Page 178 of The King is Dead
Heart jumping in my chest, time running slower than molasses, I pulled the blade along his throat, sucking in a breath to scream a warning to Melek as Hever rasped a strange, guttural word in that voice of death.
My arm went numb like I’d banged the nerve. The blade slipped from unfeeling fingers.
“You fuckingwitch,I’ll—argh!”
My words cut off in a strangled yelp as a fist clamped on mythroat from behind.
Suddenly I was being pulled, dragged backwards by my neck, the thick, masculine hand clamped down so strong I couldn’t even scream. Meanwhile, Hever, eyesfurious, a line of blood trickling down to his collarbone though the cut clearly didn’t slow him in the slightest, slid away from me.
As he slipped from my grasp, I grabbed for his sleeve, but my fingers closed on nothing. I tried to shroud but the power failed me. Arms flailing, feet scrabbling helplessly in the dirt, I clawed at the unknown hand cutting off my air.
The crowd shrieked and tears blurred my vision.
Had that dart found its intended target in my mate?
Let Melek be safe. Please!
Then I heard the snap of thick fabric, and I was thrown bodily into a fathomless space that was an unnatural kind of dark.
I hit the dirt hard, but rolled onto all fours, heaving in a tortured breath once, twice, as I pushed to my feet and whirled towards the man who’d grabbed me, but the world spun and the dark was impenetrable.
I shrouded immediately, but knew I was flickering even in this blackness. I had no strength because I was still trying to get air. But I kept my mouth open to make my inhale as quiet as possible, and turned—staggering at the sight of Lucifer looming over me, that sharp smile on his face.
“You’re a persistent little cunt, aren’t you? I like it.”
Despite the darkness around us, or perhaps because of it, the Fallen didn’t just glow, he blazed like flame, eyes nearly white, his skin shimmering red like hot coals in a fire, and his wings, black as night and shining like steel, thrown wide behind him.
Larger and somehow gleaming even in this dark, as if light shone only where he stood, he was breathtaking. A marvel… Aterrifyingmarvel that made my bowels loosen with fear.
I sank in my stance, lowering my center of gravity and brought one hand up, reaching for the blade at my back with the other, but finding… nothing.
“Tsk, Yilan. Always so bound by the flesh. I’m not here tofightyou—I would always win. Immortal, remember?” he said in that strangely warm voice he had.
I didn’t reply. But I patted my jacket to check for the blade under my coat, yet found it flat and empty.
What the fuck? I walked into this night with three blades hidden on my person. How had he removed my weaponsandtheir sheaths?
Lucifer tipped his head and stared at me with those fathomless, golden eyes.
My heart threatened to burst out of my ribs, but I said nothing.
He took one deep breath, then folded his arms, and the furnace inside him blinked out. The warm light disappeared like a snuffed out flame, and instead the darkness appeared toembrace himso fully that if it hadn’t been for his eyes I might not have picked his position.
“I’ll offer you onefinalchance, Yilan,” he said in a soft purr. “One more opportunity to turn from this path.”
“Whatpath?”
“The path where you defy me.”
I shook my head. “I willalwaysdefy you.”
He ignored me, but his eyes narrowed. “I will take you to mate—don’t worry, Melek will never know—and you will bear the strongest male ever born to the Nephilim. Can you see it, Yilan? Mated to the King and bearing the next in line. Both the men in your life will belegendary.”
I froze as the Fallen took two quick steps to stand right at my toes, staring down at me, his eyes glowing so brightly gold, they were almost white.
“Be mine, Yilan,” he purred, stroking my cheek.
“Never.”
