Page 169 of Claimed By Fangs and Darkness

“You know how hard I get when you’re embarrassed,” he groaned. “But I saidcute,notstrange. You’re just so dainty about it, tearing off pieces like a delicate baby animal.”

I scoffed. “I don’t even know what that means.” I was going to say that I would refuse to eat bread around him from here on out, but that was a level of self-punishment I was far too healed for.

Kylo lowered himself to kiss my stomach, his eyes darkening as he looked up at me. “Stop being so fucking adorable or I will attack you.”

“I’m just being me.”

I pulled him back up for a kiss, running my hand through his soft black strands of hair. Everything about him was warm and solid, a certainty I’d been chasing since the day I was born.

He pulled back, studying my face as if in reverence.

I smiled. The words were poised on my tongue.I choose you. I will always choose you.

“Kylo,” a female voice called.

Kylo groaned in irritation. “Notnow. We’re off tonight,” he growled.

“I’m sorry. It’s an emergency,” Allie said, coming into view as Kylo slowly pushed off me.

My heart started beating fast and hard. Allie would never have bothered us in Kylo’s private, enclosed backyard unless something was wrong.

Kylo helped me to my feet, and I leaned my back against his chest as we both braced ourselves.

“There’s been another killing,” Allie said. Her usual stoicism had been shaken, her brunette hair in disarray. “Like Princeton’s.”

I slumped against Kylo, the air knocked from my lungs.

“No,” I whispered. “It’s only Thursday.”

Allie shot me a confused look, her features tugged down with heaviness.

“Who?” Kylo and I asked at the same time. I gripped his arm as it snaked around me.

“The high priestess of a local coven. Gwendolyn.”

My eyes pooled with tears, a broken sound leaving my lips.

“Her friend found her in the woods. Her eyes had been taken, her body desecrated. Sigils had been carved into her skin. It looked like a ritual had been performed.”

“Who? Who found her?” I asked, fighting the urge to throw up.

Kylo gripped me tighter, his hand raking through my hair as his chest rose and fell rapidly.

“The younger witch. I believe her name was Amy.”

I turned away from Allie and into Kylo’s chest, horrified. I vaguely heard Kylo talking with Allie before she took her leave. He rubbed soothing circles on my back.

Juliette had killed my friend, unprovoked. For no fucking reason other than to harvest more power and to hurt me. She’d scarred a teenage girl forever. Amy and Gwendolyn had known each other for years; I couldn’t fathom the trauma of Amy finding her friend and spiritual leader’s mutilated corpse.

“She just ruined more lives,” I said. “Because ofme.”

Kylo gingerly peeled me off him, staring hard into my eyes. “Baby, I am so sorry,” he said, voice cracking as his eyes mirrored my grief. “You are not responsible for this. Why do you think Juliette’s actions are on you?”

“Because she’s targeting people I love. Because she envies my power and everything else about me. BecauseIhaven’t killed her yet!”

For the first time since Idris died, I started to feel out of control.

Kylo placed his hands firmly on both of my trembling shoulders. Cloudy onyx began to obscure my vision, and I tasted rain on my tongue.