Page 40

“Cato had me work on pulling energy from him.” I try to think of the right words to convey what happened between us.

“Pulling” seems right. After all, that’s what it feels like.

It had also felt like satiating a hunger, a deep hunger that made my bones ache, but I don’t think that is something I should admit right now.

Evander skims his hands over his face, scraping them along the rough hairs of the short beard he is now growing.

“You fed off his energy. That’s what Quinn said.” The displeasure in his voice is apparent, as is the lingering sadness. It’s hard to think he’s disappointed in me.As per usual, I did what was expected of me as the prophecy.

“Yes and no.” I roll my lip as I work out what to say. “It’s not as if I did anything wrong, Ev!” His heavy stare is making me increasingly more upset and defensive.

I feel guilty and I have to remind myself there’s no reason for that. I am strong. I am skilled. I am powerful and gifted. And Silas is helping make me more powerful. There is nothing wrong with that.

“Yes, I fed on his energy. I pulled it from him and when it flowed into me, I felt invincible.” My breathing comes heavy, remembering what it felt like to have that rush of power.

Heat keeps pulsing through me, making my hands itch and my palms flame.

“It was as if my body came alive with his energy. I pulled and my core filled with heat, with magic. I was able to raise ten dead just from the energy he gave me. Ten , Ev! Do you understand what that means?”

He probably thinks I’m insane, but I keep talking.

There’s no damming the flood of emotions and words pouring out of me now.

The fire in my body is building, burning stronger with each word I speak.

“But I also wanted more. I could have killed him, and it scares the shit out of me to do it again. I know I have to but—”

“Bria,” he interrupts, cutting me off, his eyes wide. He’s searching me, looking all around my body as if he is noticing something.

Glancing down, I notice them too. My hands are balled into fists and the tips are dark, my fingertips dripping with shadows. Tendrils of darkness swirl around my fingers, hands, and wrists, and continue to creep up my arms. The light breeze from them lifts my hair as they coil around me.

I must have summoned them with my emotions, with the fear and anger. But with no purpose, nowhere to go, no one to be, the shadows linger. Engulfing me in black flames.

“Shit!” The curse bursts from my mouth as I recognize how little control I have right now.

Marching quickly to the window, I fling the sides open into the frigid air.

The cold stings my face, but my body is boiling now, the tunic suffocating me.

I yank again at the collar, and it tears, leaving a giant gape below my collarbone.

But I can breathe, and I greedily gulp down a deep breath, the chill cooling the fire welling up inside.

Focus. I need to focus. Closing my eyes, I seek the shadows, reaching out with my mind. I shove all of that energy, all of those emotions and anxieties and fears, into the shadows. They bend and twist and warp into nightmares.

I mold them, stretching fangs to points, sharpening elongated talons that then click on the ground next to me, moving from my mind into reality.

I hear them dragging down the dark wood of the floor, gouging it with a sinister scraping noise.

The dark forms circle me, wings springing from their backs, stretching high above their mangled bodies.

I thrust my arms out into the chill air of the night, ripping my eyes open as the heat rushes out of me, radiating through my veins and bursting from my fingertips.

Breaking their circling, the creatures follow the push of energy I project outward.

They leap from the window, their claws clutching the old wood, splintering it as they project themselves into the night.

Wings flare to life, picking up the breeze and allowing the nightmares to coast further into the dark.

I watch them for a few minutes as they fade and dissipate into the night air, arms falling slack at my sides.

It’s enough of a release that I can inhale deeply now, filling my lungs as I catch my breath.

I half expect him to have left during that display, to have fled when I called the creatures forth—when the shadows twisted and curled around my body and he saw the girl he knew cast terrors out into the dark night.

Not that he isn’t brave, I already know that he is.

He is the bravest man I have ever met, given what he escaped in the king’s court.

Given what he did to survive and create a life for himself.

But seeing the darkness that resides within me could elicit a different level of fear.

