Page 51 of Kiss of Seduction (Court of Chains #1)

“She wouldn’t hurt me,” Evie said too quickly. Lily’s knowing look made her lower her eyes. “You’re telling me nothing would change if I put on the necklace? I wouldn’t be a…”

She couldn’t make herself say the word ‘slave’ in relation to being Natalya’s. It felt wrong to even think it.

“Something would change.” Lily gave her a soft smile. “People would know.”

The words made Evie’s heart start racing. She imagined holding Natalya’s hand where people could see. Kissing her and touching her. Natalya running her fingers through Evie’s hair in that way she liked to do, and which always made Evie feel so wonderfully calm.

Being hers. People knowing Evie was hers.

It was a strange feeling. Wanting something you thought you shouldn’t desire.

When everyone left, Evie was stuck with a decision she didn’t know how to make. Putting on the pendant was like taking a leap into the dark, a place she knew had hungry teeth. She’d experienced their piercing pain before. She was still terrified of them. But it wasn’t the same.

She wasn’t giving herself to any creature. Just one. And though she may be a fiend, she was no monster. She was just Natalya.

Frightening and powerful. Distrustful and vulnerable. Evie’s protector. Her lover. A woman she’d called Mistress and found both calm and comfort in the title. A woman she’d come to care for so much it hurt.

Evie wouldn’t be her slave. She would just be hers.

She spent hours staring at the purple Chain pendant. Hours thinking, deciding, and then changing her mind. When she finally picked up the necklace and put it around her neck, it felt like she’d jumped out of an airplane wearing a torn parachute.

Pain.

Everything was pain. Everything was agony.

Natalya regained consciousness slowly and regretfully. Her skin was made of fire. There was a smell in the air, of smoke and hell.

Faintly, Natalya registered she was lying in a bed. There was gauze wrapped around her, with padding against a wound in her side. The one Stefano made with his fiend-fixed knife.

Groaning and wincing, Natalya pushed herself into a sitting position. She was in her bedroom. Alone. It was dark and quiet. How had she gotten here?

Then she remembered. After getting to the high-rise and bringing Hasan to the infirmary, Natalya had excused herself to go fix her ruined body.

She’d intended to sit in the shower until the salt dissolved and then retreat to a nightroom where she’d remain, shivering and staring at the door, until she was healed enough to leave.

She’d fallen unconscious almost as soon as she turned on the water. She’d turned cold. It was what happened when fiends had no energy left. Corpse-like, agonizing stasis where you couldn’t even scream. Evie’s kiss had brought her out of it.

Evie had taken off her ruined clothes. Dug the salt out of her skin. Guided her to the bedroom. Natalya put a hand on the bandaged injury. Had Evie done this too?

If she hadn’t, that meant someone else had. Who? Aleksander? Just the thought of Aleksander seeing her like this made her cringe.

Drago then? The fiend would be the only one she’d be accepting towards, but he didn’t possess the gentleness required to tend an injury in this way. At most, he’d have pressed a towel against her and let her be. He wouldn’t have been this careful. He would have known there was no need.

Evie didn’t know. Evie would have been careful with her.

Natalya slowly got to her feet. She found a black silk robe and put it on over her naked body, groaning with every movement.

She needed energy, badly. She needed to get to the Second Circle and stay there for a few days. Then she’d be fine.

It would be faster with Evie.

Natalya pushed the thought away. She couldn’t do that.

Evie wasn’t hers, and she didn’t want to be.

And after the pitiful display Natalya had presented in the bathroom, Evie wouldn’t want to do anything with her.

It was what had happened with Elliot, and she’d shown him less vulnerability than shivering from pain in a shower stall.

No, the Second Circle would suffice. It would have to.

It was dark out, and the living space was quiet. At first, she thought it was empty, but then she spotted a bundle of blankets on one of the couches, and the woman curled beneath them. Evie was asleep, her strawberry blonde hair loose and tangled. She was whimpering. Haunted by nightmares.

Natalya wanted nothing more than to damn the Second Circle. She wanted to lie next to Evie and hold her close. To smooth out her long, soft hair. To make her sigh by giving her sweet dreams.

It wasn’t possible. After healing her injuries, Natalya was so drained that just brushing against someone’s skin would cause indescribable pain.

With no energy to control her abilities, she was walking doom.

She could kill someone with a touch in this state.

Even if Evie was resistant, Natalya didn’t want to take the risk.

She staggered through the apartment, trying to be quiet. She failed when she had to grab a chair for support and made it clatter against the dining table. It wasn’t that loud. Maybe Evie hadn’t heard.

“Natalya?”

Sins .

She didn’t turn as she heard Evie move through the apartment. Only when she sensed Evie reaching out for her did she speak.

“Don’t touch me.”

Evie stopped. Natalya imagined the hurt on her face at the harsh tone but didn’t dare turn. Her eyes would be terrifying.

“Where are you going?” Evie asked.

“Below.” It hurt to speak. It hurt to breathe . She wanted to go back to bed. To lie down. Or to turn around and fuck Evie until her screams turned into moans. That urge was the most demanding, the most frightening. It was one she wouldn’t indulge.

Natalya stepped forward and had to stop when pain raked through her. In this state, she wouldn’t even make it to the elevator.

