Shadows kissed her, dancing gently just out of touching range, scraping the fine hairs on her face. If this were a different situation, she would have enjoyed being tied down, but this really, truly, sucked.
“I said, look at me.” The shifter’s voice was harsher this time, commanding. Another spike of fear swept through her, sending a prickling pain skittering across her skin at the power in his voice. Who was this man? Even for a shifter, he seemed to wield a crackling power that she couldn’t turn away from. The shadows tilted her chin up, forcing her to once again look him in the eye. The moment their eyes met, the slits dilated, making him seem more human. She wanted to turn away, close her eyes, but the shadows held steady.
“Good girl.” Features softening, his mouth forming into a lazy smile. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
A sick shiver twisted through her at his words of praise. It disturbed her more than anything had so far. Another sob escaped. He rolled his eyes. “Good god, witch, pull yourself together,” he said, “I’m not going to kill you—yet.”
Yet. Yet! As if that were comforting! Somehow, though, she found the strength to hold her dignity together, which was already abysmal, and sucked the tears back into her eyeballs.
Settling on the floor across from her, he was still somehow taller than her, so she had to look up just to meet his eyes. The shifter leaned back on his hands, his tail flicking against the wooden floor in an irritated manner, cat ears twitching alongside it. For some weird reason, he had human ears too. Avery didn’t think that this was the appropriate time to ask about it, though.
“Please release me from these…uh…things.” The shadows wriggled around her, caressing but holding firm.
“I don’t trust witches.”
She looked down at the many shadow ties that latched her to the bed. “Evidently,” she said, sarcasm dripping from her tongue.
“Now,” he began. “You’re going to break the bond, or whatever the fuck you’ve done between us, little witch.” His tongue played with his fangs, as if he were enjoying this.
She kept her mouth shut. As far as she knew, a bond between a familiar and its witch was permanent. But Felix was no familiar.
“And if I refuse?” The question emerged far more vulnerable than she intended.
“Then I’ll kill you,” he said with no hesitation, as if stating a simple fact.
If even a lashing of defiance remained, it was now thoroughly doused by the reality in which she found herself. Panic clawed at her, threatening to consume her. She swallowed hard, as if to physically force it down. She couldn’t die. She had so much to live for. Well, that part was not true. She had very little to live for, actually. Only reading as many fanfics as she could, leaving the island, and god dammit, she wouldn’t let a shifter take that away from her.
The shadows loosened slightly around the back of her hands. Enough that she could move them. She tested the strength ofthe tendrils. He didn’t seem to notice as she wriggled her hands behind her back.
A plan. She needed a plan.
“I will only help you if you unbind me first, shifter.”
He just laughed. Unfortunately for her, it was a nice laugh. What would she even do if he let her go? What sheshoulddo is turn him in. That meant that she would turn herself in, too. And only the goddess knew what they would do with such a filthy traitor. The dungeons, perhaps? Public stoning? Behavioral euthanasia? So many creative ways to die.
This was truly a clusterfuck. How had she found herself here? How would she find her way out of this? If he let her live, how the hell was she going to first of all hide this shifter, second of all unbind him, and third and most impossible get him off the island when she herself hadn’t managed to do that? Questions assaulted her mind, with no answers in sight.
“Let me go.” She wriggled against the holds, trying her hardest to escape them. It was futile.
Felix rose high above her. One of his shadows moved, tangling between her hair, almost as if it was brushing through the strands with its tendrils. Gentle at first, testing. Then he fisted her hair and yanked. She cried out from the sudden pain, her head snapping back, though he was careful not to break her neck. As if that made it better somehow. A smile curved his lips as he held her head inches from his, forcing her to meet his eyes.
“I don’t take orders from a witch,” he spat out, his voice deeper and more demonic than before. His eyes darkened, and more tendrils raced from his body. She was covered in them now, these writhing beings. His feral smile widened, pleased by their doing. She didn’t know this shifter, but something was happening within him. Like he was losing control. Shadows tightened against her flesh.
“Mine.”A demonic voice bled into her mind.
Dear fucking goddess. He was going to kill her. He was turning into a monster and was going to kill her. More shadows curved around them both like a dark cocoon; his eyes blazed brightly. One slipped around her neck.
“Felix?” She squeezed out, wasting a precious breath. But they didn’t give, only compressing her until she thought a bone might snap.
Then all at once, his shadows faltered, eyelids rapidly blinking before he fell on the floor with a thump, making far more noise than she would like. Did he just pass out?
“Felix,” she hissed at him, flicking his nose to make sure he wasn’t playing with her.
The goddess truly hated her.
She needed time. Time to figure this out. Not only had the shadows that held her dissipated, but the ones that had made up his pants had gone too. Leaving him not only passed out, but naked. It was really hard not to look at the impressive length of him.
This was good, she told herself. If she locked him in the bathroom and tied him up—not her usual style, but in her defense, he had done it first with his weird shadow creatures. It would give her time.
