Midnight’s face falls.“Why?”Deep hues of red and rose-pink rise from the collar of her jacket, up her neck and over her cheeks.
“You force me to reap you, unleash a fucking angel, cause a tear in the Veil greater than any in history, then fucking vanish into the underworld.And the first thing you say is ‘why?’”
Her shoulders are heaving.
Not forgiven me then, that much is clear.Though what is also clear is that she survived but is definitely not okay.
“Why what, Lucy?Why did you abuse our deal and force me to my knees to reap you?Or did you mean why was there a Veil tear?Hmm?Because I’m sure as shit you can’t possibly mean ‘why did we come for you…’”
I open my mouth to respond, because of course, that was exactly what I was going to ask, but by the way her whole body is taut and vibrating, that would not be a helpful thing to add.
My runes are glowing so bright that they’re drawing attention from the shades lingering in the tower grounds.We need to get inside, hide away from the wraiths.And I need to calm down before I leak power again.
“We should talk,” I say.
“You think?”Midnight says and slams the door shut.
16
Midnight
Istride over to her, reach for her chin and pull her to me.I grip hard, but run a soft thumb over her lips, parting them and brushing her tongue.
She lets a slip of breath escape, her chest heaving and eyes wide.
“I am fucking livid,” I growl.
I could reap her all over again, this time out of fury and fire and the agony she’s buried in the valves of my heart.
How could she?And yet, she’s standing here, far too alive.Far too powerful.That’s what Ignatius said… she’s unrestrained power now.A bomb waiting to go off.
A bomb, that no matter how angry I am, I still want to play with.
Fuck into submission.
Ruin for the simple pleasure of vengeance, because she broke me.
Bastien coughs in the frame of the door.
From the corner of my eye, I see Lex nudge him in his ribs then hook her hand around his arm and tug him out of the door.
“We’ll give you a minute,” she says and scoops Mortem up into her arms.
“Don’t go far,” I say through gritted teeth as she closes the door.
“Da—” Lucy starts.But I don’t want to hear it.I slide my thumb over her tongue, cutting her off and making her gag on it.
“No.”
“Hnngn mm—” she tries to talk around my thumb, but I slide it in deeper until she gags.She yanks her head away, removing my thumb.
“We should talk…” she says.
“No.You don’t get to talk right now.You forced me to kill you.”
“I’m not dead, Midnight.”
“That much is fucking clear,” I bark, “but you didn’t know that would be the case.”
