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Her brows jump. “They?”
My hackles rise, darkness swirling at the edge of my vision, the sudden need to defend and protect them burning through me.
Haide raises a single brow, her amused gaze dropping to my hands. I look down to find them balled into fists and almost get embarrassed. It's such a Giftless thing to do.
“So, you are mated, then.” She smirks, her attention falling to my neck. “I wasn’t sure if that battered bite was a reason for my heart to break or just your kink showing.”
I huff a laugh, the tension braided through my bones settling some, and I get the feeling that it was her intention when her eyes melt with unexpected softness.
But then her words creep a little deeper, and suddenly I’m no longer on an island for the exiled, and the eyes I’m seeing through are not my own.
A frown pulls at my face as the memory claws at my heart.
My skin prickles and my insides burn, begging me to go to her, to touch and hold and fuck her, but fuck her and fuck this bond that thinks it’s in control. It’s not.
It will never be.
It can’t fucking be.
Forcing my eyes to stay focused forward, I ignore the bone crushing sensation to go to her and pretend I don’t notice the probing looks from my brothers.
I bite into my tongue, the cinnamon flavor of my blood filling my mouth and I let it seep from the corners of my lips.
Instantly, the very moment it touches the air, London’s head snaps this way. I feel her gaze like the touch of a dragon's tongue. The burn, the sharp cuts that seem to drag along my skin.
My limbs tremble with need, too many to name, and I lose the fucking battle.
My eyes snap up. Her glass-like oneslock with mine and my pulse thuds in my chest.
Mine. Every inch. Every fucking bit.
I don’t have words for the heaviness the image and warring words leave behind as they fade into the back of my mind.
Seeing myself through Knight, I looked like a fucking psycho, a bloody broken mess standing there naked in front of everyone, mangling the mark he had left on my skin, driving the dual corkscrew into my flesh over and over. That’s not what kills me though. It’s the internal battle within Knight’s mind that night that has my throat closing.
I thought he hated me for who I was or maybe for what I wasn’t, but even when he thought I killed his sister, he couldn’t let me go, no matter how hard he tried.
He was fighting against us, pretending our bond wasn’t exactly what he wanted. That I wasn’t exactly what he wanted, when the truth is … I was.
Oh Knight.
The pain he’s in now, it’s different than he felt that night.
“I can feel him,” I say quietly. “Something is wrong.”
She breathes out a long breath, her shoulders relaxing. “You trust me.”
“No, I—”
She brings her hand to my cheek and my eyes close at the connection. Warmth radiates through me. “We’re going to save him.”
“Them.”
Her lips twitch. “Him, them, whoever the hell they are. I don’t care. We save them. Kill who hurt you, and then I’ll come home.”
“You make it sound so simple.” I look around. “People here will turn on you if you take me and leave them behind.”
“People here will fight alongside you should you ask them.” Her words are strong and clear. She must see the disbelief in my gaze, so she reaches up, tucking my hair behind my ear and holds me still. “There is darkness running through your veins and not the kind that runs through theirs. I’m not linked to Rathe as they are, but I have grown up around Stygian born. Everyone on this island stems from the blood of dark souls, me included. For some reason, those souls recognize you as more, so therefore, you are.”
