Page 33

Ada

" Y ou were ordered to stay in your chambers."

"I don't take orders from you."

He moved with inhuman speed, suddenly before me, his height allowing him to loom in a way that might have intimidated someone else. "You are my wife. My subject. My prisoner if need be." His voice dropped lower, colder. "You exist in this realm at my pleasure. Never forget that."

My light responded instinctively to the threat, flaring beneath my skin, gathering in my palms. "Touch me, and I'll burn you where you stand."

His laugh was a cruel thing, sharp as broken glass. "You think your little light show frightens me?" He reached out with deliberate slowness, his shadows extending toward my face like clawed fingers. "You have no idea what I'm capable of."

I slashed at him with a blade of pure light, catching him across the cheek. Blood welled, black as ink, hissing where my power had touched him.

Hakan's eyes widened, not in pain but in shock that I'd actually struck him. For a heartbeat, he seemed frozen. Then his expression contorted with fury, his hand shooting out to capture my wrist in a grip like iron.

"You dare?" he hissed, shadows writhing around us both. "After I saved your life? After I increased security to protect you? This is how you repay my generosity?"

"Generosity?" I twisted in his grip, refusing to show pain though his touch burned cold against my skin. "You call imprisonment generosity? You're no better than your father!"

Something flashed in his eyes—a wound I hadn't expected to inflict—before it was swallowed by rage. He pulled me closer, his face inches from mine.

"You know nothing of my father," he snarled. "Nothing of what I've sacrificed, what I continue to sacrifice, to keep you safe."

"Safe?" I laughed bitterly. "Is that what you call this? Being locked away, treated like a possession, denied even the most basic freedoms?"

"Yes!" His shadows lashed out, knocking over what few intact items remained. "Because the alternative is watching you die!"

I drove my knee up, catching him in the stomach. He doubled over with a grunt of pain, his grip loosening just enough for me to break free. "I'd rather die free than live as your prisoner!"

He straightened, eyes blazing, and for a moment I thought he might strike me. Instead, he pressed a hand to his abdomen where I'd hit him, his expression shifting to something like confusion. The pain in his face seemed far beyond what my blow should have caused.

“What have you done to me?” he demanded, his voice rough with pain.

I circled away from him, my heart racing with a mixture of fear and satisfaction.

"Nothing you don't deserve," I shot back, maintaining the defiant facade while internally calculating my next step.

He approached to follow but stopped suddenly, a grimace contorting his features. His shadow flickered, something I'd never seen before—as if he was having trouble controlling it.

I didn't understand what was happening, but I didn't wait to find out.

I summoned my light again, my power responding eagerly to the complex mix of hatred and unwanted desire coursing through me.

The conflicting emotions—rage at his betrayal, fear of my approaching death, and the treacherous attraction I couldn't deny—created the perfect storm for my magic to spike.

I formed it into a whip that cracked across his shoulder with more force than I'd intended, tearing his fine clothing and the skin beneath.

"Something's wrong," he gasped, shadows writhing erratically around him.

There was something about his reaction—something linked to me, to us. I could almost feel an echo of it, resembling a distant vibration through an invisible cord connecting us. But before I could make sense of it, his expression hardened, shadows gathering around him akin to protective plating.

"It changes nothing," he said coldly, though he advanced with more caution now. "You are still my wife. Still bound to me. Still mine to do with as I please."

"I belong to no one," I hissed, and backed away when he advanced on me. "Especially not a monster like you."

I retreated until my back hit the wall, trapped between cold stone and the advancing shadow prince. Hakan’s eyes gleamed with something dangerous—not just anger now, but something hungrier, more primal.

I had to make him lose control completely. Only then would his defenses drop enough for me to ? —

“No?” he murmured, and closed the distance between us. “Then why does your heart race when I’m near? Why does your light respond to my shadows?” His hand shot out. He pinned both my wrists to the wall above my head. “Why can I smell your desire beneath your hatred?”

“Fuck you.” I struggled, his grip was painful.

“Such language from a princess of light,” he mocked, his free hand coming up to grip my jaw, forcing me to meet his gaze. “Your mouth says one thing, but your body…” His eyes dropped to my lips, to the pulse pounding at my throat. “Your body remembers who it belongs to.”

