Page 131 of Blackheart

“You didn’t ask permission to touch me, Blackheart.”

I bared my teeth and yanked out of his hold. “You didn’t ask permission to walk on Castivian land.” I grabbed a small rock from the ground and threw it, striking him in the chest.

He didn’t react at all.

He stepped closer as I stepped back, searching for another rock. “I don’t waste my consideration on what lands Xavian Steele thinks he’s entitled to. Hit me again, or even attempt to, and there will be consequences.”

The only one who would be facing consequences was him, and one day, his father too.

My palms darkened, poison surging through my veins. He’d killed Sitara. He’d killed them all.

I held my hands out, shrieking as venom exploded from my pores. I’d never allowed such a release before. It sprayed all over his chest, eating away at his black suit.

Payn shook his head, snowy hair glowing under the moonlight.

I was panting, but nowhere near done with him.

“I already told you, you can’t hurt me. I spent a lot of time building up a tolerance, just for you. I did a lot for you, but that matters little now, doesn’t it?”

“Damn you!” I yelled, bringing both fists to his chest, beating the poison against him. It melted his shirt off thread by thread, revealing his sculpted chest. Had he cheated to get his build too? Was anything about him real, or was it all blood magic?

He grabbed me by the shoulders as I bashed my venom-covered hands against him like a rabid dog.

“Stop it,” he growled.

I screamed, pushing his hands away.

“Stop—”

I clocked him in the jaw, silencing him with my knuckles. My hand erupted with pain.

He rubbed his face, noting the blood dripping from his lip.

I reared back once more, but I wasn’t fast enough. He swiped his leg against the back of mine, tripping me backwards. My tiara flew off my head, clanking against the cobblestone.

I winced as I hit the ground, my ears ringing.

Flaring my nostrils, I forced myself up, pointing a finger at him as if it were a deadly weapon.

“Youare an ugly, sniveling little bitch stuck under your father’s heel!” I shouted, enraged that my Nature, for once, was harmless.

His skin remained pristine, not a single burn or any sign of trauma. He should’ve been dead after the amount of poison I had unleashed.

“What did you just say to me?” he hissed.

I smiled. “I said,you’re an ugly, sniveling little?—”

Prince Payn grabbed my chin, forcing me to face him. His lips skimmed my nose. “Stop.”

“No,” I spat. “You’re a murderer, and I hate you.”

“You killed Vyra, and I don’t care if you hate me. You fail to appreciate that I was the only one protecting your identity. If anyone in that village would’ve exposed you, you’d be dead right now, or at least, I’d have killed a lot more people on your behalf.”

Letting go of my face, he stepped back and pulled away the lingering pieces of fabric attached to his torso and arms.

I picked up another rock, this one smaller than the last, but I didn’t care. I aimed at his head. Unfortunately, he caught it. Rearing his arm back and turning around, he sent it soaring so far it might’ve landed in the ocean.

When he turned back to me, he was practically steaming.