She scoffed, covering herself as best she could with her hands. “Desire?Is that what you thought this was? My mind was completely fractured from last night. You’re just a skilled predator who sensed my weakness and took advantage. I was blind not to see it.”
His breathing became impossibly still, his expression entirely violent.
“You’re a monster masquerading as something harmless. You’re no different than...” Her words died as the room went eerily quiet.
Theo’s eyes were fading into blackness, the demon nightmare inside him erupting.
His dark horns emerged. Razor-sharp fangs dipped down as claws extended from his fingertips. In one massive motion his eagle wings spread behind his back, fluttering alive. The furniture shook, small rocks came crumbling down from the ceiling, the whole realm quaked as he bellowed.
Helaina screamed, stumbling backward, the flurries of dust sticking to her wet hair. She tried to remind her primal fear his powers couldn’t hurt her, he had said it himself. No, not his powers, but that massive demon body. Her lungs burned at the memory of how he’d pinned her to the wall by the throat, his fingers squeezing within an inch of suffocation.
Run.
She bolted for the door, ripped it open, then darted into the hallway. She heard another roar as she clung to the wall, making her way to her room, feeling too exposed. Inside, she slammed the door, knowing he could barge through it effortlessly. She lowered her bare body to the ground, shaking, keeping her back flush to the wood, and waited.
Waited as the shaking in the ground began to still.
She listened to footsteps in the hall. Voices calling for their captain.
She stumbled to her dresser and donned an oversized tunic. Then she crawled into bed, curled up, and closed her eyes tight, trying to convince herself nothing had happened. That she hadn’t wanted him. That she wasn’t the type of person to offer a silver-tongued beast her virtue. Not again.
Nothing happened. Nothing happened. Nothing happened.
She repeated the phrase until sleep finally claimed her.
CHAPTERFORTY-FOUR
You’re such a fucking fool.
To think anyone could be meant for him, that anyone could look past that incubus power inside. He had lost himself in the pleasure of her touch. She had pushed him to give what he wasn’t sure she was ready to take.
She called him a predator.
He had let the monster loose. He would always be that. Doomed to roam this realm alone for an eternity. He didn’t know why he allowed himself to hope with her. That the inner pull inside him could possibly be...
No, it couldn’t, it could never, not for him.
He had opened himself up to the idea of an alternate future. That his infinite time here could be different—forever changed with her.
What a foolish fucking sentiment.
“Captain! Are we under attack?”
Armored bodies were crowding his doorway.
He took a breath and returned to his aesthetically pleasing body. The body she had accepted. He was fully naked before his soldiers. He didn’t care.
“No, just lost control. Nowleave.” He let his eyes flash ominous obsidian in warning.
They left him without another word, and he closed the door behind them.
His fists clenched at his sides, and he let out a raspy howl. He struck the jagged rock beside his bed, creating a hole. Dust cascaded down onto his pillows.
He stood there, chest heaving.
No matter the good he did or the protection he provided, he couldn’t change the fact that he was a monster. A soul possessing such wickedness embedded so deeply that no amount of atonement would ever undo it.
He collapsed to his knees.