“I hate you,” I whispered, the words ragged with an emotion I refused to name. My body betrayed me, a warmth spreading through my core even when my mind rejected him. I hated that I wanted him still, after everything.

“Good,” he replied, his face close enough that I could feel his cold breath on my cheek. “Hate is honest. Hate is pure. Hate means you still feel something.”

I jerked my head forward, smashing my forehead against his nose.

The impact sent pain shooting through my skull, but the satisfaction of hearing his grunt of pain was worth it.

His grip loosened for just a second—enough for me to wrench one hand free and rake my nails down his face, drawing more of that black blood.

“You fucking bitch,” he snarled, and grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanking my head back to expose my throat. Despite the fury in his voice, I noticed him wince again, as if my pain was somehow echoing through him.

Instead of striking me as I expected, he used his grip on my hair to drag me across the room, sending me sprawling onto the floor. Before I could scramble away, he was on me, flipping me onto my back, his weight pinning me down while his hands captured my wrists again.

“Is this what you wanted?” he growled, his face inches from mine, blood still trickling from the scratches I’d left. “To fight? To feel something other than your own helplessness?”

I bucked underneath him, trying to dislodge his weight.

The movement caused his hips to grind over mine, and I felt his hard length against me.

I wanted more, I wanted him to tear my clothes and enter me.

I yearned for it, my body remembering what my mind wanted to forge.

His pupils dilated, shadows curling around us both becoming dark smoke.

This was working—too well. My plan was spiraling beyond my control, threatening to consume me along with him.

“Get off me,” I demanded, though my voice lacked conviction. The heat burned through my core, reminding me of that night when he tortured me in the dungeon.

“Make me,” he challenged, then crushed his mouth to mine.

The kiss was violent, brutal, a battle rather than an embrace.

I bit his lower lip hard enough to draw blood, and he groaned into my mouth, the sound vibrating through my body.

His hand tightened in my hair, yanking my head back to deepen the kiss, while his other hand still pinned both my wrists above my head.

Then he pushed his erection into me. I moaned.

My light responded of its own accord, golden tendrils intertwining with his shadows. Where they met, sparks showered around us, tiny explosions of opposing forces that refused to destroy each other.

He broke the kiss, breathing hard, only to drag me up by my hair and slam me into the nearest wall.

The impact drove the air from my lungs, but before I could recover, his mouth was on mine again, his body pinning me into the cold stone.

He ground his hips harder into my core, while he devoured my mouth in violent, greedy kisses.

Hakan's darkness filled me with potent desire, and I panted, wanting and needing more.

"I fucking hate you," I gasped when he finally let me breathe, his lips moving to my throat.

His laugh was low and bitter. "Not as much as I hate myself for wanting you."

His hand slid beneath my shirt, cold fingers leaving trails of ice along my breasts, then he pinched my nipples, and I bucked underneath him, almost climaxing.

I arched into his touch despite myself, my body betraying my mind's revulsion.

He crushed his hips to mine, grinding slowly, deliberately, the hard length of him providing his unmistakable desire.

"You're mine," he growled at my throat, teeth grazing sensitive skin. "Whether you accept it or not. Whether I want it or not. We're bound."

“Never,” I gasped, even when my body arched into his touch. “I’ll never be yours again.”

He pulled back just enough to look into my eyes, his own burning with emotions too complex to name. “Liar,” he whispered, before claiming my mouth again, his grip on my hair tight enough to burn my scalp.

The world narrowed to this—to cold and heat, to shadow and light, to pleasure edged with pain.

To hatred so intense it had crossed over into something else entirely, something just as powerful but infinitely more dangerous.Something was happeningg between us—his darkness feeding my light, my hatred fueling his desire.

I could feel him everywhere, not just where his body pinned me to the wall, but inside, through the magical connection that had once been born of love and was now twisted with pain and fury.

His shadows wrapped around my golden light, merging in ways that should have been impossible, opposing forces melding instead of destroying each other.

"Do you remember?" he whispered to my skin, his voice raw. "Do you remember what we were before all this?"