Page 54 of Voices in the Stars (The Lost Witch #1)

That was all the warning I was given before he struck out.

His teeth sank into my neck as his arms kept me from falling.

The moment he started drinking my blood, I could feel the small traces of magic that had built back up get drained away once again.

Every time he drank from me, I felt paralyzed.

My body was trapped here as he ripped the magic out of my body.

I’d lost track of the days. There was no way of knowing when Atlas’ friends would be charging the city.

All I could think about was how every part of my body was hurting.

What I thought was daytime was filled with being beaten by Ivy until I collapsed, then my nights were filled with Atlas draining my blood until I passed out in his bed.

I felt like an idiot. All the fears I’d had throughout my life were coming back to bite me in the ass now.

So many days ago, I thought my biggest concern was losing myself in a marriage to Adrian.

Now, I’d lost the little pieces of myself I was just starting to learn about.

The man I cared about was watching me suffer every moment of each day I was here.

Every fear I had with Adrian had come true in the most warped form.

I couldn’t even find it in myself to hate Atlas.

This wasn’t truly his fault. If I let him come alone, he wouldn’t have become this twisted version of himself.

For a brief moment, I wondered if this was how my father felt, trapped as he watched my mother treat me horribly because he still loved her.

Was that what would happen to me? Would I slowly learn to accept this new Atlas and just stay by his side?

That’s where I was laying now. My eyes were still shut because I was certain he was in the room with me.

I woke up to the sound of his chair being moved.

If it was anyone else in his family, I would’ve been dragged downstairs by now.

Footsteps creaked around me. I tried to keep relaxed, but the way my heartbeat stuttered gave me away.

Something heavy was set on the nightstand near me.

The bed dipped as he sat next to me. I waited for him to say anything, but I was just met with silence.

“If you’re going to bite me, just get it over with,” I finally mumbled.

Atlas chuckled. “I was actually going to save that until later.”

“What do you want?” I grumbled, just wanting to go back to sleep.

There was another pause before he spoke again.

“Do you want anything from Kilrest? Eris and Ivy have left for the day, so they won’t bother you.”

“Is that why you’ve never left? It’s not like you’re exactly stopping anything,” I remarked. I couldn’t even pull a blanket over my head with how much pain my hands were in.

“I’m giving you a chance to rest. They don’t sleep like I do. They would keep you down there every moment of the day if I didn’t insist on having you in here.”

“Am I supposed to be thanking you right now?”

“I didn’t come in to fight with you. You haven’t eaten since you got here. I’m trying to be nice, so you don’t die on me.”

My laugh came out more like a hoarse gasp as my eyes cracked open. “Don’t hurt yourself trying so hard.”

Atlas said something else, but my attention was on the gold dagger sitting on the nightstand.

It was Sal’s dagger. I had no idea where Atlas found it.

There was no memory of him taking it from the cabin and yet, here it was.

I tried to keep my breathing even as I glanced between it and Atlas.

His back was to me, head turned as he looked out the one open window in this house.

I shifted, trying to raise myself up on my elbows. Pain radiated up my arms. My eyes slid closed for a moment as I tried to breathe through it.

“Actually,” I cut him off, trying hard to not sound out of breath, “I would love something from that bakery again.”

My teeth grinded together as I stretched my arm out, fingers barely able to wrap around the hilt. Tears trickled down my face as I slowly moved my arm back onto the bed.

“Of course. Do you have something specific in mind?” he asked.

Guilt started twisting in my stomach. Him being nice could be a sign that my Atlas was returning to me.

I clung to what Atlas told me to do if anything like this happened.

If I bite you, take that pretty little dagger of yours and run it through whatever is left of my heart.

This was exactly what he would have wanted.

I took a deep breath, remembering the way the man in the forest exploded into flames.

With a quick prayer to the gods that wouldn’t help again, I used all the force I had to grab the dagger.

A scream left me as I plunged it into his shoulder.

A yell left him. The blade was getting hotter as it stayed in him. I pulled it out, keeping ahold of it as I scrambled off the bed. He wasn’t reaching for the dagger like I expected. As I walked around him, he was clawing at his own face.

A gasp left me as I stopped moving. New tears stung the corners of my eyes. For the first time in several days, I was staring at his beautiful, brown eyes.