Page 97 of Taken By Shadows

Was that all a game to him? A demonstration of his power? His rules? If he knew I craved his body, maybe it was just his way of exerting his power over me. To tread so closely and pull back when I would have given in.

The balance between us was more complex now than it was between captive and captor.

He may have held the power over me by forcing me to be here. But ever since I’d released him from the Cage, there was a sense that I had taken a step towards equal footing with him.

And maybe that bothered him more than he was willing to admit.

I knew the line I was walking was dangerous—mostly for me.

But if I was going to be stuck in this city, there was less and less I could do to convince myself that I didn’t want him. It was an effort to fight that physical desire coiling low inside me.

Removing the context of how I had ended up wrapped up in his world, and the understanding that he had taken me, it was easy to see him as just wickedly attractive, seductive.

I knew I wanted to feel his lips press into mine. I wanted to feel his hands on me. To feel them grip me and bruise me until my breath came out hot and tangled. But my conscience, my sense of self-worth, warred with those thoughts. I should hate him. I should cocoon myself against him and build battlements to defend against him.

But I hadn’t.

I slipped behind the door and sank against it with a sigh. My limbs felt heavy as my thoughts wound up my insides to painful heights.

Unable to still the blood rushing around my body and between my legs, I paced. I had to move. I had to get out of here. I’d been kept in this stone city too long. My limbs ached as much as my core did now. And I needed to feel that wildness around me.

My hands balled into fists, and I kept pacing the small confining room.

There had to be some place I could slip off to. Just to unwind, to work off the heat in my bones. My muscles were snapping to unfurl, coiling into painful knots.

I had to get out, just for a little bit.

But my mind picked at the memories of the last time I had explored the city alone. A cold sweat formed at the nape of my neck at the memory.

This was different. And it would be a different outcome, I vowed. I just needed a little space from this damned palace. And Kaed.

This time would be different.

Damn his rules. I’d be fine.

Wandering thoughts stole my focus, and I found the memory of Kaed swiping that stray strand away far more interesting than anything else.

My feet slapped against the paved streets as I worked my way down the slopes of the city until the cloistering magnolia walls came into view.

The city gates were open for merchants and soldiers, traders and visitors. Guards didn’t bother checking the patrons who left through the large archway of the barbican. But as people tried to enter, they were stopped briefly, either handing over papers for inspection or a few coins if they failed to produce anything else.

I had pocketed a few gold adornments from the vanity before I left. I would have to hope that would be enough to buy my way back in.

Kaed had made it sound like there would be a dozen guards at every gate and outpost who would know me and search for me. But these guards looked like they hadn’t slept in two days and were less aware than a hibernating tortoise in its shell.

I pulled my hood up around my head and filed in behind the others passing out of the fortified gates.

A guard followed my steps, kicking up dust as I crossed past him. His look was more bored curiosity than suspicion, though. Like he’d been at his post too long and there was nothing to do but watch the faces blur together.

I turned to see the towering walls behind me. There was something so strange about actually just leaving this city I’d been kept in for too long. And I was just walking straight out of it.

I needed this. If I wasn’t going to get the release my body burned for, I would get the next best thing.

I’d made a bargain. But no matter the foundation it had been built on—or my current mood—I would stick to it. So this was an attempt at keeping that bargain by quelling the godsdamned stupid urges that were taking root inside me, not an escape attempt.

I wasn’t even really going that far. I just needed to be away from … people. Just one person, really.

There was no one on the verdant avenue before me—just a patchwork of leafy trees breathing in the spring breeze. The dappled light fluttered across my skin like butterfly wings.