Page 176 of Claimed By Fangs and Darkness

Aster’s face relaxed. “This does not surprise me, dear. Juliette endured the unthinkable at the hands of her caregivers. One day, she may tell you about it. But her newfound power and strength is a blessing, not a curse. She’ll protect you as fiercely as she’s protected us. Won’t you, angel?”

Juliette sighed dreamily, peering over at me with satisfaction. “Always.”

As her hand outstretched, our mirrored image was a poltergeist that rattled my bones. Childhood trauma, newfound magick, kink and power dynamics andangel, angel, angel.

I lifted my hand.

I interlocked my fingers with Juliette’s. Aster’s eyes turned molten as he stared at me.

Through our touch, I tasted charred earth on my tongue. Death. Oblivion. The lightning strike against The Tower.

I dropped my hand while listening to comforting whispers of my shadows in the corners of the room. The weight of my dagger pressed against my thigh. Such sounds and symbols of violence used to terrify me.

Now it was a joy to stop running andfight.

That was what I channeled to make it through the next conversation about books, stars, fate, and magick. All these things that I loved, bastardized by two people who would never understand any of it. They would never know love or safety or a power greater than themselves. They would never knowme.

“Can I show Evie my room now?” Juliette asked.

I thought she’d never ask. My smile was steady, calm. The same calm I felt when I decided to stab Kylo with a poisoned needle. The certainty of a path chosen.

“Yes. I’ll be in my study. Be good,” he said with a wink.

I nearly floated down the opulent hall of tasteless art. Depictions of born men and women with dead eyes, or soulless constructions of Ravenia’s landscape. Bland. Empty.

My senses were heightened; my breathing was measured. I became the fuckable weapon Aster had always dreamed of.

Below us on the first floor, born were lounging, socializing, feeding. I wondered what they were doing in the basement.

Aster kissed Juliette on the forehead. He hesitated only a moment before doing the same to me.

“Behave, girls,” he said as he disappeared into his study.

Juliette put her hand in mine as I considered how badly it would hurt to burn off the top layer of skin where Aster’s lips had been.

When Juliette led me into her room, we were finally alone. No one had bothered checking me for weapons. They’d never truly seen me as a threat, since the beginning.

Juliette’s room mimicked my space in the cottage, only far more dramatically pastel. There was no subtlety, just an explosion of soft colors, florals, cozy knits, and witchy trinkets.

“Do you like it?” she asked, looking around her space before setting her heavy gaze on me.

I nodded. “I do. That’s a beautiful bed.”

A tall, grand piece of furniture with a canopy, twinkling string lights, and several pillows and blankets. A worn teddy bear sat in the center. Juliette dove onto the bed and sprawled out as she watched me.

The temperamental demon was grinning without a care in the world.

My dagger warmed my skin with every step. I stood before an arched window, looking down at the castle grounds. I made a quick mental note that it was the opposite direction of where Kylo and the team were stationed.

My heart skipped a beat when I lowered my gaze. A sturdy vine connected the outer windowsill to the window below it, woven into a suspiciously ladder-shaped formation.

Juliette had to have a way to sneak out, after all.

“Is that the garden you were talking about?” I asked Juliette without turning.

I wondered if she thought I’d hop in bed with her to kiss and braid each other’s hair.

Gods, I bet that was exactly what she expected.