28

I t happens again. I’m falling into another dream-like state, but this time, Dane isn’t with me and leading me through the castle.

I’m standing in a dark chamber, a cell, that smells like blood and dirty water. The dungeons. I’ve never been underground, and I have no idea what it looks like, but it seems my mind has built up an entire aesthetic of where creatures go when they’re arrested.

My breaths come out in puffs as I look around. Blood stains the walls, where chains dangle, a hand still attached to one of them. I grimace at the smell and press the back of my hand to my nose and mouth.

When I push open a large oak door, I find myself in the main corridor of the dungeons. It’s dark, with no candles leading the way like in the rest of the castle. Water drips from the old, broken bricks all around. It smells like sewage, beady eyes peeking from the holes in the walls.

And every now and again, as my feet step in the puddles, my surroundings creak and growl, followed by a psychotic laugh that will forever haunt me.

My footsteps are silent in my dream, but I’m drawn to the last cell on the left. I push it open, seeing a small boy hugging himself and rocking back and forth in the corner, claw marks down his back.

His sobs are like echoes, as if he’s trapped at the bottom of an old well.

Hello? Are you okay?

I try to speak, but the words are in my head, a whisper, a thought, nothing more than a breath with no sound as my lips move.

I reach for the boy, who’s covered in tattoos, but a black mass launches towards me, wrapping its claws around my throat and shoving me out and away, chasing me back to the place I belong. The chant is repetitive, the haunting words I’ve heard before.

Death to her, death to all.

I wake with a start, gasping, unable to properly fill my lungs until I drag in a long breath and stop shaking. I wipe sweat from my face, but when I try to move, a heaviness on my side stops me.

I look to see Dane with his head on my shoulder, arm and leg slung over me, caging me against the mattress. His other hand is in my hair, a loose grip.

His snow-like locks are soaked with sweat, droplets sliding down his face and neck and drenching his shirt collar. It’s mixing with a trail of blood from his nose.

“Dane,” I croak, my throat dry. “Dane.”

Nothing.

I blow out a breath and look at my hands, completely free of any of the curse. Usually, when he siphons, he takes as much as he can before it overwhelms him. But it seems he’s taken so much it’s no longer visible on my skin.

I frown at the thought of him hurting himself more than other days. “Dane,” I say again, shaking his shoulder. His body is hotter than a furnace. I shift to free myself a little as I press the back of my hand to his forehead.

It’s burning. Dane is burning up badly.

But immortals don’t get sick—unless the curse has messed him up?

Dane? I try a different way. Can you hear me?

I push him lightly, rolling him onto his back, freeing myself somehow from the heavy bane of my existence. I say his name once more, but there’s no response. “If you can hear me, I’m going to take your shirt off, okay? I need to try to cool you down.”

I work the buttons of his shirt. It’s wet from how much he’s sweating, and I gasp when I undo his collar and see the thin black veins on his neck, stretching down his chest and merging with the tattoos there.

The more buttons I unfasten, the more of the curse I can see on his body. I ignore his defined abs as I run my fingers down them, tracing a thick vein injected with black that travels down beneath his waistband.

This can’t be good.

He doesn’t make a sound as I struggle to get the shirt off him, rushing to my window and opening it wide.

When I press a cloth I’ve soaked to his face, his eyes flutter beneath his eyelids, erratically pinging from side to side. I drench the cloth in frigid water again and squeeze it over his hair and chest.

I should go find help—ask one of the twins or Orsen to do something, but then he’d be caught and trapped. It’ll be a last resort if I have to do that.

The bathwater runs cold, and I keep checking on him as the tub fills. The shadows in the walls are watching, guarding, and seem to be concerned for their prince as I climb back onto the mattress. “Dane, I’m going to pull you off the bed, okay?”

My attempt to drag him off results in me slipping on my ass too many times, until I finally use my feet to kick him off. He tumbles to the floor, and I gasp when he groans.

“What are you doing to me, mortal?”

“You’re burning up! I’m trying to get you into the bathtub.”

He tries to lift his head to look at me and drops back. “Fuck.”

I somehow get him into the bathroom, where I flick cold water on his face by cupping my hands and throwing it at him. He doesn’t open his eyes, but I know he wants to scowl at me.

“Hips up,” I order. “I need to take your pants off.”

His brow moves, but he does as he’s told. “You’ve said that to me before. Do you remember the night of our fourth ceremony?”

I frown. “I assume you’re confusing me with a former flame.”

He grunts as he shakily gets to his feet, and I try not to stare at him in his briefs. I can see the outline of his cock, and I really shouldn’t look. I focus on the black veins pulsing all over his body—that larger one that crawls under his waistband, and I wonder if…

My eyes bulge as he kicks off his briefs and I get a full show of his cursed cock—the black veins are even in his dick. If this was a different moment, my curiosity would win out, and I’d tip it up to see what the tattoo is on the underside. I’ve had it in my hand while it was hard and terrifying, but even soft, it looks thicker than his wrist. “That thing should be illegal.”

