Page 85 of What did you do?

Eli grunted in pain, folding forward. My gasp cut like a knife through the room. Ribbons of charcoal cut into the skin of his neck, tightening as his face paled.

“Stop it! You’re killing him!” I shrieked, holding on to Eli’s broad shoulders.

My skin heated and prickled all over. Whether it was the effects of the fairy mead or the fact that Mendax was killing me right alongside Eli, I couldn’t say.

“You’re going to kill us both! Is that what you want?” I screamed. Frantically, I struggled to pull the smoke away from Eli’s throat, but my attempts only appeared to be make it tighter.

“Kiss me,” Mendax commanded.

His voice was calm, but that was the only thing about him that appeared relaxed. Blue eyes watched me like a hawk whilehis body pulsed with thinly veiled rage. The tension and power surrounded him like a heavy cloud. His eyes were locked on where my hand touched Eli’s chest.

This was nothing but a dick-measuring competition. Was this because he had to leave me, or had something else happened?

Athudfilled the room as Eli’s body fell to the carpet.

“Enough. Stop this,” I screamed, trying to hold Eli’s limp body up. “You sick fucking psycho, stop. Please!”

Walter closed his eyes, and a strained snarl escaped his lips; he was obviously in pain as well.

“You are, aren’t you? You’re killing all three of us,” I said, a heaviness in my own chest.

He couldn’t. I wouldn’t let him hurt them like this.

Hysterical, I ran to where Mendax reclined and hurled my fists repeatedly into his hard chest until I fell to the ground between his knees, now fighting for breath as I continued to try to whale on him.

Eli and I were barely clinging to life.

“Kissme,” his deep voice rumbled as he leaned forward, his face now only a breath away from mine.

If my eyes alone could have killed him, they would have in that moment. But I was in no position to be stubborn right now, and unfortunately, I always wanted to kiss him.

My hand struggled to grasp the black tunic stretched across his chest, but I pressed my mouth to his. I couldn’t believe I was kissing him while Eli lay crumpled and dying.

Immediately, my senses filled with the woody taste of spiced smoke sweetened with mead. As soon as our skin touched, a storm erupted inside of me. I felt invincible.

Loud gasps filled the air to our right, and I pulled away, seeing Eli had regained consciousness and Walter’s warm eyes were open, giving Mendax an angry glare.

“This is a game to you,” I whispered, still holding on to his shirt. “Our lives mean absolutely nothing to you.”

Wood splintered and cracked as Mendax moved his hand from the now-crushed armrest of the seat.

“Your life,” he said, leaning back once more, “and death mean more to me thananything. Because of that, I must leave you here.” In his other hand, the drinking glass shattered with a high-pitched crunch. Obsidian blood dripped between his fingers as he dropped the bloody shards to the floor.

The broken pieces of my heart clenched.

He didn’t want me to get hurt in Unseelie, but leaving me behind with Eli and being unable to kill him was making him crack.

All the more reason why I couldn’t be with him. Ever.

“Mendax, you and I, we couldn’t… We would never work,” I said, still kneeling in a tank top and thong between his strong legs.

It didn’t matter what I really wanted—it had to be this way. He had to leave me alone; he’d already messed everything up.

Eli had chosen to tie himself to me. He even knew where my heart was located. I hated to do this to him, but he would have to help me finish things. God, would he hate me once this was all over with. This was what I deserved for falling for him when we were kids. I never should have let anyone get that close.

“Mendax, in some other lifetime?—”

“Stop talking and use that sinful mouth for wiser things,” Mendax ordered.

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