Page 113 of Claimed By Fangs and Darkness

Every time my stupid, empathetic brain reminded me she was traumatized like me, that she was a child bride who was now a slave, I remembered the way she stared at me, threatened me. The hundreds of innocents she murdered.

The knowledge she would only continue to kill unless stopped.

“Are you?” I asked, kissing his arm.

She’d only been trying to provoke me, and it had obviously worked. But Juliette’s threat on Kylo’s life had me snuggling closer to him than I already was.

We were nothing alike. She was going to die soon, for starters.

“I’m okay because you’re okay,” he said. He buried his hand in my hair, inhaling deeply. “My brave, sweet girl.”

I settled back into our aftercare rhythm. Turned out it was just as healing for us to engage in these rituals after getting psychologically fucked by the born as it was after violent sex.

Once I was more stable, I told Kylo the bare facts ahead of our meeting tomorrow. I told him about Juliette and her strange obsession with me. The complexity of her being both evil and also a traumatized slave. I glossed over Juliette and Aster’s insinuations that I was going to join them in some weird throuple situation, and Kylo seethed with hatred as deep as mine. Then we melted back into our self-care, knowing each moment of softness was a luxury with war pressing against us from all sides.

Kylo spent an hour before bed writing in his journals. He answered correspondences, scribbled down thoughts, and planned out tomorrow. I’d already written to Idris, who was grateful to hear from me directly despite his anger at my decision.

I was half watching Kylo, half resting my eyes.

“If I don’t do this, I have no hope of sleeping,” he explained. “I have to get my thoughts out at night, or they’ll eat away at me until morning.”

“You are the only thing that has successfully given me a break from my obsessive, ruminating mind,” I said sleepily. “That’s probably why I love you so much.”

Kylo snorted. “I’m glad my angel finds me useful,” he said, gripping my thigh. “Speaking of my talents…”

He closed his final journal and placed it on the bedside table before gently tugging me down onto my back. He dipped between my legs, his mouth finding my clit.

I gasped.

“Shhh,” Kylo said. “I’m not trying to wake you up. Stay your cute, relaxed self while I suck out those last remaining thoughts of yours. You’ll be doing the same for me, I assure you.”

I enjoyed the thought that I was helping Kylo, so I did exactly as I was told. I sank into the pillow and soft bedding beneath me.

The orgasm he drew from me was warm, gentle, and dreamlike.

In the next slow exhale, my body was curled perfectly against Kylo’s.

“After it’s all over, let’s go somewhere where it snows,” I said with my eyes closed and my body weighted.

Kylo’s chest rumbled at my back, his arms and shadows snug around me. “Okay, baby. We can go anywhere you want. We’ll travel the world, you and I.”

If I wasn’t so exhausted, I would’ve smiled. I imagined I was smiling between states of consciousness.

I wasn’t even sure why I said that—why I was thinking about the snow, or being tangled up with Kylo by the fire, surrounded by wilderness. Maybe because I wanted to be truly alone with him for the first time, with no responsibilities weighing us down or threats looming overhead.

I didn’t want war. I wanted to watch the snow fall.

I wanted to taste a snowflake on my tongue as Kylo grinned, maskless.

Free.

The air smelledof flowers and death. I was in my garden, staring up at gentle rays of morning sun.

At first, I smiled, but then I realized the air was too still and quiet. Where were my helper spirits? My protectors? My garden faerie allies and tricksters?

Someone giggled next to me on the picnic blanket. I joined in her laughter, but it felt wrong, as if I were reading a script. An actor in a play I didn’t write.

Eclipsing the sun, a young woman’s face hovered over mine. Her features were innocent, a small nose and wide gray eyes and soft pink lips. Her dark hair was glossy, her skin just barely kissed by the sunlight.