Page 115 of Dark Flame

“Feel it. Let it out. Let yourself be who you are.”

Her eyes flash to mine, purple again but tinged with fear. “I don’t know who I am.”

“Then we’ll figure it out together.”

I wish my skin wasn’t so impenetrable that I’d bleed for her. To see her hard work pay off the way it should and—a sharp sting disrupts my own thoughts, and like my plea was answered, small beads of blood drip from her nails and down my abs.

She throws me a wicked grin and comes down harder on me. “Magick.”

Fuck, this witch is perfect.It’s a thought meant for myself, but I let it go to her too so she understands where I stand.

I push myself into a sitting position and grip her hair, arching her into me as I force her down, her legs tightening around me. Her nails glide from my chest to my shoulders where she digs in again, breaking the skin. Blood paints my skin, not nearly as lovely as the artwork I created on her chest.

She looks down on me, her hair creating a wall between us. “Feels good.”

“It’s meant to. You can’t break me, Harlow. If you want to control the Darkness, let me be your outlet. When those shadows’ voices are becoming too much, this is how you release them.”

Her mouth opens to reply, but it’s cut off by her silent scream, her gasp, as she stiffens in my arms, her core clamping tight. Her nails sink even harder, and I swear she’s taking my skin with her this time.

But I don’t care. Skin or blood, she can have every part of me.

“They’re here,” she whispers, her breathing still uneven.

I lift my head from the veil created by her hair, disturbed I was so wrapped up in her I didn’t hear anyone approach. My arm tightens around her hip, ready to shield my Bride’s naked body from the intruders, except no one’s here.

No one…but then I understand what she meant. From behind her, the air is thicker, darker, more obscure. The trees disappear in a blur of grey, melding with the shadows emitting from her.

The shadows she’s always spoken about. A physical manifestation of her Darkness, dancing in the air behind her, likely called by my bleeding.

She’s mine,I tell them.I’ve already claimed her soul long before you.

Can they hear me? I don’t fucking know.

But by the time Harlow unhooks her nails from my shoulders, they fade away, leaving us alone.

She looks at me with a mixture of apprehension and bewilderment, like she’s unsure what to feel. Her attention slides to my chest and shoulders, where the blood remains, but the cuts have already resealed themselves. Before she does something stupid like try to apologize, I kiss her.

I kiss her until her heartbeat calms and when I know for a fucking fact the shadows understand my claim on her.

I kiss her until the tear sliding down her cheek dries up.

I kiss her until I understand the sensation ravaging my insides.

I kiss her until she pulls away with a small blush and a bite of that bottom lip. I pull it free, admonishing her with a shake of my head. “Bite too hard and you’ll make yourself bleed. I won’t be able to focus.”

She slides her hand up the side of my neck, tracing my hairline. “Maybe that’s the point.”

“Except tonight’s about you. You okay?” Asking another’s feelings is unusual, and frankly,wrong, but nothing ever feels wrong with Harlow.

“Honestly…no. But you’re making me better.”

“That’s what I’m here for.” I flip her over, rising above her as I inch down her body, intending to continue making her feelbetter. Better only comes when she can no longer remember her name.

My thumb circles her clit, swollen and red from our fucking. She releases a low whimper, biting that lip again as her hands fist the ground on either side of her.

“I’m a creature of Darkness, which means my touch is too, yet you accept me so easily.”

She hums, her eyes shut to the earth. “It’s not the same.”