Page 149 of Black Sea

The altar where Calien’s Crystal was still floating.

Fear spread through me like an army of spiders crawling all over my body. It was over, then. In a few seconds, Mornon would command me to give him the Crystal. As a good prisoner, I would obey, dooming the entire world.

And the worst part was that I almost didn’t care.

“I’m not here for the Crystal, Nauriel,” Mornon said abruptly, his gaze so fierce it made my knees shake. “I’m here,” he added, inching forward in a threatening way, “because we nearly got separated. Was that what you wanted?” His voice was the emblem of the darkest fury as he shoved my cousin’s body aside with his boot to stand in front of me. “After what we shared the other night?”

I clenched my jaw so tightly that my gums hurt. I pressed my tongue against the roof of my mouth as hard as I could. I dug my nails into my palms.

Anything to stop me from saying that single syllable my heart wanted to scream.

That single syllable that, as I inhaled the scents of blood and entrails scattered around me, filled me with such shame that I wished the ground would open beneath my feet and swallow me whole.

Suddenly, Mornon seized my jaw with his blood-stained fingers from Queen Aloiv and pushed my head back. “ Answer me,” he growled, gazing down at me superiorly.

“I am,” I said furiously, and even though I knew it was fruitless, I slapped his wrist to get his fingers off my face.

To my surprise, he let go of me.

We stared at each other with intense hostility, the meaning of my words weighing on us with all its terrible force.

Gradually, his controlled breathing shifted to match the quick rhythm of mine. His pupils dilated, shrinking the pine-green irises into thin rings. His expression turned lustful.

“Join me,” he said softly.

I took a sharp breath, shocked.

“Let’s subdue these lands together.” His excitement about the vision he was imagining of us frightened me. “Stand with me when I take over the lands we haven’t yet explored.” He grasped my chin with his thumb and forefinger. “We will be the king and queen of an everlasting empire, unmatched and unrivaled.”

But, as I got lost in the treacherous maze of his gaze, I understood I would never truly be his queen. I would just be his puppet, to be used whenever and however he desired. A ballast he couldn’t get rid of.

He would never see me as his equal. Neither would he ever love me, for he hated that the Spirits had bound him to me.

He was deceiving me once more.

All he did was manipulate me, over and over again.

I stared at him, overwhelmed and in a rage at the same time. “You are a black sea that wants to drown me in its depths.”

Mornon framed my face in his big hands, his fingers threading through my hair. “You will not drown, Nauriel. You will swim.”

I held onto his wrists and tried to shake my head, but he pressed his palms harder to immobilize me, pulling the hair behind my neck until I was panting.

“Swim in me. Swim with me.” His eyes gleamed with mad yearning. “And it will be the others who drown.”

I looked at him for a few long moments, searching for the man I still couldn’t believe had been just a lie. In a fit of despair, I placed my hands on his chest and said, “Let’s go away.”

He subtly flinched, then went as still as stone.

“Let’s go far away,” I pressed, my tears blending with the blood on my eyelashes, “where we can go back to being the way we were on the island.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Let’s go somewhere where we can be happy.”

He gazed at me with awful coldness, his face devoid of any emotion. “I don’t want happiness, Elf.” He removed his hands from my face. “I want power.”

Feeling torn inside by his words, I could only stare as he turned away from me, like I was insignificant, and then stepped over the scattered bodies to position himself again midway between me and the altar.

His shoulders rose and fell as he took a deep breath. “Give me the Crystal, Nauriel,” he ordered imperiously.

I staggered, overwhelmed by his command echoing in my mind. One foot slipped on a pool of blood. I looked down at the carnage caused by my mate. All those wide eyes and fear-distorted faces seemed to be staring directly at me.