AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“How do you know her?Why is she here?”
“Again with all the questions.Quit with the inquisition already.Alys is my cousin.”
“Then my answer to your job offer is no.Not when your family includes a demon hybrid who can kill people with a thought.”Electricity popped from his skin, a staticky charge that prickled the hairs on her arms.“Shit.”He curled his fingers, but the action only made the flare worse.
Apparently, her cousins weren’t the only ones who were impatient tonight.Vori ditched politeness.“You’re not one to be judging powers, Sparky.Control your magic.”
“I can’t.”He forced the words out through clenched teeth.
She was annoyed enough for them both.“Let me.”In theory, she should be able to steal his powers as part of the thieving goblin princess package.Maybe.She’d been able to absorb some of her mother’s shadow magic, but she’d been gifted the same by the faerie queen.Of course, she’d never tried to rip electrical currents from someone like grabbing a live wire.There was a first time for everything.She reached a hand toward him.
Power streaked over his skin.“You’re sure about this?”
“Pretty sure.”She should soak it up like a sponge.Or a grounding wire in this case.If trying didn’t kill them both.“Come on.”
With his gaze locked on hers, he brushed his fingers against her knuckles.Sparks leapt from him to her, sizzling along her palm.Beneath the tingle of electricity, there was something else, something exhilarating that rushed along her skin.The thrill of taking in magic or the one she’d felt before when they’d touched the night they met.She couldn’t separate one intoxicating sensation from another.
Heat flashed in his searching gaze, growing hotter with every pulse of his powers.In the next second, he jerked away.“I don’t want to hurt you.”
His patronizing tone burned more than his magic.She already had to deal with that hypervigilant nonsense from Alexei.“I don’t need you to protect me.”She grabbed Perry’s hand and pulled hard at his powers.
The jolt of electricity zipped from him into her, triggering something unexpected.Need.Want.Desire.She stole another hit, and damn, if the high didn’t have her considering if he could invoke this power in a kiss, in a caress, in her bed.Impossible cravings.
In the space between one pounding heartbeat and another, she let go of him, ignoring how he kept his warm fingers wrapped around hers.His intense gaze seemed as invasive and intimate as her siphoning his powers.
She didn’t have time for complications like sexual attraction.She needed someone who could fake a marriage and not get killed.
He stared at his hands, his powers gone for now.“How’d you do that?”It sounded like an accusation.
“I think you meant thank you.”If her ability to rein in his out-of-control powers hadn’t convinced him that she could deliver on her promises to hide him, nothing would.With the way that touch had scrambled her thoughts, maybe it was for the best.She prepared to wrap herself in shadows.Her ability to cloak herself in darkness and silence came in handy for getting into and out of places she shouldn’t be.Like here.“You saying no to my offer is my cue to leave.”Damn, it stung to say out loud.“Good luck, Perry.”
“Wait.”
“Yes?”She let the wisps of gray and black curl close to her skin.Had he seen?She didn’t want to waste time explaining shadow magic to someone who’d rejected her twice.
“I’ll come with you.”From his tone, there had to be a catch to his agreement.
Growing up in the goblin court with all its intrigue had taught Vori to close all loopholes.“But?”
“But I don’t believe you’re telling me the whole story.So I’ll go with you, and we’ll talk.Then I’ll decide.”
“Fine.”She would’ve let him out of here no matter what he chose.
He grabbed for the door first.“Wait, you never said how you got in.”
“I picked the lock.”But she’d also used the shadow powers she’d kept secret from everyone but her adopted cousins.And her mother.The last sent an ache through her.“Any other stupid questions, or can we go now?”
“What are you if you’re not a witch?”Perry sounded as if he didn’t want to know the answer—not really.
“Add that to the list of things we can talk about later when we’re somewhere safe.Somewhere less likely to make me vomit.”
His expression wobbled on a thin edge of suspicion and hope.He lurched forward with an unsteady gait, and she looked away.It wasn’t pity she felt.It was more of a mourning of the man she’d met two years ago, of what might’ve been, of what his choices had cost him and possiblythem.
“I’ll give you a hand.”She moved closer, but he flinched.
“I can do it myself.”He took one slow shuffling step forward on bloody bare feet.
“Let me help, or I’ll call my cousin in to carry you.”
