Page 33 of Kiss of Seduction (Court of Chains #1)

The Second Circle remained empty for hours, long past nightfall. It wasn’t for lack of access. The red door to Natalya’s domain was unlocked. Anyone could have entered. No one did. No one dared.

Natalya sat on a couch opposite her throne. She didn’t feel like a ruler then, in a domain empty of souls and with shock still reverberating through her body. It was startling when the laws of your existence were revealed to be inaccurate.

In all her time on earth, only two mortal beings had been able to deny Natalya in the way Evie just had, and they were her summoners. She had trusted one, and she had killed the other. Both she had terrified.

Evie hadn’t been terrified. And she had denied Natalya at her strongest.

Natalya would have ended the kiss only a few seconds later, which made it even more baffling that Evie was able to stop her. Natalya had kissed her to make a point. That no mortal, save the one who summoned it, can resist the pleasure-producing touch of a greater Lust fiend.

Then Evie proved it a falsehood.

It wasn’t just the kiss. Evie had resisted her influence before.

In Varro’s guest room, it had taken almost all of Natalya’s reserves to force emotion on her.

Later, in the car, she successfully resisted Natalya’s attempt to calm her down, so much so that Natalya had to drain her into unconsciousness.

And Natalya could touch her. Kiss her. Embrace and sleep with her. Without hurting her. Somehow.

The thoughts generated a thousand questions, none with satisfying or even existing answers.

Was Evie aware she was resisting Natalya?

Was this sort of thing common among humans with a bloodline like hers?

How was it that Natalya could feel Evie’s emotions as though they were her own? As though their lives were one?

The clinking of steel signaled someone had moved through the chain curtain entry of the Second Circle. Natalya should stand to greet whoever it was, but she honestly didn’t care.

“Your domain doesn’t benefit from the absence of people, Lady.” Drago was standing next to her. Huge, built for violence, and speaking with no emotion. Even he had left the hall while Evie remained.

“I suppose you are unimpressed by your teacher.” Natalya summoned command into her voice purely by habit. “If you have a challenge, make it. I’m in no mood for a lecture.”

“No challenge. Only a comment and a question,” Drago said. “During my tutelage under you, I have never seen you unpoised nor acting without perfect restraint. Though I am not of Envy, I suffer it as much as any creature. You make self-control look easy.”

“It is not easy.”

“I know. I remember your lessons. That control always comes with a price. For us, that price is ease and knowing that we can never be fully satiated, as that means we have lost ourselves to our urges. But I see you have indulged and that your Evie remains standing. Running, even. She left quickly.”

Natalya’s lip twitched as she tried to hold back a sneer. “I don’t remember requesting a speech, Drago. You’ve made your comment. Speak your question and be done with it.”

“We both felt the call for vengeance stronger than the call for home. We were both bound, and we both killed those who held us captive. We chose a millennium of self-control and malnourishment over one of havoc and destruction. But your Evie satiates you without consequence. Like a summoner would.”

Drago’s eyes softened a little, as much as a Wrath demon’s eyes could soften. “A summoner demands your mind, your body, and your agency in exchange for such satiation. My question is, what does she demand?”

It was a simple enough question with an even simpler answer. It was something Evie had already given Natalya. She had even shouted it in her face.

It was something Natalya never gave completely to others, as the consequences of giving it to the wrong person wouldn’t just be dire but catastrophic.

It meant putting her freedom in the hands of another.

If misplaced, she could be bound again. She had done so before and was turned into a slave because of it. A thing to be used by cruel men.

Natalya knew what that was like. So did Evie.

“She demands trust,” Natalya said finally.

“Is that too high a cost?” Drago asked.

Only another greater fiend could fully understand the significance of that question.

Had it come from anyone else, even Aleksander, Natalya would have dismissed it as foolish and never thought of it again.

In a way, it would have been easier. It would mean the choice was made for her instead of her having to do it herself.

But that was freedom. It was what she chose when she killed Roland rather than return home. She was free but only to an extent. She wasn’t free to bond with or even trust another. It came with too much risk.

Some risks were worth it. They had to be.

Evie only stopped pacing because she got too tired to keep going.

