Chapter 15

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

E mil barely reacts to the threat of my claws, even when pinpricks of bright red blood form across his chest and little droplets slide down his skin.

His green eyes search mine as I try to rein in my anger, desperate to keep my rage in check so that I can persist in seeking answers. Somehow . I can't give up yet.

With his right hand, he brushes the wayward strands of my hair from my face—the gray ones that sit closest to my cheek and turn blonde at the ends.

His voice is barely above a murmur. "Why did you come inside this place when it hurts you to be here?" Then his expression hardens. "Is it because you know I feel your heart's pain and you wanted to hurt me more?"

I grit my teeth against the ache in my heart, even though his accusation isn't true. "Will you answer me one thing truthfully? Does our deal still stand?"

"Our deal?" He narrows his eyes at me and a cold smile touches his lips. "Be honest, my Veda, it isn't our deal that's at the heart of your question."

It's my turn to narrow my eyes because I'm not sure what he's getting at.

He shakes his head at me, a slow, side-to-side motion, while his other hand rises to press against my lower back, drawing me closer, inch by inch, even though my claws press more deeply into his chest.

"Ask what you really want to ask, my Veda."

Take control of the light and the dark.

That insidious whisper suddenly echoes around in my mind again, but it isn't the book's darkness I'm thinking of now.

How many times did my mother tell me that control was everything?

As many damn times as she told me I was loved.

And with that thought, I understand what Emil means.

I ask the question that lies at the heart of my relationship with him. "Do I still have power over you?"

The corners of his mouth rise. A soft smile. His fingers play against my cheek while he makes a humming sound in the back of his throat. "I can say yes or no, and you'll have to decide if you believe me."

I try to read his expression, his pale eyes, the dark rings under them, the press of his lips.

"Which is it, Emil: yes or no?"

" Yes ," he says. "As long as your heart's power keeps me alive, you have power over me. Vengeance is yours to take. And I am a slave to your desires."

He doesn't look away from me, but, even though I continue searching the depths of his eyes, I have no fucking idea if he's telling the truth or not.

He leans closer to me. "Do you believe me?"

I can't.

I can't believe a word he says anymore. I shouldn't have even fucking asked.

I should have stayed outside, just like he said.

But I'm here now and I may as well put his claim to the test while I have the chance.

I lift my left hand from his chest and wrap my fingers around the back of the hand he's resting against my cheek, my fingertips brushing the back of his wrist.

He watches my hand more carefully than I was expecting him to, especially when I allow the tips of my claws to extend a little further.

I narrow my eyes at how tense he is, this dark creature who can use his crown to wield the magic of every dark being who has ever died.

Even if I don't have power over him, he is clearly wary of me now.

"Do I believe you?" I ask before I issue a challenge. "Prove that I still have power over you."

His focus flickers to my eyes and then quickly back to the fingers I've wrapped around his right wrist.

He doesn't try to pull away, but I'm suddenly aware of a dark light growing behind me.

His crown rests in the form of a ring on his left hand. The palm of which currently rests against the small of my back.

"Prove it how?" he asks, his voice rough.

"Bind yourself," I snarl at him.

Some of the tension eases from his shoulders and the dark light fades from the edges of my vision so fast, I could have imagined it.

His left hand slips away from my spine as he takes a step back, although he extends his right arm so that he doesn't tug his hand out of my hold.

"Like this?" he asks.

Sapphire light bursts from the crown-shaped ring, at which rusty, metal shackles appear around his ankles and wrists, short chains extending between them and clanking as he adjusts his position a little.

The color of the sapphire light that glowed before he created the chains tells me that they're pure illusion. They may look and even feel real, but they don't exist.

I purse my lips at them, but before I can speak, he continues.

"Or like this?" he asks.

His power flashes again, but this time, it's a black light that makes me freeze.

Black light means he's using dark magic to create something very real. But to use dark magic, he has to drain life from a living thing.

He has destroyed whole trees this way.

Now, my left hand clamps around his wrist, as if I could stop him. My claws dig into his flesh so hard that blood drips from between our clasped hands.

I could tear off his right hand in a blink.

This time, he doesn't seem to care.

"Don't worry, my Veda," he says. "There are plenty of rosebushes outside this cottage from which I can drain life. I haven't harmed your pack."

There are no windows in this room for me to check the truth of what he said, but despite my distrust, I don't hear any screams or shouts from outside. On the contrary, if I listen hard enough, I can hear my pack talking quietly among themselves.

They're worried about me. They don't like that I've been gone so long already.

Emil shrugs. "You're free to check on them."

I nearly pull away from him, nearly give in to the fear that, even though every member of my pack sounds perfectly fine, something might have happened to them.

But then I narrow my eyes at him, mentally replaying the eagerness of his suggestion. "You want me to leave."

The corners of his mouth turn down. "The longer you remain in my presence, the more painful it is."

Which would be why he used his dark magic just now. To fucking scare me away.

I can't stop my smile. It's cruel. I'm fully aware. "Then I'll stay."

"As you like."

The dark light swirling around his left hand spreads rapidly outward, moving across his body to reach the shackles he's wearing.

The metal transforms from rusty iron to a gleaming bronze, each shackle thinning out.

I expect the bindings to disappear entirely, but, while the chains retract so that only bronze anklets and bracelets remain, the excess metal becomes liquid. It quickly ascends his legs and chest, traveling outside his clothing, while the liquid at his left wrist rushes up his arm and also across his torso, all of it meeting in the middle and solidifying for a few moments like plates of armor.

It's beautiful armor, etched with what looks like runes, before it, too, re-liquifies and continues on its path.

Now gathered together, the metal streams toward his right hand, which is clasped in mine.

I edge backward, eyeing the bronze liquid warily as it slows, forming another plate around his forearm before a thread of bronze very slowly glides forward around his wrist and then onto mine.

It forms a new shackle binding me to him.

I take a sharp breath. "Stop."

At my command, the liquid stops extending along my arm, but it doesn't cease moving, flowing around and around my wrist.

Emil tilts his head. "Are you sure?" He edges closer to me again, the backs of his fingers feathering the inside of my wrist. "We're already bound, my Veda. Even without these chains."

"I can cut through any chains you make," I whisper. "All I have to do is extend my claws."

"True," he says.

My heart beats harder when he asks, "But is that what you want?"