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Neifion. I couldn’t breathe.
The empress dropped my stone and pulverized it with another rock. As she ground the last link to my dragon’s spirit into the abyss, I prayed she would cut out my heart…
As the dream released me from Caedryn’s point of view, I jerked, hyperventilating. “Caedryn. Caedryn. Oh please. Oh please. Oh please.” I clutched his shoulders.
He crushed me to himself, rocking slightly. “Niawen. I’m here. You had to see. You had to see.”
Tears streamed down his face, but he didn’t wipe them off as he swiped mine away.
How could he live with the horrors every night? My wrists burned as my grip intensified.
“I need to show you one more,” he said. “An earlier memory.”
“Oh, no. No.”
“You must understand. I can’t ask you to make any further commitments with me if you don’t see this next one.”
I tilted my face to his. His brows were crooked with worry. His eyes were sorrowful. He didn’t like showing me his nightmares one bit, but he wanted me to understand.
“Promise me that after I show you this memory, you’ll let me explain,” he said. “Don’t run from me. Don’t cower.”
“Show me.” I tucked into his chest and shut my eyes as I saw through Caedryn’s mind once more…
She shouldn’t have reached for me. I should have left her to deal with her grief alone. Too late I realized we were in each other’s arms. I brushed Empress Rhianu’s red hair back, looking into her deeply brown eyes, trying to understand her need.
“Make me forget,” she whispered.
I didn’t hesitate. My lips dropped onto hers—her plump, pursed lips. I never wanted to taste anything else. Let her be my sole sustenance for eternity. Please. Nothing else.
Apparently my kiss unchained a hungry demon. The empress clawed at me with ferocity, ripping and pulling at my clothing.
And without meaning for a kiss to progress in such a heated fashion, I found myself at her mercy.
I was powerless.
As I met her advances, a blistering drive tore through me. I wanted her to consume me. We would consume each other until nothing remained. Not even the dust of the earth.
I had to either draw back or allow my inner dragon to emerge.
I had no control.
She took my control and shredded it into pieces that fit through a needle’s eye.
A beast was born.
A demon and beast devouring the flesh of one another…
More than just the one encounter accosted me. Each intimate detail Caedryn showed me was graphic. Desperate. His love was never slow or purposeful. It was a fury. Explosive. Overwhelming. And the more Caedryn and the empress joined in their fury, the more he was never satisfied. He couldn’t stop. He could not stop thinking about her every waking second.
He was obsessed.
Possessed.
By her.
I didn’t react. I wouldn’t react. I steadied my breathing. Whereas I had cried for Neifion and the trauma he and Caedryn experienced—to the point that my eyes were still swollen and my nose congested—I purposely numbed myself to the images Caedryn had shown me of himself and the empress.
I should have been disgusted that he revealed his indiscretions to me. Intimacy between two people shouldn’t be shared with others. What I wanted to understand was why these caused nightmares.