Dane lifts his wrist, studying it. “Interesting.”

But when he stumbles, and a trickle of blood drips from his nose, I catch him and help him into the tub.

A normal person would gasp or scream at how cold the water is. I should have known Dane is far from normal.

Unbothered by the water, he slouches and rests his head on the lip of the bath. And quickly, I realize he’s passing out again.

I slap him. “Wake up.”

One eye opens. “Do that again and I’ll drag you in here.”

I cross my arms. “You wouldn’t dare. I—”

I catch a mouthful of ice-cold water as Dane yanks me in with him, my entire body ramrod straight and shaking as I shriek. “Dane!”

He wraps his arms around me and pulls me on top of him, but I’m far too cold to pay attention to our position.

When I shove against his chest and straddle him in the bath, him naked and me in a pair of short shorts, my eyes go wide. “The curse is spreading to your face. Why are the whites of your eyes turning black?”

“Looks like I might be dying, little mortal. It’s your lucky day. It’s a shame we never got to do the next task.”

When he coughs up black blood, my heart stops.

“Don’t worry. A minor setback. I’ll catch you in the next life.”

Panic takes over, and I have no idea how I know, but I press my hand firmly on his chest, focusing on the curse, on the tendrils knitting together in his soul. I squeeze my eyes shut and call to it.

I call.

And call.

And call some more.

The flames of the candles flicker, a wind gusting around us, whipping my wet hair around my face as sharp, searing pain claws at my fingertips, latching on, drawing closer as it seeps under my nail beds and into the creases of my fingerprints.

My heart accelerates, and I continue to call to the curse, to knock it off course as it aims for the center of Dane’s darkening soul.

“Fuck, Seraphine, no.”

The black veins on Dane’s face start to fade, as well as the ones on his throat and chest. We both writhe in terror and pain, my bones feeling like they’re turning to ash as water sloshes around us. Dane tries to pull my hand away, but it’s stuck, until something rips me away from him, catapulting me out of the tub and against the bathroom wall.

The gust of wind stops, the candles settle, and I breathe heavily as I fall to the ground. Dane climbs out of the bath, wraps a towel around himself, and comes to me.

“You idiot. What the fuck were you thinking?” he snaps, pulling me up from the floor and carrying me to bed. “You shouldn’t have done that. They’ll know you used a power link.”

I have no idea what I just did. Or who they are. I close my eyes. “I wanted to help.”

“How did you know what to do?”

Silence for a long beat because I have no idea. I shrug. “I just did. Are you better?”

I took some of the curse back, but not enough to harm myself. I also shouldn’t know that, but I do.

“Just say yes or no—I’m a little dizzy.”

“Yes.” He nods, sighs, and instead of leaving or even getting clothes on, he tugs the duvet back and pulls me against him, my back to his chest. “You can’t be left alone right now. No human should ever power link.”

“Are you trying to complete task five?”

He chuckles, and his breath against my cheek makes me comfortable; makes me forget about the fading pain. “I wouldn’t be allowed to touch you if that was what I was doing.”

“If I ask you something, will you tell me the truth?”

“No,” he replies, and I huff.

Dane smiles against my neck, and a flutter of electricity rushes through me. “No more questions. My brain hurts from them. Ask me later.”

“You called me Seraphine again,” I point out. “Can you call me by my name from now on?”

“No.”

I roll my heavy eyes.

We both fall into a calmness, and at some point, his towel falls from around his waist, my wet clothes clinging to my body, and his hand holds my breast.

The heat between my legs is making me lose my mind. “Are you awake?”

“Obviously.”

“Can we do task five?” I ask bravely.

Dane lets go of me and pushes back, putting distance between us. “Now?”

“Yeah. I need a distraction.”

I sense the spike in nerves between us, but also a hint of excitement. There’s a long pause, and I’m desperate for him to speak, to tell me that we can. It’ll take my mind off my soul rattling. And also because, well… I want him.

“Fine. Can you keep your hands to yourself?”

“Can you?” I retort as I lift my hips and tug down my shorts.

I gulp as Dane digs the towel from beneath the sheets and tosses it on the floor. It’s dark out, the glow from the candle’s flame highlighting his face and tanned abs. I want to drag my tongue against them.

Dane groans. “Your mind is very open right now, human.”

My cheeks heat, but nerves take over as he completely removes the duvet, my bottom half exposed.

“Why are you hiding yourself?” He gestures to my closed legs, my hiked knees, and the way I’ve covered myself with my hand. “I’ve seen it all before.”

