Page 49 of My Dark Obsession

‘Death-Mortem’

Amaya

“Hello Amaya.” The deep voice was calm, smooth and utterly terrifying. Everything within me froze. I couldn't move an inch as an ice-like coldness spread over me. The dingy basement became so cold, the dripping, dirty window cracked from the change in temperature.

My black mist was a person, a man.

It had followed me everywhere the second I had landed in Wisteria.

I couldn't form words; my lips were paralysed as was my body.

Lifting its black-gloved hands, the cloaked man lifted the hood from its head revealing hair as dark as night, long and silky-smooth down to his broad shoulders, and eyes so black and cold, I shuddered. His pale face was so utterly handsome I swallowed thickly, even as I internally panicked.

Something about this man made me fear...well fear . I was afraid for myself for the first time in my life. I had always enjoyed the cold, the emptiness that sometimes clenched my stomach, but this feeling was like I was being consumed.

“I’ve been patient. So very patient, waiting for you to finally let go." The man calmly and slowly turned to look down at Lynal, still unconscious and covered in his own blood on the floor.

“I’ve had enough of waiting. Turns out I’m not a patient man.” Chuckling to himself, he looked back to me. His black eyes stared into my own as if he could see into my soul.

“Who are you?” I managed to ask. My heart pounded in my ears making it hard to concentrate.

Something about this man was terrifying.

He smiled wide at me, flashing perfectly white straight teeth.

He waved his hand in front of him and his cloak disappeared in a puff of black shimmering mist, leaving him stood in a black suit and shirt so dark he would be invisible to the eye had the room been in its usual darkness.

He was so damn handsome it should have been illegal.

He radiated power and strength like nothing I had experienced before.

“I am your king. Your Circle Mate.”

No. No not happening. Another Mate? A King? Whereas I felt that instant connection to the others even if they were dicks to start with, this man gave me nothing but fear: an unwelcome cold terror that still held me frozen to the stairs.

“No,” I squeezed out, unable to hold in the tremor of fear from my voice. I didn't want this.

I just wanted to be with my boys. But Rí and Ziel...could I leave them?

“Yes.” Kneeling down next to Elfyn, he ran a pale finger down his bruised cheek.

“Don't touch him,” I snapped, finally being able to move. I stepped down the rickety stairs, glaring at this stranger with a hatred I had only known for my abusers.

Tutting he stood back up, brushed invisible lint from his suit jacket and aimed those cold black eyes my way.

“Get out,” I bit out, as I stepped away from the stairs, gathering strength from the need to get him away from my boy.

He stared at me, the silence so loud I regretted my words. Who was this man, so cold and terrifying? So much power radiated from him, my own magic practically hid in fear.

“Who are you?” I asked firmly, trying but utterly failing to hide the shiver his stare gave me.

“Your king.” He answered with no emotion. Like that gave me any answers. I hated men that thought small answers were real answers.

“You said that. What king exactly? Why have you been following me?” I gave him my own emotionless mask, the one I had used my entire life, the one I permanently used, until Rí and Ziel. Until my Mates.

Tutting at me again as if I was a spoiled child, he circled me slowly, walking with a grace so perfect, he practically glided.

His strong smell of ice and something I couldn't quite figure out filled my nose.

Not once did he remove his cold stare from my face.

He looked at me with such possession and ownership.

“I am your king. Your Mate,” he said stopping behind me. I froze once more as fear plummeted my heart, my chest ice cold as my stomach cramped with such a force my knees wanted to buckle.

One pale, ice-cold finger slid my long hair away from my neck as he leaned down and slowly inhaled before whispering into my ear.

“I own you. You are mine. I allow the others their share in you but ultimately, you are mine .” He walked back round so he stood in front of me. I stared at his suited chest, unable to look him in the eyes.

“I -No one owns me,” I whispered, barely audible to human ears. But this man wasn't a human- no he was something else entirely.

“Your curse, your poison, your darkness, your power . I. Own. It. All.”

Each word was spoken with such firmness as he used one hand to open the buttons of his suit jacket. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a black chain, thin and sparkling bright, even in the dull lighting of the basement.

My mark had not itched once, hadn't screamed for its Circle Mate. Not once had I felt its rope swirl in happiness at being found.

This man was not my Mate. And he certainly did not own me. Unclenching my teeth and watching the chain wearily, I spoke with my own firmness, surprising myself at being able to not sound like a weak little child.

“You are not my Mate. And no one will ever own me. ”

I begged my magic to listen to me, begged it to rear its ugly head and protect me from this man, because I suddenly realised one thing: I didn’t want to die.

Not yet. I still craved the silence it would provide me, but I had already lost my boys.

Yes, I wanted to be with them; I wanted to surround myself in their souls, but I had Rí and Ziel, I had their marks, their protection, their obsession.

The stranger chuckled once more, causing chills to spread along my arms. That was not a happy sound. That was a pissed off laugh.