“You can barely stand,” Evie said. “Please look at me.”

Natalya snarled. She needed Evie to go. To leave . It wasn’t safe to be this close to a starved fiend. And if she refused to go herself, Natalya would have to make her.

She’d promised she wouldn’t try to scare Evie again. But she needed to. And she couldn’t help it with how spent she was. Hopefully, her starved state would mean Evie couldn’t resist her.

Clutching the edge of the dining table, Natalya turned her scarlet eyes onto Evie.

She looked messy and disheveled. There was sleep in her eyes, and the top she wore was on inside out. She’d started wearing short-sleeved clothing more often lately.

She looked beautiful. And concerned. Exhausted. Like she hadn’t slept properly in days.

Seeing Natalya, she stiffened. Fear and worry rose in her into a mix of tragic emotions. But she didn’t move. She stayed, and the feelings lessened, the fear quicker than the worry.

Then Natalya’s eyes found the purple pendant around her neck, and it was like she’d gone deaf.

Where had she found that? Who had given it to her? Natalya was sure it wasn’t her. The last thing she remembered before passing out was clutching the damn box, so Evie wouldn’t see it.

It dawned on her that the muted noises she could hear came from Evie speaking.

“Why are you wearing that necklace?” Natalya asked sharply.

She didn’t look at Evie’s eyes. She kept staring at the purple-tinted pendant that symbolized Evie was hers . That Evie wanted to be hers.

Evie touched the pendant as though she’d just remembered it was there.

“I found it. On the floor. After you fell asleep.”

“Why are you wearing it?” Natalya didn’t know what she was feeling. Possessiveness and elation, but mostly she felt a deep anger at whoever made Evie believe this was the right course of action. That to help, she had to be under the will of another again.

This couldn’t be what she wanted. She couldn’t have done it willingly. Someone must have convinced her.

“I talked to Lily,” Evie said.

So Lily was the one Natalya needed to torture. Perfect.

“She explained the contracts a bit. That what we’re doing is basically already… that , so I figured—”

“You figured ?” Natalya’s voice was tight. It made the words sound hateful. “Being Claimed by me is not something you figure , Evie. It’s submission. Sexual submission. Do you understand that?”

Evie crossed her arms, jutting out her chin. “I’m already doing that, aren’t I?”

Natalya sneered, remembering how frail she’d been when Evie found her in the bathroom. She hadn’t been the controlled, powerful Mistress that Evie had been drawn to. She wasn’t that now.

“You don’t want this.”

“How do you know that?”

“ Look at me!”

Even without a mirror, Natalya knew she looked wretched.

Her skin more gray than golden, her hair thin and dull.

She was a husk meant to be an idol, and her being would fry the minds of mortals to return to its intended state.

And Evie was still fucking standing there.

Looking concerned and angry rather than frightened or appalled, like she should be.

“I am looking at you,” Evie said. “I’ve been looking at you for days. Who do you think changed your bandages?”

So it had been her. Natalya’s nails dug into the table.

“Did anyone else see me?”

Evie shook her head. “Aleksander wanted to, but I stopped him.”

Natalya laughed. Quietly at first, and then it turned mad with pain. “Really?”

“Drago helped. A little.” Evie shifted her weight back and forth. “They came by the first night, but they haven’t been back since. No one’s been here other than me. I assumed you didn’t want anyone to see you.”

“You assumed right.”

The pain was getting worse. It was getting harder to stay standing. Natalya leaned her full weight against the table, nearly collapsing.

“What do you need, Natalya?” Evie was by her side. Not touching her, but she was so close Natalya could feel her body heat. “Tell me, and I’ll do it.”

“I can’t ask that of you.”

“You can.” Evie touched her Chain pendant. “This means you can. It means I want you to.”

She was too insistent. Too genuine. Natalya believed her. That was the most stunning thing of all. The most frightening.

Though she knew Evie didn’t like when she did it, Natalya focused enough that she could feel what Evie did. Sense her emotions. She noticed worry. Relief. Some annoyance and a little fear.

No trepidation. No doubt.

This wasn’t wise. It was dangerous. They shouldn’t. But Natalya had no energy to deny Evie’s willing offer of herself. All she could do was try to make her step away on her own.

“It won’t be like the other times.” Natalya’s voice was strained from the effort of keeping herself in control. “I can’t be gentle with you.”

Evie swallowed, and Natalya sensed a smoldering desire grow in her. It was faint. A drop of water to her dehydration.

“I can handle it,” Evie said.

“I’ll tear your clothes to pieces. I’ll leave bruises. It’ll be painful. And I won’t be able to stop until I’m satiated. It’s not safe.”

Evie drew in a tight breath, and Natalya sighed in relief. The words would dissuade her. She’d back off. She’d realize Natalya wasn’t what she wanted or needed.

But then Evie moved closer.

“I trust you.” Her desire grew, alluring and inviting. Impossible to ignore.

She leaned in so close Natalya could feel her breath on her skin. Light and nervous. Wanting. Her proximity was rapidly disintegrating Natalya’s last remaining willpower.

Then Evie brushed her fingers through Natalya’s hair.

“Take me, Mistress.”