I swallowed.
“Okay,” I muttered, fingers tightening around the empty vial.“So… plan B?”
Chapter Seventeen
Theblackshadowdidn’tdissipate.
It condensed.
One second it was smoke and consuming darkness.The next, it stepped free of itself—solid, whole, unmistakably male.
My breath caught.
Garrat.
He looked exactly as he had at the antique shop—tall and broad-shouldered, built like violence wrapped in silk.
Ancient.Appraising.Hungry.
And then he smiled.
That same slow, precise, calculated smile.
Like he knew exactly what that smile would do to me.
“Oh.”
The word slipped out before I could stop it.
Heat bloomed low in my belly—sharp, dangerous.My body went rigid with want, my pulse kicking hard as something tugged at me from the inside.The pull toward him was immediate.Unnatural.
Magic.
Voss swore and lunged into my line of sight, shoving me backward hard enough that I stumbled.His gun came up in the same motion, aimed dead-center at Garrat’s chest.
Owen grabbed my hand at the same time, yanking me back—
“Stay away from her,” Owen snarled.
Garrat laughed, low and rich.“The druid’s son.Still so protective.”
“Piper, look at me,” Owen said urgently, his hand gripping my arm.“Don’t let him in your head.”
But I couldn’t move.
My feet were rooted to the earth.My gaze locked on Garrat as if invisible threads had wrapped around my spine.
Like at the antique shop.
“We meet again,” Garrat said softly, his gaze burning into mine.“Though last time, the fairy queen interrupted our conversation.”
“You can’t have her,” Voss warned, gun still raised.
“Oh, I merely wish to speak with her,” Garrat said pleasantly.“I want to finish what we started.”
“You can’t.”
“Oh, yes, he can.”
