Page 69 of Traitor Witch

Chapter Eighteen

RYSEN

Our mate without her Solar robes is stunning.

It’s been four days of watching her flit around the ship, brewing her potions to fix Val’s hair and enchanting barrels to keep food fresh. Her new outfits display so much more skin, and I want to believe it’s a good thing that she’s growing beyond the constraints of her Solar lifestyle.

But she’s so fucking tempting.

Every time she’s in the same room, my eyes are magnetised to her throat. Her old robes concealed the slender column and its delicate veins. But stupid Cas bought her clothes that constantly entice, and she’s started wearing her hair up.

So I notice when the mark of my old bite disappears.

Now all I can think of is stamping my claim back on her skin.

For someone who’s spent as long as I have learning to control my bloodlust, it’s unnerving. Usually, I only have thisproblem around humans. Staying aboard a ship full of immortals has made my life easier, their blood holds only a fraction of the appeal thanks to the immortality which taints it. I only have to deal with the temptation when I go ashore.

But Nilsa’s blood is a thousand times richer than a human’s. A thousand times more tempting just because it’s hers.

It would be so easy to kill her. Witches are such fragile immortals, and Solars are life-worshipping pacifists at the best of times.

Would she even try to save herself if I got too rough?

Would I even notice until it was too late?

I glower at the mug of blood as my thoughts turn even darker. Memories of how fast she fled after the last time I fed on her play on repeat in my mind.

The old me would have chased her through the ship until we’d both had our fill of feeding and fucking.

The metal mug crumples in my hand. The blood spills across the deck.

Fuck.

The temptation to lick my hand is there. Those droplets are running toward the floor where they’ll be wasted.

“I’m not a savage,” I mutter, hurling the cup over the side.

I won’t go back to who I was.

I have to stop thinking about Nilsa and blood.

Goddess, I wish I’d never tasted her.

“Did the blood offend you?” Val’s words are quiet, his stance unthreatening as he steps up beside me.

I glower at him. “Now is not the night for your games, Valorean.”

“You’ve come up here to escape the witch,” he guesses. “She doesn’t come on deck, does she?”

We’ve all noticed, of course we have.

At first, I thought it was because Val’s always up here, but Nilsa won’t even come up here when Val’s haunting the galley.

She’s afraid of the ocean.

I haven’t voiced my suspicion. Partly because she’ll never admit that I’m right, but also because it will drive Cas insane if I am.

His beast wants to meet Nilsa so badly, and I’m not sure he’ll take the rejection well.