Page 22 of What Whispers in the Dark
Do it, clever girl,he thought to himself. Stab some sense into him. Make him bleed for her. It would be better than this torment. This confusion. This … forbidden, hopeless, and impossible desire.
She whimpered so quietly he was not sure she realized it. A welcoming, distracting sound.
He wanted to hear more of it.
So terribly, it quickly became theonlything that mattered. Not who he was. Not what he thought of himself. Not what happened hours before or who he belonged to. Not Elysian. Not his plans or his name, or even if he deserved Alora’s attention.
Stars, do it again.
Despite his silent pleas, only her wrestling thoughts hung in the air between them.Do I want to indulge in the Lord of Darkness and pull him near?
The Lord of Darkness?he answered, voice breathy. Unable to stop himself—to remember who he was supposed to be. The Savage Prince. The monster. Dangerous. Yet she was the danger here, affecting him so thoroughly.
The air thickened with her consuming presence, which he seemed drawn into. Clouding his vision to where she was all he could see.
Until he blinked. Quickly severing a portion of that tether between them as the small,smallvoice of reason inside him stole control.Be careful how youthink, clever girl. You might lure a starving beast. Every female needs her own villain, and I promise you, you do not want me as yours.The words tasted like ash in his mouth; he hated it.
You know this must be done. You cannot get close. She must remain safe.
Thiswas better. For her to hate him and remain out of Magnelis’s jealous grasp. Better for her to stay away from him, at a distance. Safe from the horrors his hands could inflict.
If only pushing her away was the worst thing he could do?—
Stay out of my head,came her threat.Maybe she meant it, but the quiver in her voice proved otherwise. Alora bit her lip, and he tracked the movement with astute, predatory, lethal focus. Setting his nerves aflame despite the frigid cold.
And starsdamn him, some aching part of him pleasured in it. He grinned, flashing his canines while forced to flex his handaround his hilt to stop himself from dropping it and devouring her lips.
His blade may be at her throat, but little did she know that by simply existing, she held the power.
Garrik’s mouth hovered dangerously close, craving a taste.Just one more.
Then after…
He knew he could die from that thing—whatever it was—the star’s cruel joke or an infernal punishment—pulling him so tightly to Alora that going a day without stealing a glimpse of her would be the worst form of torture. Far worse thananythinghe had ever endured. But it had to be done. There was no alternative.
Afterward, they would return to camp and continue this ruse of hatred between them until he saw her safely past the Wall … somehow. Untouchable, unable to fall into the High King’s hands. Or die by Garrik’s bloodstained ones.
Her expectant eyes and the sudden sound from her lips were his undoing. The last of Garrik’s restraint shattered.
Alora wanted him—him.
And he yearned for her.
It wrapped around that aching, ruined,hopelesspart inside him enough that the mask he vowed to never remove, that he forbade anyone to see, melted. He felt his eyes softening with some small flicker of abandoned hope. Vulnerable, completely disarmed, as that sense of longing for something he would never have overpowered him. Wanting her. Desperately needing to feel someone else’s warmth, gentle hands, someone else’s tender lips—no.
Fuck.No. Not someone. Alora.
OnlyAlora.
And he could not bear another moment of it. It was ripping him apart despite beingsobroken already. Even if for a moment… to simply pretend she was his … that her lips were his … that he was not a beast, a weapon, a starsdamned valuelesswhoreonly worth what they could use him for and take from him.
His heart crying out, Garrik leaned down against his blade. The sharp iron taste of his blood coated the midnight air. And knowing he would hate himself come dawn, his mind growledfuck itas the monster he was begged the stars, Maker of the Skies, begged Alora, “Forgive me,” and crashed his lips to hers.
The realm—this one and all the others—even the Stars Eternal seemed to stop breathing.
The ground beneath him may have shuddered.
But he could not be certain of anything other than her lips accepting his as he claimed them.
