, I could feel the power calling to me. In my madness, I didn’t understand what it was. Didn’t understand it was the grimoire until later. In that moment, I just knew I could use it to find freedom.”

Calysian studies me. And I get the feeling he sees more than I would like him to.

“For some reason, I cannot access that power myself,” he says. “But I could sense it within you. So I used you as a conduit to the grimoire.”

And he’d nearly killed me. I can see the knowledge in his eyes. The horror had flickered across his face when my flames startled him back into himself.

“You told me to trust you, but you didn’t trust me enough to let me know what you were doing.”

He takes a step back, gazing at me thoughtfully. “You’re right.” He turns away, and then almost immediately whirls to face me once more. “You saved my life. Why?”

I stalk toward the shore. “You likely would have lived.”

He catches up to me easily, his long stride worth two of mine. “Not if they’d cut off my head while I was unconscious. The power that makes me invulnerable to mortals is still out of my reach.”