Page 170 of Claimed By Fangs and Darkness

“Hey,” Kylo said firmly, snapping my attention back to his eyes. “Deep breaths. Just like we’ve been working on.”

He looked down at the earth beneath us that was now rotting and turning black with char.

I sucked in breath after breath.Calm down. Calm down. Calm down.

“Evie, you are not a god. You haven’t taken out Juliette because doing so while surrounded by the born would’ve ended in your demise. Or maybe if you managed to wield the highest force of your power and kill everyone in the castle, you would’ve drained yourself in the process and tipped off Earle’s armies to your presence. Not to mention Juliette herself is powerful. She might’ve prevented you from succeeding so easily. You are not a failure for protecting yourself and the city by not acting foolishly.” Kylo paused, studying my tear-stricken face. “And I say all of this as someone who has felt responsible for every born atrocity committed in Etherdale since the day I turned. Nothing I do is good enough. It won’t be until they’regone.”

None of his logic was penetrating my hemorrhaging, guilty heart. Juliette had struck when I was least expecting.

As if she were guaranteeing I show up tomorrow.

“I need to do this,” I said, wiping my face. Rage began to trickle through the cracks of my horror, visceral disgust and hatred making it hard to stave off an explosion. “Please don’t hold me back.”

Kylo bristled.

“Help me instead.Please.”

He pulled me back against him, holding me now as if he feared letting me go. My tears soaked through his shirt, reminding me of when it had been drowned in born blood. It was my turn now.

I could feel him thinking as he soothed me and kept me from plunging the world into darkness. His heart was hard and steady beneath my ear, his shadows circling protectively.

“I was going to cancel my meeting with Aster tomorrow,” I gasped, finding it difficult to speak as sobs racked through me. “But if I don’t show up, Juliette will do this all over again and again. Every death will be on my shoulders. I cannot live with myself if she kills anyone else. I can hardly live with myself now.”

Kylo was rigid beneath me. “You had a meeting with Aster tomorrow?”

I winced. “I made it at our last meeting. I wasn’t going to keep it. But Juliette threatened me if I failed to show up. I was about to tell you that I choose you, no matter the consequences. But with Gwendolyn…” My voice trailed off.

I took a small step back, facing him as rain poured. I wondered if Juliette could see it through the glamour over the neighborhood. I bet seeing me unravel brought a smile to her face.

Kylo’s features were conflicted, emotions warring as his shadows gripped my ankles like tree roots.

“I still choose you,” I said. “And I need you to choose me too.”

Thunder rumbled, and Kylo’s shadows grew louder, more demanding. Our power began to flirt, to meld, to leak into the world as a deadly, ominous force.

Our violent love was on display. I saw the Judgement card—the angel sounding a trumpet for the mortals with arms outstretched below. The clouds surrounding the angel were heavy, the mountain range in the background vast.

A reckoning that was unavoidable, an inner calling that could not be denied.

“I. Can’t. Lose. You,” Kylo said, low and commanding like thunder itself.

Lightning struck. Winds surged.

“You won’t.”

He cursed. We both looked up at the sky together. Dark gray clouds grew ever-darker, winds whipping around viciously as shadows screeched.

His hand shot out. It closed around my throat, but it didn’t squeeze. His thumb gently stroked my neck. We stared into each other’s wrathful eyes. Our shadows fused, becoming tinged with deep purple. We breathed in the same anger. We expelled the same purpose. The faint hissing of a snake broke through the haze.

We communicated wordlessly. Tears falling, bones bracing, muscles flexing. His jaw tightened, and my chin rose. The stench of death was ripe in the air, a reminder and a promise.

“I will always choose you, angel.”

He kissed me. In the eye of the storm, we communicated through our bond rather than with words. A dance of betrayal, obsession, yearning, grief, and devotion.

I love you. I have to go. I’m sorry.

I love you. I can’t let you go. I’m sorry.