Shit.

“Oh I own more than you think Little Witch. I not only own you, but your Mates, your precious Dark Mountain and the entirety of Wisteria. I am not just your king, but the entire damned universe’s.

” He wrapped the chain around both his hands as he spoke, pulling it tight with each twist of his hand.

“I allow people to live and die as I wish.

I allow them to have Wisteria and their little magic tricks.

After all, this place and Wisteria is just a world and you're just living in it. Because I ALLOW it!” He snapped the chain tight one last time before wrapping it around my throat before I could even blink.

Its tight coldness pressed against my neck, I expected to panic and struggle to breathe, but instead of choking me, it wrapped around my neck like a necklace.

“A gift, Amaya. For my Mate, my wife, my Queen. ” He smiled wide, his white teeth flashing at me.

He shrugged on his cloak that appeared in his black mist.I was speechless.

Unable to form words or argue back. This man was insane.

He was utterly terrifying and probably going to kill me and everyone I now called mine.

So why did the sick, unwell part of me preen at the chain now around my throat?

A crack of magic sounded in the room as a slit of blurry water drops appeared in the air above the pool of blood at our feet.

“It seems our Circle is attempting to get to you.”

He walked to Lynal laying on the floor as he started to stir, a groan of pain escaping him as he tried to open his swollen eyes.

Satisfaction coursed through my body at the mess of him.

I did that.

Fucking prick.

“I will deal with this…”He curled his lip in disgust. “Peasant in a way that I see fit.”

Frowning, I managed to mutter, “He’s mine to punish.”

The stranger tutted at me again. “Yes, but you are mine. ”

He nodded to Ravioli still sat in the corner; at his nod, the crow flew over and clung his talons to my shoulder.

Did he know my Ravioli?

“Enjoy my gift.”

My hand reached up to brush my fingers over the chain, and he threw his head back in a laugh.

“Not the chain, my Queen.”

Another crack filled the basement as Ziel jumped through the crack of a portal, landing smoothly on his feet, his knees bent and vines out at the ready for attack.

His skeleton head swung to me, before his skin appeared, and grinned at me.

The grin quickly slipped from his perfect face as his green eyes then landed on the stranger.

His skin paled, and eyes widened in utter shock as he fell to his knees and pressed his head to the sticky concrete.

He was…bowing?

The stranger chuckled once more before he disappeared in a puff of black mist, taking Lynal’s body with him.I crashed to the floor in shock or was that fear? I didn’t fucking know.

I looked to Elfyn’s body and stared at him once more.The distant murmur of my name was being called, but I couldn’t look away. He was truly gone. And his twin wasn’t even with him.

“Amaya!” I blinked Ziel into focus as he slapped my cheek with force. The sting was a welcome feeling to the numb that was quickly building within me.The numb was something I could deal with, a familiar feeling I wanted to remember but couldn’t.

“We have to go back through. Rí and Cole should have been through by now.” I nodded, but continued to stare at Elfyn’s body, his little blond curls, his now colourless lips.

Ziel looked back at him, before reaching over and lifting his body into his arms cradling him close.

“Come on.” He reached out one hand; I looked to it.

I saw his unmarked smooth skin, no vines, no bones.

Just skin.My Mate, Ziel. I gripped it and allowed him to pull me to my feet.

Wrapping his arm around my waist, and cradling Elfyn in his other arm, we shoved through the portal.

There was no pain, no suffocation as we were forced through the barriers of the cracked portal.

Landing on our feet, I was pulled into huge arms and lifted from my feet. Rí held me tightly, muttering soft comforting things in my ear. I didn’t hear him. I pulled away and as he gently lowered me to my feet, Ziel lay Elfyn’s body down on the sand outside the crumbled shack.

“Fuck...fuck is that...” Rí rumbled behind me as I knelt to my boy, stroking back his hair once more. I had no words. I had no anger.

I was empty.

“We couldn’t go through, after you and the bird, it zapped at us.” Cole spoke to Ziel as he shifted on his feet. Cole was uneasy and most probably waiting for my reprimand. There wasn’t one.

Because I was empty.

“I don’t know what happened. He was there. Fuck he was there.” Pulling a Mayfeaver from his jacket Ziel lit it up with shaking hands and drew in deeply. I looked to him as he knelt to the other side of Elfyn.

“Who? You bowed to him. Who was he?” I muttered. I was unable to put any firmness in my voice. Ziel knew who that man was. He’d also been afraid, he’d bowed, and I’d seen him tremble.

Who was that man that made my power hide and Ziel tremble in fear?

Who was he that he made me fear, fear?

Rí crouched down beside me and smoothed my hair, Cole stood with his arms crossed, obviously unsure where he stood with me.Ziel looked me in the eyes as he drew in deeply, holding the drug within his lungs before releasing it in a shaky exhale.

“Death. That was Death. ”

To be continued.