She hadn’t wanted to return to the apartment and had convinced Diana to let her take a walk. She was glad it was Diana and not Flea guarding her that day. Flea would have asked questions when she started cursing and kicking pieces of trash into the street. Diana knew how to mind her own business.

It was the darkness that had forced her inside again. She still wasn’t comfortable with the night, especially not when she was made to walk it. She only went back to Natalya’s apartment because there was nowhere else for her to go.

She was angry. And she was sad, which made her even angrier. Rather than break things, which she felt like doing, she paced, punched pillows, and screamed out her frustrations.

Damn Natalya for putting Evie in this situation. For saving her, for protecting her. Damn her for making Evie worry that what had just happened in the Second Circle had widened the strange rift that had appeared between them.

Damn Natalya for making Evie care.

Evie damned herself most of all. Everything was so much easier when she didn’t feel anything. But Natalya had taken her indifference and replaced it with a worry so strong it made her want to throw up.

What if Natalya didn’t come back? What if she didn’t want to see Evie again? That thought was almost too painful to bear.

Eventually, she got too tired to stay standing and sat on the couch.

When she started nodding off, she reluctantly began getting ready for bed.

She took a shower, brushed her teeth, changed into her night clothes.

Between each step, she glanced at the apartment door, willing it to open and for Natalya to enter. It didn’t happen.

Sleep came slow, and it didn’t last. She kept stirring, thinking she heard someone move around the apartment. Every time she woke, she listened for footsteps, and for once, it wasn’t fear that caused her to be on high alert. It was hope that Natalya had come back.

Then she started awake from a knock on the bedroom door. The sound was brief and light, as if whoever made it didn’t actually want to be heard.

Evie rolled out of bed, nearly falling from the bedsheet tangling around her legs, and yanked open the door.

Natalya stood outside, as regal and radiant as ever. Her violet eyes let off a faint shine, and she looked serious. Like she was delivering grave news.

Evie’s stomach started to tie into nervous knots, but then Natalya smiled. A pure smile that briefly reached her eyes.

“I’m sorry for waking you.” Natalya paused a moment. “Evie, I—”

Evie didn’t let her finish. She crossed the threshold to the bedroom, still lined with salt, and threw her arms around Natalya.

Why, she wasn’t sure. Relief was definitely a reason, relief that Natalya had come back, but there was something else she wasn’t emotionally adept enough to understand. Something deeper than relief.

Natalya didn’t move as Evie hugged her. Where Evie was touching her skin, she felt nothing except warmth. She quickly stepped back.

“Sorry, I… I don’t know why I did that.” She realized the potential interpretation of what she’d said the moment the words left her lips.

“You didn’t make me do it! I mean, it was you that made me want to, but it wasn’t like that. I just…” She crossed her arms as though that would somehow remove the embarrassment she felt at blabbering like this. “You were holding back. Just now, I mean.”

“I was.” Natalya’s smile was gone. “I need to talk to you, and I didn’t want to influence you. Not more than I already am just by being here.”

“You’re not,” Evie said, then she lowered her eyes. “At least, not because of that .”

Natalya’s brows furrowed. “Because of what, then?”

Evie kicked the floor. This was getting more awfully awkward by the minute.

“I like being around you. You know… as a… friend. I guess.”

Natalya let out a soft chuckle. “Right. As a friend.”

Evie couldn’t recall a friendship where she’d done anything with them like she’d done with Natalya. By how Natalya reacted, Evie guessed she was thinking a similar thing.

“I need to know how you stopped me before,” Natalya said after a moment.

Evie shrugged. “I just… did. It was difficult. I didn’t want to. But you said I should, so…”

“And the fear? How did you not get scared?”

“I did get scared. But I realized it was you doing it, and I pushed against it. That kept it from settling.”

Natalya inspected her with narrowed eyes, clearly doubtful. Then she held out her hand. “Touch me.”

“I thought you didn’t want to influence me.”

“I don’t. And I need to make sure I’m not.”

Hesitantly, Evie took her hand, intertwining her fingers with Natalya’s. There was no sensation other than the feel of her soft skin.

“I’m going to increase the intensity of my touch slowly. You’re going to push against it, and let me know when it becomes uncomfortable.”