Page 70 of Kiss of Seduction (Court of Chains #1)

Evie looked at her with wide, green eyes. Eyes that shouldn’t have seen the horrors she’d endured. That, if the Fates were kinder, shouldn’t be looking at Natalya at all. Evie should be in a different life, somewhere far away and safe, where monsters weren’t trying to own her.

Evie’s mouth trembled a little, but she smiled through it. “You promise?”

She said it knowingly. With intent. And in her eyes, Natalya saw the importance of the question. She trusted Natalya’s promise without hesitation. Relied on it, even. Promising her something like this was as easy as breathing.

Natalya kissed her softly, then a little deeper as Evie pulled herself closer. “I promise, Evie. For you, I’d promise anything.”

“I don’t understand it.” There were tears in Evie’s eyes. But she was still smiling. “I don’t know why I got to be this lucky.”

To hear Evie refer to herself as ‘lucky’ was a new type of pain. The tragic, sorrowful kind. With all she suffered, she felt lucky to be where she was now. In a building full of monsters, with her arms around one such creature.

But Natalya had suffered as well. Sometimes she forgot that.

She ignored the pain of it and pushed it away, but it was still present.

And despite it, she felt lucky too. If she hadn’t gone through it all, would she have ended up here?

With this woman leaning against her? There was no price too high if it meant she got to love Evie until the end of her days.

“There’s nothing I want more than to keep you safe,” Natalya said. “Which is why you have to go. For a little while.”

Evie leaned back, intense worry filling her eyes, but Natalya pulled her near again.

“It’s only temporary. Until Varro is dealt with, I want you far away from the Court of Chains. Somewhere safe. Somewhere unknown to him.”

Evie’s eyes grew vacant. Maybe she was distancing herself from what was happening, like she’d done before. Removing herself from the fear building in her. Natalya caressed her arms, trying to bring her back to the present.

“You won’t be alone. I’m sure Aleksander feels similar to me and will want Lily away too. You’d go together. Maybe to the East Coast, or—”

“Did the lights go out?” Evie asked suddenly. Natalya frowned.

“What?”

“It’s dark.” Evie turned her head, looking around the dimly lit apartment. Her eyes were unfocused and distant. “What happened?”

“Nothing happened.” She grabbed Evie’s chin, turning her so she was looking at Natalya. But she wasn’t. Her eyes saw nothing.

“I can’t see.” Evie touched her face in confusion.

“What do you mean you can’t see?” Natalya directed her gaze upwards, but her eyes were flicking wildly. Not focused on anything.

“I can’t see!” Evie took a frightened step back. “I can’t see anything. Everything went dark.”

Natalya took her hand, and Evie flinched. She turned in the direction of the touch, but her eyes looked past Natalya.

“Evie, calm down.” Natalya’s voice sold the assertiveness she knew wasn’t showing on her face.

This wasn’t normal. People didn’t just go blind for no reason. Maybe Evie had been injured somehow? But she wasn’t in pain. She was just terrified.

Bright panic rushed through Evie, and she started panting. Sharp, quick breaths that sounded like she was swallowing air. And then she didn’t even do that.

She stopped inhaling, her breath catching in her throat and staying there. Her mouth opened and closed desperately as if trying to force air into her lungs, and she was suddenly unable to. Evie clawed at her throat as her eyes rolled back in her head, and she collapsed to the floor.

“Evie!” Natalya knelt next to her, taking Evie’s face in her hands.

Evie didn’t respond. She couldn’t. She writhed and twisted, tried to gasp, and failed. Her throat was taut from the effort of trying to breathe. She couldn’t even sit up, falling back on the floor.

She wasn’t choking. She wasn’t being strangled. It was like she’d lost her ability to breathe. Like it had been stolen from her.

The thought momentarily stunned Natalya as realization washed over her. The jagged puzzle pieces of the past many months snapped together.

Everything made sense. Everything connected. The warlock and his fiend at Varro’s estate. How Stefano had known about Natalya’s presence when meeting with Hasan. Why the apartment had seemed so unnaturally dark. The Court of Chains did have a spy.

The shadows were deeper than usual. They were too dark. Too thick. Too full .

Natalya looked up, noticing an unusually heavy shadow only a few feet from her. It started to take further form. It grew solid. It grew humanoid.

Emerging from the dark came a woman. She was lean, pale, and had a youthful, androgynous appearance and short, spiky black hair.

Her slitted eyes were green. Not the natural, mossy green found in Evie’s but the bright neon of a satiated fiend.

Her torso was covered by a t-shirt. Otherwise, her gilded marks would be showing.

“Lady of Lust,” the fiend said to Natalya, smiling with challenge.

Red light spilled over the floor as Natalya’s eyes flared with scarlet fury. “Lady of Envy.”