Page 77 of Satanic Shadow

“That’s what I said.”

His snappy tone should irk me, but I’m too stunned by my hands to give him some sort of retort or ask what his problem is.

Curse?

My heart beats hard in my chest, my breathing uneven. “I was cursed?”

“Very much so,” he says blankly.

“By who?” I ask, confused.

“That seems to have been erased from your memory, mortal. What is the point in you being here if someone can infiltrate your mind so easily?”

Still, he doesn’t turn around. He cracks his neck to the side, shoulders tensing even more.

“Weak and useless.”

I want to slap him. “That’s unnecessary. If I’m so useless and weak, why try to remove the curse? Why not let it do its job?”

A chuckle—a deep, low vibrating laugh that makes me shiver. “I ask myself the same question, and still, I fail to find an answer.”

How did I even get here?

I remember going to my dorm last night and… I went to sleep. Right? I got into the bathtub, read a book, and slipped into bed. I remember. I have a full memory of the sequence of last night’s events.

Right after he fingered me on the floor of the ballroom.

I close my mind off in a way I didn’t know I could. He doesn’t need to know that those images keep flying through my mind. That Iwantto see them.

I don’t like Dane Dalton, but that doesn’t mean I can’t want him.

Frustratingly so.

As much as being in his vicinity both annoys me and livens me up, I want to go back to my room and get away from him while I’m like this.

Instead of walking over and turning him around, then sinking to my knees like I want to, I ask, “Did you kidnap me again?”

He ignores me, but his shoulders are still tense as he fists his hands in his pockets.

“You need to stop doing that, if so. As much as I’m flattered you want to spend time with me and see me in your bed, I’m not interested. So if you could rein in the creepiness and go back to pretending I’m shit on the bottom of your shoes, that’d be great.”

I kick off the heavy blanket and get to my feet. His shirt reached my knees before, but now it’s higher up my thighs.

My brows pull together. “Why am I wearing your clothes?” I don’t ask him why I have no underwear on. My pussy is bare beneath the fabric. My breasts are free, my nipples rubbing against the material. “Why am I here?” I ask when he doesn’t respond. “Dane?”

“Don’t say my name,” he says quietly, but I can tell the words are escaping through gritting teeth. “Don’t even speak, mortal.”

I cross my arms. “What is going on?”

He’s always spoken to me like shit, but he’s acting like I cut off his balls and locked them in a jar somewhere far from him. Maybe I will, just to teach him a lesson. I’m sure there’s a witch in this school with the magic to do so.

His shirt smells of musk and spice, a combination I had no idea I’d crave when not around him, and I fasten the top twobuttons to cover my cleavage. The idea that he stripped me shouldn’t heat my skin, but it does.

My feet are cold against the dark wooden flooring as I start to close the distance he’s put between us. “Hello?”

I walk into an invisible wall. “I said shut up.”

“Screw you. You can’t kidnap me and take my clothes. There are boundaries, Dane. Learn them.”