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Then Liv walked in and ruined every plan I had.
Kalon appeared behind her with a split lip and a stolen baton, one shoulder braced against the doorframe. I fixed my eyes on him. He held my gaze.
“You brought her here,” I said, angry and accusing.
Liv’s head snapped toward me. “He helped me.” She emphasized “helped” in a way that made me understand that my mate would have come with or without backup.
I returned my attention to Kalon. “I knew I liked you for a reason.”
His mouth pulled up at one corner. “Try not to ruin it.”
“Too late,” Liv muttered, a little exasperated.
A laugh escaped me before I could stop it. Silver hissed against my skin, turning my laugh pained, and her eyes dropped to the collar.
“Don’t even think about it,” I said.
She lifted her gaze. “Don’t think about what?”
“Touching the silver.”
A shout cracked through the hallway. Kalon turned toward the sound, Sam’s magic flared orange-white, and Mandi sucked in a breath.
“That sounded close,” Mandi said.
Liv kept watching the collar. Her throat moved. Her fingers clenched around the knife as though she planned to carve me free and worry about her hands after.
“Liv.” I shifted forward until the silver punished me for it. “You cannot touch it.”
“I heard you,” she growled.
“You’re thinking about touching it anyway. I can see you chewing your lip, and you only do that when you’re thinking about doing the exact opposite of what I say.”
“I’m thinking about several things. Murder. Screaming. Kissing you.” Her mouth tightened. “The last one feels inconvenient but necessary.”
My body froze as my eyes met hers.
“You need strength.” She stepped closer, and the bond pulled hard enough to scrape against bone.
“Don’t.”
Her brows drew together. “Do you mean because touching you might hurt me, or because me helping you bruises your terrifying demon lord ego?”
“Liv.”
“Right. Both.” She huffed a laugh and crouched in front of me before I could come up with another argument. Her hands shook when they framed my face, but she kept them beneath my jaw, clear of the collar. “Just remember, Lux, you are the damsel in this situation.”
I opened my mouth to say something back, preferably something manly and terrifying, but she seized the opportunity and kissed me. Yeah, argument over.
Her mouth struck mine. Her hands shook against my jaw, yet she held me there, furious and somehow still alive after crossing the whole goddamn tower. My hands stayed chained behind my back, useless, while Liv decided how much of me she wanted. Normally, being restrained made every violent instinct in my body start chewing through walls. This felt different. I couldn’t grab her waist, pull her closer, or decide when the kiss deepened. I had to wait for her to choose it.
Fuck . . .
Succubi didn’t only feed. They consumed desire, pleasure, fear, and raw life force, refined it inside themselves, and returned it multiplied. Ten times stronger, according to records old enough to sound more myth than history. Enough to restore a wounded demon, recharge failing wards, or keep a mage casting long after his own power burned dry.
She had given me a thread.
It hit me like a flood and made me stronger than anyone upstairs could anticipate. The burns beneath the collar eased by a fraction. Silver still chewed through me, though now the metal had to fight for every bite. My vision cleared. Shadows twitched across the floor near my knees.
