Page 71 of Princess of Bael

I fought it at every turn.

I sensed he did as well.

But something had shifted between us these last few days, slowly edging us toward this intense moment where it just… snapped into place. No sound. No physical connection. However, I felt itclickinside me. Some final link securing us together once more.

His burning gaze told me he’d experienced it, too.

The fiery energy sizzled and demanded we indulge in the dark impulse throbbing between us, drawing a moan from my throat.Oh, this is bad…His magnetic pull reminded me of an Incubus, wrapping around my throat like a noose and imploring me to kneel. Supplicate.Beg.

What is happening to me?I marveled, my nipples hardening beneath my tank top.I feel… I feel… so hot. So… in need.

“Kayla,” he growled, his palms gripping the island to hold him back. “Knives.”

I didn’t understand.

Did he want to fight before we fucked? Because I would enjoy that.

Except the sensual spark in his gaze quickly hardened to murderous rage, drawing me out of the blissful haze and pulling my focus to the pulsating heat against my wrist.

My cuff.

It glowed with warning, detecting a spell I’d only just begun to understand.

Ezra reminded me of an Incubus because someone was using a lust bomb on us.

Similar to the venom explosion, only more deadly because it could distract and encumber us both.

I pulled up my runes, selecting my shield, and exhaled heavily as the potency of the charm dissipated. It wasn’t entirely gone, mostly because it’d only heightened a true lust that existed inside me, but it diminished it enough to allow me to think.

Ezra was still fighting the impulse, his defensive pose a beautiful display of strength and restraint that immediately appealed to me on a core level.

But I fought the attraction and focused on our surroundings, attempting to figure out what was happening.

However, Ezra grabbed me in the next second, drawing a scream from my throat as his control fractured.

Except a blast of heat sizzled over our heads, telling me he’d just saved me from being hit by something dangerous.

“Hold on,” he gritted out, his teleportation gift flaring to life.

I grabbed him, preparing to fly, when his wings caught fire, stirring a bellow of agony from his chest.What the fuck is going on?I demanded, glancing around me, trying to find the source of the attack.

Ezra released me, his sword appearing as he used it to block another wave of flames.

I followed the arc of the inferno to the Dargarians outside. There were three of them.

Fucking fire demons, I hissed.

I had no idea how they’d portaled here or why, but my wrist blared with warning that more were coming. Fromalldirections. Above. Below. To the sides. Their auras were everywhere, drowning us in a sea of sulfur and malicious intent.

I needed a weapon.Stat.

Ezra’s wings flared, the feathers sizzling in fiery torment.Why hasn’t he extinguished the inferno?I wondered, recalling the time I’d tried to hit him with a fireball—he’d smothered it before it’d even left my hand. Dargarian pyrokinetics were similar to my own; Ezra should have been able to handle it.

Yet the pungent stench of burning plumes added to the sulfuric air assaulting us from outside.

I shifted my focus to the kitchen, looking for something to put out the flames, when an explosion rocked the foundation outside.

Ezra cursed as my knees buckled, my sense of equilibrium flying over my head—literally.