Finally, fear brimmed in the goblin’s big eyes. Despite her claim that she wouldn’t abandon Velle, she inched toward the exit.
“Loving her brother Mateo wasn’t easy either.” Though she whispered the words, Velle’s eyes cleared. The goblin seemed not to notice. “Trouble follows them everywhere, Sora especially. Followed. Mateo is gone now. You killed him.”
“I didn’t kill him,” Baz said, his voice so deep and gruff he doubted she’d believe him.
“Sänglures lie all the time.”
“You lie too.”
Again she arched her brow. “I do what I must to protect Soravelle. I won’t apologize for that.”
“Apparently, you won’t apologize for anything, not even breaking into my prison to free my prisoner.”
Hair a dark halo around her head, Velle growled, sounding more like a jagune than a woman.
Studying her, Baz asked the goblin, “Would she do the same for you? Sacrifice herself to protect you?”
Damn his curiosity. What he should be doing is punishing the goblin for being a subversive brat, and punishing the woman for attempting to murder him, when he’d done nothing to harm her or her brother.
“Yes.”
“You think a sänglure, a royal one no less, an heir to an entire territory … would die for a goblin?”
“Not for any goblin, but for me, yes, I do.”
When Marina looked at Velle this time, his prisoner didn’t meet her eyes, too busy devouring him with her gaze, panting hungrily, straining against her fetters. The goblin’s stern features melted into open affection.
“That’s…” Unusual, he almost said. Forbidden. Punishable by death to the goblin for overstepping the bounds of her servant class.
Soravelle scented the cold air. Mouth open in a low snarl, she lunged for him. The chain tugged her back by the shackle binding her ankle, and she landed on her knees. The instant her feet were under her again, she stretched for him again.
Here was the monster—a monster he’d unleashed.
A monster he wanted. Fuck, no. A monster he needed, Fuerin help him.
His jaw so tight his teeth ground against each other, he turned one last time toward the goblin. With a calm he was far from feeling, he said, “You will get out now, and if you don’t, I will personally make sure you live to regret it before you die a painful, awful death.”
Whatever she saw in his face made her gulp, her throat bobbing in her gangly neck.
“Go. Now.”
Nodding, she cast a final glance at Velle and bolted through the door, taking her lumoons with her. Her footfalls padded rapidly down the hallway.
He stalked to the door, pushed it shut, and welcomed the total darkness.
He didn’t need light to find what was his. His monster thrived in darkness.
She croaked a needy cry that awakened every nerve in his body, had his cock straining against his pants. Every part of him seemed to recognize her, to feel itself reflected in her.
Her darkness called to his.
He should have wrested the door open and fled, following in the goblin’s footsteps.
Instead, he prowled toward her, rumbling a deep, “Are you ready to feed, my dove?”
Dove, when he already knew her to be a vicious viper.
A strangled whimper that sounded like surrender burbled up her throat.
