Page 66 of What did you do?

I wrapped my arm around his waist, two fingers digging into the open wound on his shoulder and rotating him so his back hit the wall, freeing myself.

He groaned, pushing forward to grab me, but I anticipated his move and ducked out of his reach. I grabbed my karambit off the floor.

Smoke shot from him and wrapped around my arm to pull me back. His smoke seemed to awaken my own, and it began to pour from my sides and mingle with his. But the tendrilsattached to me slithered and widened the smoke from Mendax that gripped my arm, allowing me to slip free and back away.

“You made it. You’re alive. Go home then! Why are you here?” I shouted at the top of my lungs.

He watched our smoke spiral and mingle together. “You know why I’m here,” he stated.

“You don’t love me! What don’t you understand? You are the monster of death that lurks in their nightmares, and I was the fool tasked with destroying you.”

“If I’m the monster and you the knight, then Aurelius must be the damsel in distress. Tell me, do you ever grow tired of letting him think you are the princess in the tower and not the dragon that guards it?”

I charged at him as anger flooded my system, overriding any rational thoughts or training I had. Once again, Mendax had seen through parts of me no one else did, and it infuriated me. How could he possibly understand me so well? He didn’t even know me.

This was nothing more than feelings fighting now.

He launched toward me at the same time, easily blocking every disorganized blow I threw.

Onyx blood smeared across his sweaty torso, and bags were under his eyes. I had never seen him look so worn down. I knew now it was from spending every moment stalking me. The familiar burn of anger pushed me, and my hits grew more strategic, smoother. I wrapped my arms around his waist, shoved my chin into his chest, and upset his center of gravity, knocking him to the ground.

I went to kick him in the ribs, but he grabbed my ankle and pulled me down. I grunted in pain as the hard marble floor cracked against my knees.

Rolling backward, I looped my thumb into the hole at the handle of my blade. Mendax was already on his feet with a lustful look dancing across his stupidly handsome face.

I was about to make that face a lot less handsome.

“You continue to call me the villain, but what of the golden prince? You want him to be your hero, Caly?” He grinned and wiped the blood from his lip with the back of his hand.

“Hero, maybe not, but he will be my king,” I bit out. “And I am to behisqueen.”

Seemingly unbothered by my taunts, he shadowed in front of Saracen’s ornate throne and causally leaned against the side of it. “You are the keeper of my soul, no matter what castle you choose to reign over,” he said calmly.

I stormed toward him with my blade raised high. “It isnotreciprocated. I hate you!” I screamed as I felt all of my buried emotions slither to the surface.

A war thundered inside of me with the constant push and pull of what was good and what was bad—it cut into my soul. Every inkling of doubt and deceit I had ignored were brushed from the corners of my anguished mind to lay as a pile of kindling. Rage and heartache lit the tinder.

I lunged.

Mendax grabbed my wrists and stepped into my body before I could slice into his neck. Our bodies pressed together, smoke and heat coiling around us. Even his fastest movements were executed with a calm confidence.

Frustrated, I panted, aiming daggers at his eyes with my glower. The three shades of his blue irises watched as I grappled with all the feelings I didn’t want to bear.

Malum Mendax dropped his hold on my wrists—including the one that still held the karambit.

“I am nothing more than a soul without residence since you left me, and I refuse to bear a life without you. Should I die, letit be by your hand, so that your touch is what I remember when I haunt every single dwelling you inhabit. Soon enough, you will meet with me again in Tartarus.” His voice softened while his eyes steeled. “Go on, Calypso, make your life better and finish me off. For good this time.” His right dimple popped. “It makes no difference to me if I’m dead or alive when I chase you.”

I moved the curve of my blade to the side of his neck defiantly. He didn’t think I could do it.

I pushed it into his flesh, feeling the blade break through.

Unrelenting calm came from his eyes. He was serious.

Mendax loved me.

I could have cut his throat right then. It would have taken two and a half seconds of pressure to have him dead and out of my life for good—to sever his carotid artery and saw his head off. All of my problems would be fixed. Well, at least the ones that involved him.

My blade was sharp enough. I knew that for a fact.

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