Page 50 of Twisted Desire

“Why would I do that?” I hear the wicked smile in her voice and wish to god I could remove it from her face.

“Because I’m more entertaining,” he says. “Take me instead.”He’s really trying to charm this bitch?

“Shut up,” I snap at him.Stop being stupid, I want to add but manage to refrain. Now’s probably not the time.

The woman hums. “Interesting offer, Nikolai. But I was never interested in you.”

What the fuck?

I force my eyes to focus on Nik’s face and watch as the confusion in his eyes is washed away with recognition.

“Michaela?” Disbelief fills his voice.

“So you do remember me,” she muses. “You were always so enraptured by my sister—”

“Okay, what the hell is happening here?” Marni cuts in.Good question.

Nikolai swallows hard. “Michaela—”

“I would have been his sister-in-law if things had worked out. If he hadn’t been fae andkilledmy sister with that monster child.”

Nikolai’s face goes white, and anger bubbles through me on his behalf. The inability to act on it makes my heart pound even harder.

“Does he know?” Nik seethes.

Michaela barks out a laugh. “That his aunt runs the organization that saved him?” She glances away. “No. He found out once, but we forced one of the fae to erase his memories before we fixed them.”

Bile rises in my throat, and it has nothing to do with the iron pressed against the skin over my pulse.

“Why?” he demands.

She responds by pressing the knife into my skin, making me hiss out in pain. “That’s not important,” she snaps.

He holds up his hands, sweat dotting his brow, and growls, “Fine. Just let her go.”

“You want to be a hero, lover boy?” she says and then pauses. “Call off your monsters.”

“Nikolai, don’t,” Derek cuts in.

“Thanks,” I mutter, and he shoots me an apologetic look.

“Send all of the fae away right now, and I’ll let her live.”

My eyes focus on Nikolai. “Don’t you dare,” I tell him sternly. “If my life is what it takes to bring this place down, so be it.”

The horrified look on his face tells me he doesn’t agree. “No one has to die,” he says, shifting his gaze from mine to Michaela’s. “Let’s call it right now. A ceasefire. We can work together to ensure the safety of everyone—fae and human.”

She hesitates, then says, “That will never be an option.”

“Why not?” Marni asks.

“Work with us,” Nikolai offers without allowing the woman a chance to answer. “We can teach the fae to be better. To protect the humans instead of taking from them. We can’t do anything about those who volunteer to feed the fae, but we can fight to keep the fae in line, keep them from feeding on random humans.”

The woman laughs again. “Please, once we’ve dealt with enough ofyou, those feeding units you use are the next to be destroyed. Those who volunteer themselves are sick. They need to be eliminated as well.”

“So, not only are you picking and choosing which fae are good enough to live as humans, you’re deciding which humans are good enough to live at all?” My stomach churns. “Thatis sick.”

There is a moment of silence, and then a shrill, loud scream fills my ears. It takes me a second to realize it’s my own. The bitch stabbed me in the side with the iron blade.Fucking hell.

---