Page 129 of Taken By Shadows

The real question was, did I have a choice? Did I ever have a choice? Not because I’d paid Eryk’s price blindly. But because I knew deep down, to the stitching of my soul, that I couldn’t risk Kaed’s pain again. I couldn’t risk Eryk withdrawing his support.

Iron settled beneath my skin, and my fingers clenched until the knuckles were white. “Alright.” My shoulders knotted into a rampart around me.

Eryk’s eyes brightened. He took my hand again. “Not here,” he said, escorting me along an avenue with trees that broke the stone that held their roots.

Eryk led us to a beautiful bench beneath a hawthorn tree, overlooking the bay. The blossoms were wide and lazy in the afternoon sun.

It was pretty here. And there was no one around to see us.

“It’s just a kiss.” He’d sprawled until his frame felt too large for the bench.

It was just a kiss.

And Eryk was handsome.

And Kaed wasn’t my betrothed. He was my kidnapper. My domineering protector.

Eryk’s hand was soft as it cradled my neck. His hands didn’t drift or wander as he coaxed me to lean into him.

My blood rushed everywhere in my body. Adrenaline, not excitement. It had the effect Eryk wanted, though, because he grinned at my reaction, mistaking my flush for heat, not the blood trying to burst from me as my heart thundered.

“Just a kiss,” he whispered again.

“Just a kiss,” I echoed as I struggled with the words.

And I could only think of Kaed as Eryk’s lips met mine.

It was nothing like I expected. It was everything a kiss should be. Tender, passionate. A little probing as he pushed the confines of my mouth. His lips parted, and his tongue was wet and explored anything it could find.

But it felt like nothing I wanted.

It was cold. A metallic taste of iron stained his tongue as it moved. His lips smacked as he kept taking from mine.

Kissing Bray had felt wrong after I was honest with myself; kissing your friend and finding that’s all they were was an awkward thing once you disentangled.

But this felt entirely different. Devoid of compassion.

This had been Eryk’s price. His price for Kaed’s freedom.

And I had just paid it.

Chapter forty

Iwasn’t sure how I felt inside. Or outside.

My lips tasted like Eryk. It was all over me. Something tangy clawing from my lips to my throat.

But I didn’t dare wipe my mouth dry when he’d released me from the kiss.

He smiled, triumph stretching his lips thin and sharp.

I had walked right into this, whatever it was. I had walked into a game I didn’t know Eryk was even playing. I had been naive to think he was just being helpful. Even if there was to be a price, I didn’t think I could have ever surmised he would actually ask to kiss me. To him, I was still Kaed’s intended.

And he didn’t care.

Eryk had accompanied me to the Alabaster Palace in silence. But there was a thrum of energy from him that snapped at the space between us. I didn’t need to look at his face to know there was still a grin there.

My skin crawled and itched until I closed the front door behind me. It was cooler inside the foyer, but my body felt like it wanted to get rid of its confines. Fisting my fingers into my hair, I pulled until my scalp burned. What was Eryk doing? I knew he’d been more than friendly from the start. But this … this was something else. This was more than just kissing me. And he’d backed me into a corner to take it. Whatever it was.