Page 49 of Cursed Evermore

So far, my sketchy plan had gone well without a hitch. Now the beautiful red-haired maiden who’d swayed both my body and my mind was in a deep soul sleep. I’d just finished weaving the protective cocoon around her.

If not for the faint pulse of life and magic thrumming inside her, something only beings like me could sense, she’d be mistaken for dead.

The soul sleep spell wrapped around her like gossamer threads, keeping her suspended between consciousness and dreams.

She looked like a doll. Unmoving and fragile. Small and mortal and breakable. Like something precious that could shatter with the wrong touch.

Her hair spread around her in crimson waves like fresh blood on shadow, her lashes like ink smudges on porcelain skin. That gown she wore dipped just low enough to show the pale rise of her breasts.

I forced my mind to focus. I needed to think of my next move. It would take another three days before we crossed the Veil.

Once we were in Galaythia, I would have the freedom to do what needed to be done to interrogate her by whatever means to find the ring.

The question was, how far would I have to go to break her?

That would depend on her. Whatever methods I'd use depended entirely on how cooperative she proved to be.

But even as I planned her interrogation, my resolve wavered. It didn’t help that the taste of her still lingered on my lips, sweet as wild honey and just as intoxicating.

Kissing her warm, inviting lips and pressing her lush body to mine had burned against the ice in my soul. But fuck, tasting the sweet nectar of her arousal had almost done me in and stalled my plans. I could have easily taken the cherry between her legs and made her mine in all the ways my body had wanted to.

But I hadn’t come this far to let my dick screw with my mind.

Gods, was this what it was going to be like for the next three days?

Me watching her likethis?

And regretting not having her?

I’d meant what I said. That it was a shame. A shame I didn’t get to have fun with her. A shame I didn’t get to fuck her.

For those moments I gave in to the call of temptation. I let myself imagine what it would be like to claim hervirginbody completely, and watch those hazel eyes darken with desire instead of fear. I’d wanted to own her, and take and take and take until there was nothing left, not even the air around us.

Now something heavy settled in my chest and the memory of the disappointment and betrayal in her innocent, trusting eyes twisted what little remained of my conscience with unease.

The truth was I had her right where I wanted her from the moment she got within an inch of me and touched me. I could have used my paralysis spell right then.

But the damn touch trapped me and I saw the opportunity to take more.

More I should have left well enough alone.

I shouldn’t have kissed her, or fucking touched her the way I had. All that did was leave me with a bad case of blue balls and the sting of not getting what I wanted.

Those things didn’t matter. Emotion was a luxury I couldn't afford. Now that I had her I was back to the question of the ring.

How had she stolen it?

She didn’t seem like a thief. Elariya Grayson was just a girl. More human than mage. The kind of human who had no desire for a highly powerful magical object

I’d considered that she’d probably given the ring away or sold it. But for the wraith to identify her as athiefshe’d have to be linked to its actual theft.

That’s the part I was still trying to wrap my head around since she didn’t even seem to have any clue whatsoever about the basics of magic.

Had I not seen the lengths her family had taken to shield her from it, it would have been laughable that it took her so long to accept I was real.

But the situation stood as it was. Irrefutable. Magic itself had branded her as my thief and no one was going to stop me from getting my ring back.

My eyes roamed over her body as I considered what I was going to do with her. Then the thought of her betrothed made me smile. No doubt he’d be pissed he never got to touch her the way I had.