Page 150 of Claimed In Darkness

Already giving herself over to the thing inside her.

And I know?—

If I don’t take her back now, I never will.

She is too far gone.

She is slipping between my fingers like sand, like smoke, like something I should have never tried to hold onto in the first place.

But I don’t care.

I never did.

She was never to be free from me.

I was never meant to let her go.

Her body stills, just for a second when our eyes meet, full of recognition.

Like she always knew I would come for her.

Then she moves.

But I move faster.

My hand closes around her wrist before she can slip away. Before she can make me watch her walk away again.

She inhales sharply, not of fear. Naira is seething in fury, thinking she can escape me.

She thought I would let her.

Never.

Her pulse flutters against my grip as she tries to pull away.

Too fast.

Too wild.

Too alive.

She snarls, jerking her arm, her eyes flashing with something close to fury.

"Let me go, Zephiran."

I laugh.

Cold. Rough. Broken.

I’m stubborn. I should have let her slip away before it came to this.

Before she fucking destroyed me.

Before I had no choice but to chase her to the ends of the fucking world.

Before she turned me into this?—

A man with nothing left to lose except the thing already slipping through his fingers.

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