Page 21 of Wicked Salvation

His arousal ispalpable. I can feel the bulge against my bare core. Yet he looks like he’s about to fall asleep.

“That’s it?”

He cracks open an eye. “That’s what?”

“We’re not going to do more?”

Another laugh. “Not tonight,” he says. “You looked like you were having a seizure, Edie. Fromoneorgasm. You’re not ready for us to have sex.”

“What?”

“Yes,” he says. “Now shut up and get some sleep.” He flexes one of his hands, and somehow I end up beside him, curled against his hard body. “I’m trying to be a gentleman,” he mutters. “But the more you talk, the more you’re making me rethink not fucking you until you don’t remember who you are.”

Oh.

I close my eyes.

Soon, I drift away into the most peaceful sleep I’ve had since the funeral.

V

SILAS

My dorm room is silent, save for the scratch of my pen against paper.

Cedric is away at class—this is one of the few times I have time to myself, to do whatever I want. I have no real reason to be studying, but I do it anyway.

It’s not because I care.

I could pass thatPoisson and Binomial Distributionspaper half asleep.To be honest, I’m doing it to keep my mind from spiralling—from picturing her, from thinking about the way she looked at me at the funeral when I broke up her little chit-chat with Lucian, even her hesitancy by the lake, even though I ultimately got what I wanted.

“She is slipping away from you.”

The Spirit’s voice is in my head.

I’ve done everything that The Spirit’s said, yet it demands more—more blood, more sacrifices,more worship. I root my fingers in my hair, the pinch on my scalp grounding me just enough. I’m losing control.

“Bring her to me.”

The lamp flickers violently as the words course through my mind. I could. But I’m already on thin ice with Eden. I needher to believe I’ve changed. At least until we walk down the aisle together as Lord and Lady Peregrine-Ashford. She woke up during the last ritual.

“She has to accept you for who you are.”

She had a meltdown because I drew a pentagram on her chest. I can force her down the aisle. I can break her into submission. I can ruin her, easily. But the more I think about Eden, the more I want her to be willing, or at least make it seem like she has a choice.

Yes, she’s mine.

But I need her to want her to be mine, as well.

“When did you get so pathetic?”

The lamp goes out in a buzz of static.

Picking my phone up off the table beside me and type out a text.

I’m desperate to see you. The conservatory tonight?

No.I delete the message.Desperate?That doesn’t sound right. Even though I am. I can’t let her know that, though. It doesn’t serve my purpose.