Page 138 of Illusory

“Don’t you want to know for sure?” pushed Trace, though I could hear the fear lancing through his words. As much as he wanted to know the truth, he was scared of hearing it too.

If this thing went sideways and turned out to be the opposite of what Dominic was hypothesizing, I wasn’t sure Trace would be able to recover from the hit. Not this time.

Then again, I couldn’t deny that I was curious to see whether Dominic’s bite incited my wings just as readily as Trace’s did. As much as I hated my wings and what they represented, I hated being in the dark about them even more.

“Okay,” I finally agreed as a thread of anxiety unfurled in my belly. “We’ll put it to the test.”

No big deal. We were simply going to test this out, once and for all.

Dominic was going to feed on me after weeks of denying himself, and Trace was going to watch it all go down for the first time ever as a Revenant.

What could go wrong with that?

44. BITE OF REVELATION

The room fell to silence save for the chaotic thumping in my ribcage as Trace walked over to my bedroom door and locked it, sealing the three of us and our latest science experiment inside my room. Straightening his shoulders, he turned around and then propped his back against the wooden door frame, his striking blue eyes taking me apart expectantly.

My gaze wandered to Dominic, who was still standing halfway across the room with both hands tucked into his black slacks. If I didn’t know him as well as I did, I may have thought he looked a little nervous.

He drew in a deep breath, and for a moment, he just stood there, staring at me, his boundless eyes dark and unreadable, and locked on mine. Then, in one fluid movement, he closed the gap with a few long strides, his proximity instantly sending a shiver down my spine.

“A penny for your thoughts?” I asked, trying to ignore the butterflies waltzing in my belly.

“That’s still my line, love.” He flashed a lopsided grin, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes this time. “Are you certain you’re up for doing this tonight?” he asked, his tone surprisingly even despite the tension threading through the air. “We can wait until tomorrow if you prefer.”

I wasn’t sure if he was asking for my benefit or his, but I wasn’t backing down.

“No. I’m okay,” I replied, my words coming out far steadier than I felt on the inside. The uncertainty about what would happen next made my heart race, but the need to understand was stronger than my fear.

Of course, if I were being completely honest with myself, that wasn’t the only reason I wanted to do this.

Dominic hadn’t fed from me since before my wings appeared, and while part of me wanted to know for sure that my new appendages weren’t the reason behind it, the other part of me just wanted to feel that connection with him again—to feel that burning fire that ignited my soul, just as it had so many times before.

Dominic nodded, his gaze softening as he took in my resolve. He edged closer until his breath was ghosting over the shell of my ear. “Tell me where,” he whispered, his voice dark and stained with promises of rapture.

The sensation of his mouth lightly grazing my skin sent a rush of goosebumps cascading over me that muddled my mind and all the practical reasons we were doing this to begin with. Still, I could feel Trace’s watchful eyes boring into me from across the room as he looked on curiously. Despite this being his idea, his jaw was set tight, and his hands were clenched into fists at his sides.

There was a whole lot riding on this, and I needed to tread carefully.

“My neck,” I answered softly. “Same as before.”

Slowly, Dominic’s cool fingers traced my jaw, tilting my head to expose the delicate curve of my neck as he brushed his lips against my skin, making my heart feel as though it were going to punch a hole right through my chest. There was a barely perceptible hesitation—a moment where the world held its breath—then he parted his lips and pressed his teeth to my throat.

My heart stuttered, a shiver coursing through me as he slowly sank his fangs into my flesh, the sharp sting of pain lancing through my body for a heartbeat before it vanished, replaced by a sudden rush of warmth. Waves of it washed overme, spreading through my body as I clutched his shoulders, my breath catching in my throat.

Euphoria seeped into my veins, pooling in my chest and radiating outward, until every inch of me was being touched by it. Consumed by it. The world tilted, spinning, as Dominic’s grip on me tightened, his hard body pressing against mine and pulling me into him with an inevitability that left no room for escape.

The room fell into an eerie silence, broken only by the frantic thrum of my pulse in my ears and the soft, rhythmic pull at my neck. Even Trace remained motionless, yet I could feel his presence like a shadow, unwavering—watching us with the sharp, predatory eyes of a hawk surveying its contested territory.

My knees buckled as the heat swelled within me, narrowing my vision and pulling my eyes back into the dark recesses of my mind. The toe-curling sensations swept through me like a storm, devouring everything until even time itself seemed to dissolve. In that moment, nothing else existed but the all-consuming pleasure.

The last coherent thing I remembered was whimpering contently in Dominic’s arm before the wicked burn at my back yanked me out of my trance.

Rearing back, the rush of feathers and sharp pain across my back hit me all at once, nearly knocking me to the floor had it not been for Dominic holding fast to me, despite my having pushed myself away from him. The room blurred into a dizzying swirl of colors as my wings unfurled behind me, black satiny feathers billowing around us in a spectacular display of frightening beauty.

Dominic steadied me, his arms a fortress against the whirlwind of feathers and pain at my back that threatened to knock me off my feet entirely. I pulled in a jagged breath andthen another as I carefully regained my balance.

Feeling stable enough, I looked up and met Dominic’s dark, glimmering eyes, nodding to signal that I was okay to stand on my own.

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