But he’s still standing there when I turn around.

In fact, he’s moved closer. Evander had risen from his seat on the bed and moved around toward the window. And now, he’s standing before me, close enough to touch, beautiful brown eyes wide with brows lifted in perfect arcs. His lips are slightly parted, astonishment plastered across his face.

I wonder when he decided to move to me. And why.

The cold breeze rushes in through the open window, and I revel in it.

My skin hasn’t cooled down despite the release of power.

Silas’s magic strengthened me without either of us intending that and losing control of my emotions had caused a surge.

I had lost the ability to keep my gifts locked in.

Something like that hasn’t happened to me since I first began training with Cato. And even then...it wasn’t like this.

Wind whips golden tendrils of hair around me, and I tip my head back, closing my eyes at the feel of the frost in the air, the chill dancing along my skin.

The darkness engrossing me from the midnight sky is heavenly and I relish the way the cold lessens the flames coursing through my veins.

The roiling energy inside is subsiding, now just a quiet simmer below the surface.

When I steady the panting and come back into my body, into the present, I open my eyes. I immediately sense a familiar flutter in my stomach, though it’s not from the power this time. Instead, I feel it deep in my core, threatening to break me in an entirely different way.

The way he’s looking at me.

This . This is the hunger Ash had spoken of. The hunger I denied was there, that I refused to see for fear of what it would mean.

His eyes have waned from the shocked expression of before and are darker now, fixated on me. Wind continues to rip into the room, tossing hair into his eyes but he doesn’t break his gaze. I meet it, that fluttering inside me intensifying.

A torrent of uncertainty hits me. I don’t know what to do, what to say.

What can I say after that displayof power?

Cato and Silas are the only ones to have observed my gifts in that capacity before.

Having magic themselves, there is less of a surprise factor but I’m aware of how intimidating my power was to both men.

Cato had been fascinated by it. Silas had been drawn to it.

But what I see on Ev’s face isn’t intimidation, nor is it apprehension. He didn’t run. No. He had come closer to me, had witnessed while I summoned shadows and spiraled them into nightmares in this very room. And still, he came closer.

I open my mouth to speak and before I can breathe out the words, he’s on me.

A rough, calloused hand slides behind my head, grabbing my neck and tangling in my hair. The other clutches at my back, gripping his fingers into flesh. His mouth slams into mine and I welcome the fierceness of the kiss. It’s not soft like the last time, it’s brutal and aggressive and needy.

His tongue sweeps out and I open to him.I had forgotten the indescribable sweetness of his kiss even if it was only days before that he’d kissed me for the first time. It feels like a lifetime ago now. It feels like that whenever I am not with him.

When my tongue meets his, the connection sends heat down my middle, tightening every inch of my body. Grasping his hair with both of my hands, I yank him harder into me, deepening the kiss. It’s unhinged. I lose control of my body from the rush of power followed by this wave of desire.

I crush my body against his, and his hands grasp my waist tightly.

Sweeping me up against him and pulling my feet off the floor, Ev turns and takes the few steps to the bed, never breaking the contact of our bodies.

He dips down, laying me out beneath him.

His arms move to each side of me, his palms pressing into the mattress below.

When he breaks from the kiss, his mouth moves to my ear, nipping at the edge. His teeth cause a sharp bite of pain followed by a spike of pleasure. Evander’s face nestles into my hair, his breath caressing my neck and sending a shiver down my spine when he speaks.

“Fuck, Bria. You’re incredible,” he whispers, and I clench my legs together, the gruffness of his voice making me pulse with want.

He says it with such genuine awe that I am struck again by his presence.

How he’s still here. I want to say as much to him, but he chooses that moment to drag his tongue down the column of my throat, leaving a slick of wet that makes me forget the words on the tip of my tongue.

Stopping at my collarbone, he kisses the hollow there.

I’m unable to move, frozen beneath him as he trails kisses down my chest, straight down the smooth skin that lies between my breasts.