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“The grounds are off-limits.”
“To guests?”
He snapped his mouth shut and clenched his jaw.
“I thought you said we were here by royal invitation. I didn’t realize thesepreciousgardens were private.” I gestured at the barren mess all around me.
Erol grunted and balled his hands into fists, but it didn’t look like he wanted to do anything to me. Instead, it was like he fought a war against himself.
His eyes were deep and dark, his mouth twisted. He glared out at me from underneath thick, furrowed brows. And yet, despite his anger rolling off him in waves, I couldn’t miss how attractive he was. He had a face like he’d been sculpted by the gods. He wasbeautifulto look at the way a majestic beast was mighty, relishing in its own power, its very being rejoicing with its existence. He was dangerous, and I wanted to run and get closer to him at the same time.
My hand lifted as if it had a mind of its own. Erol didn’t flinch or pull back, and I brushed my fingers against the smooth skin on his jaw. He hadn’t shaved in a few days, and the stubble on his chin made him look raw and powerful.
When my fingers touched his skin, electricity jolted through my body. My breath caught in my throat, and Erol’s eyes changed. They became deeper, darker still. His lips parted as if he wanted to say something, but no words came out.
The atmosphere between us shifted, and all the anger and frustration bled away. What remained was something a lot more powerful—an attraction that drew us together like magnets.
Run. Run, this isn’t right. Erol is a Conjurite.
I fought with myself, my logical mind telling me to get away from him. Another part of me—a part much more carnal, a part much more in tune with the vision I kept seeing of him, a good man superimposed on top of the bad—wanted to get closer to him. This strange magnetic power that drew us together was new. I wanted to know what I felt. I wanted to know why.
Most of all, I wanted to knowhim.
Erol moved closer to me, so close that I could smell the musky scent that rolled off him. He lifted his hand, as I had, and brushed a strand of hair out of my face, blown into it by the breeze.
The same electricity ran between us when he touched me, and I gasped.
Erol froze, his eyes flitting across my face before they rested on my lips, and this time, I couldn’t think about anything other than what it would be like to kiss him.
As if he read my mind, he slid a thick arm around my waist and pulled me tightly against him.
He kissed me.
His lips were firm, but the kiss was gentle. I melted against him, giving in. He pressed his mouth harder against mine and slid his tongue along my lower lip. Heat rushed through my body and pooled between my legs, and I was ready for him. If he dragged me to his bedroom right now, I wouldn’t protest. He was a drug. I’d had a taste, and now I wanted more. I wanted it all.
I opened my mouth, letting Erol in. His tongue slipped into my mouth, and I moaned softly.
My magic rose to the surface in a hurry, and it clashed with Erol’s dark power, already wrapped around me. It created a kind of metaphysical spark, and searing heat rushed through my body.
Erol yanked back at the same time I cried out.
We stared at each other, breathing hard.
His eyes weren’t filled with lust anymore. Now, they were filled with panic.
“Erol,” I started, but he shook his head.
“No,” he said and ran to the bike. He jumped onto it, and in a flash, he was gone.
I stood in the middle of the broken gardens, staring at Erol as he sped away from me and his frame shrank in the distance.
8
EROL
Damn it! Damn it all! I wasn’t going to get away from this hell, was I?
It wasn’t enough that I’d suffered for centuries with a decision I’d been forced to make, living in darkness when I would never have chosen it for myself. It would never end—the freedom I’d thought was mine now had been ripped away again.
