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“So, Richard. I’m pretty sure you won’t answer any of my questions, but since you know a little about me, let me pretend I know something about you.” My voice deepened as I pretended that I was him, hoping to further annoy him into conversation. “‘I was an only child. I get my shit attitude from my parents, who failed to teach me any manners. I hate people and animals and anything good left in this fucked world. I get off on—’”
He growled so deeply, I felt the vibrations in my own chest. “Shut the fuck up, Kinsley.”
I winked at him. Probably not the smartest thing, but I was on a roll. “Or what?”
His head lowered and turned until his dark eyes with flickers of forest-green flames glowered at me. “Or I willmakeyou.”
“How?” I pressed.
His brows furrowed. “How what?”
“How are you going to make me shut up? Because I don’t have any intention of stopping my blabbering until you answer some of my questions.” My face was dead serious. I had very little to lose at this point.
If I didn’t find out exactly what he thought I’d done, there was no way I was going to be able to save myself. At least, not one I could see yet.
His gaze moved until he was staring up at the dark sky. “Fuck.”
The singular word was spoken so quietly, I almost wasn’t sure he’d said it, but triumph filled me anyway. I was getting to him. That meant there was something in him that saw me as a person and not a target or whatever I’d been to him when he’d first shown up.
I could work with that.
For the first time in my life, I was grateful to the coven for never really accepting me. My upbringing just might be the very thing that saved me from this man, because there was no way I was going to be the damsel in distress.
I would fight until my last breath to defend myself in whatever manner was necessary.
My next play was the connection I felt to him.
He might have thought I’d been able to fabricate it, but I knew that wasn’t true, which meant whatever empathy he was feeling was real. I needed to use that against him.
“Okaaaay.” I drew the word out slowly with a heavy sigh. “We seem to be at a stalemate, but what if we started over? I mean, I’m all snug as a bug in a rug in your arms. That seems rather personal, don’t you think? Let’s pretend you didn’t want to kill me before you realized you couldn’t, and we can get to know each other. You know, since this bond isn’t going anywhere quick.”
His tightening hold on me—which thankfully didn’t hurt any longer—and resounding grunt was my only reply.
“Richard.” I repeated his made-up name. “Doesn’t quite flow off the tongue for someone like you. Are you ready to share yet?” Silence and a stony-yet-handsome face were his answer. “Fine. We’ll stick with ‘Richard’ for now, then. Where are you from? I didn’t see a House ring on your hand, and I don’t feel a necklace beneath your shirt. Are you all gruff and tough because you’ve been surviving in No Man’s Land?”
A twitch appeared in his jaw. Huh. Maybe that was his tell. I might have been on to something.
“That’s pretty badass,” I said, going for a little ego stroking. Not that he probably needed it. He was sexy and strong and there was no way that fucker didn’t know it. “I considered running away to No Man’s Land, but the last…foster mom, you could call her… She convinced me that I’d sooner die. So I spent the last eight years training my body to fight back since, as I said before, magic had failed me.”
Still nothing from him.
Damn, he was good.
I lifted a hand and concentrated on the tiny bits of energy I had inside me. When nothing happened, I squeezed my eyes tightly, begging the magic to come forward and show this dick how little power I actually had. He needed to believe I was telling the truth.
When nothing came, I growled in frustration and reopened my eyes. When I did, he was staring at me again with his head tilted to the side, and his jaw was slightly relaxed.
“What?” I asked.
“What were you just trying to do?” he asked, his voice filled with…maybe surprise? Or it might have been confusion.
I shrugged within his arms. “I wanted to show you that there is no way possible I could have used my magic to commit any kind of crime. I’m nearly powerless. A broken witch.”
While I was still attempting to tap into whatever emotions the bond should have been trying to persuade him to feel, my words weren’t a lie, and neither were the feelings they evoked inside me.
Not-Richard went back to looking ahead and briefly, so did I. I’d never been to these parts of the forest. The stories of women taken as slaves and all the murders in No Man’s Land that I’d been told hadn’t seem too farfetched. Though, if this guy had survived there—assuming some of what I’d said earlier was right—then maybe it wasn’t all bad.
The large oaks began to thin, and I could see a road ahead. “What happens when we get out of the trees? Will we be out of Earth and Emerald, then?”
