Page 133 of Dark Souls

“Have you seen The Dealer tonight?” I asked my competitor, who shook his head.

The same woman who worked on the night of the fights walked around the crowds, passing out some kind of black cloth. As members took one from her and pulled them over their heads, I realised they were balaclavas, hiding everyone’s identities, leaving only their excited eyes as their visible feature. A buzz rushed through my veins as she stepped up to the fae and me, holding one out to each of us. The fae man winked at me before taking his mask and pulling it over his head. The woman stared at me expectantly, with the black balaclava dangling from her outstretched arm.Ah, fuck it.

“I take it you’ve done this before?” I asked the fae when the woman walked off.

“Once. It was such a fucking high. You’ll be addicted.”

I tugged on the balaclava and rearranged it so I could see through the eye slits. Damn, I was going to sweat so badly in this thing, especially with a wig underneath as well.

“That’s if you survive. There is only one certainty at an event like this. The weak will not succeed.” His eyes twinkled brightly, and I rolled mine to the heavens.

′This arrogant prick. I can’t wait to show him what we’re capable of.’

“How hard can it be?” I asked nonchalantly. “If you managed to make it out alive once before, it must be a piece of piss.”

“Oooo, a fighting spirit. I like it,” he teased, opening his hands in front of him and doing some kind of finger stretches. I’d put money on him having the ability to manipulate fire.

Cautiously, everyone approached the iron gates as the fog billowed around our feet like an invitation. The heavy atmosphere thickened with tension as everyone fell silent and my eyes darted around, searching for any sign of Luka or Heathen. If I made it out of this alive, I was pretty sure they’d kill me for being here.

“Let me guess,” I whispered to the fae. “There are no rules. It’s every villain for themselves, right?”

He chuckled from behind his mask. “Good luck, shorty. Was nice knowing ya.”

He stretched his fingers at his sides, and fire emerged from them. He lowered himself into a fighting stance. I smirked behind my mask. I knew he was a fire wielder.

Then I felt it. A pleasurable tingle crawled across my skin and up the nape of my neck, spreading heat through my stomach and down between my legs. I bit back a moan when I felt a slight pressure against my clit. A phantom grip squeezed my throat, making me gasp for breath. It was a greeting and a warning.

Heathen.

My heart thumped wildly as my head whipped back and forth for any sign of him. But of course, he wouldn’t be in his true form out in the open like this. He’d be hiding in plain sight. When the gates were completely open, an ear-splitting whistle pierced the air, signifying the start of the event, and all the surrounding members raced through them, disappearing in different directions into the maze. I swallowed thickly, my eyes wide and adrenaline rampant.

The crowds had dispersed, leaving only me and one lone figure standing a short distance away. His huge, broad shoulders heaved up and down with shallow breaths, and every muscle in his body was clearly strained beneath his jeans and black shirt. The very same clothes Luka left the manor in earlier tonight. But those weren’t Luka’s eyes glaring at me through the balaclava. Like an obsidian night, they were the blackest twin voids swallowing all light as they gleamed with wickedness and danger. The eyes of a demon.

My demon.

Butterflies tore through my body, fluttering from my chest to my lower belly at seeing him for the first time and knowing who he truly was to me. The look in his eyes was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. He was the epitome of darkness, staring as though he was considering whether to tear me to pieces or just devour me in one go. I gulped. Fear blended with desire and caused a complicated combination that overwhelmed me, keeping my feet glued to the ground. I knew he would never hurt me, but it was hard not to be intimidated by his raw power when it was directed solely at me.

The heavy silence between us was shattered by a distant scream echoing through the maze’s twisting corridors, causing my red eyes to widen in my masked face and my heart to pound against my ribs.

“You shouldn’t be here, Snow.” His baritone voice was fierce with warning.

“You told me to figure out who you are to me. And I did,” I said confidently, trying to disguise the excited but apprehensive nerves that were coursing through my body.

He tilted his head to the side, his eyes narrowing slightly as he held my gaze. In a blur, he was no longer on the other side of the fountain but right in front of me, inches from my face. I craned my neck as I sucked in a breath at the suffocating intensity of desire he’d brought with him. So intense, my chest ached with desperation as I felt it closing in on me, making me crave only him regardless of what was happening around us. Another agonising scream echoed in the distance.Murders, Ilaria. That’s what was happening. But I couldn’t bring myself to care.

“And who am I to you, Snow?” With his voice dropping an octave, a wave of longing swept through me, making me lose myself in his piercing gaze.

With a deep exhale, I said the only truth I really knew for sure.

“Everything.”

Run, Angel.

“Everything.”

Be still my fucked up heart.

Hang on. Everything… as ineverything? As bloody adorable as that was, what the hell did it really mean? Did she know? Or was she just finally confessing her undying love for me? Which was about fucking time, I might add.Veles,I should have been born a saint, not a demon, for the amount of restraint I have had to use around this woman. Since she told me Luka was her soulmate, I have been living a torturous existence, conflicted between feeling on cloud nine and extremely furious that she didn’t know who I was. That the stupid control The Devil had on my soul kept her from realising that if Luka was her soulmate… I was too. Because I was Luka. Luka was me. In a roundabout way.