He rests on the pillow beside me, not hesitating to fist his cock and watch me as I slowly part my legs.

“Keep thinking of what you want to do with that tongue.”

I go to playfully slap his arm but remember the rules.

We can’t touch.

Dane’s mind is closed off, which I find extremely selfish as he dives into mine.

The silhouettes are fading into the walls, hiding, giving us space as the flames of the candles grow larger. I should be concerned about the weather randomly changing from calm to an incoming storm, but my eyes are on Dane’s hand as he works the length of him.

“What is your tattoo?”

He chuckles, trapping his lip between his teeth before releasing it. “I’ll tell you another time.”

I stare at the largeness of him. I still can’t see the ink there, and I so badly want to know what it is, but I’m too focused on his veiny hand gripping his girth and stroking to push for an answer. “Task six is going to kill me,”

“You’ll manage. Now open your legs for me.”

I let my legs fall open, my knees to the mattress on each side.

“Show me how you get yourself off.”

I swallow, my nipples tightening under my top as my fingertip grazes my clit. I look away from his face, keeping my attention on his hand as I circle, arching my back as I tease my entrance with my middle finger.

Without stopping his up-and-down movement, Dane shifts forward, closer, so he can see and hear the sounds my pussy makes as I sink two fingers deep inside. His jaw clenches, free hand fisting as I thrust my fingers, pleasuring myself while I watch him stroking his cock.

My eyes roll, my toes curling as I arch my back and grip the sheets, feeling my walls closing over my fingers repeatedly. “Keep going,” Dane orders as he strokes himself faster, both of us breathing heavily, the room growing hotter as whimpers and moans mix between us.

His foot touches mine, a graze, but it’s enough to drag me out of my build-up to frown at him.

We just failed task five.

“Really, Dane?” I blurt, pulling my fingers out and slapping his chest while he keeps stroking himself with his hand. “You just touched me!”

Dane flinches and stares down, his eyes lifting to my hand. “Did you just put your pussy juice all over me?”

My cheeks heat, seeing the wetness on his chest as mortification overwhelms me. “No. And please don’t say it like that ever again.”

He reaches up, scraping some of it with his thumb and lifting it to his mouth. My eyes widen as he closes his lips around his thumb, sucking the taste of me from it. “Hmm. Not bad for a human.”

I can’t help it. I shove him back with force and smack his chest again. Despite my horror and anger, he grins.

“Stop with the insults, you asshole!”

Dane chuckles deeply as he dodges my slaps, capturing my wrist and yanking me on top of him. “Weak and powerless. Can you be any more of a disappointment?”

“You’re being mean now.”

“No. You’re just soft,” he replies, smirking as he snatches my other hand, the one I used to pleasure myself, and sucks my middle and ring finger into his mouth. “At least you taste good,” he mumbles around them.

I pull my fingers from his mouth with a pop. “I want to hurt you.”

“And I want to kiss you.”

I’m momentarily frozen by his words. Other than the tasks and usually taking them too far, we’ve not really been intimate or kissing outside of them. “Careful, Dane, I’m starting to think you have a crush on me.”

Eyes flickering with silver look between my mouth and my narrowing gaze. “The universe will cease to exist before I ever admit to that, human. Besides, this…” He pinches my cheek. “This probably isn’t your real face.”

I hit his hand away, pulling up my shorts and getting to my feet, aiming for the bathroom to lock myself in. “You can’t call me a human then say that in the same sentence.”

He rushes off the bed, wrapping the towel around himself and snatching my wrist. “I just did.”

“And what about you?” I yank free. “What is the real face of Dane Dalton? Or is that even your real name?”

He chuckles, perfect teeth flashing white. His canines have always been a little bit longer.

His naked chest is right there, and my eyes keep lowering from his face to gawk at the muscles and ink, and I accidentally drop my eyes to the perfectly sculpted V between his hips.

“I may be able to change my appearance and species, but my name I cannot.” He tilts his head. “And what makes you think this isn’t my real face?”

“Ugly personality, ugly manners, ugly handwriting.” I lift his notebook from the dresser, the one I can barely read given how illegible the words are. “I assume you make yourself look…” I gesture to his face with the small navy book, and he raises a brow. I groan and force myself to say it. “You make yourself appear handsome to hide the rest of your hideousness. You probably made sure you had a big dick in your human form because the real one is small and pointless. Smart move, shadow boy.”

I take a breath.

He licks his lips, and I wait. Wait for him to react, to throw abusive words my way, to choke me with a shadow.

“I’m not sorry,” I say before he can force an apology out of me. “Sometimes, the truth hurts.”

With that, Dane laughs. Not a deep chuckle or a snort. He bellows as if I’ve just told the best joke in the universe.

Yet again, he dodges an object I throw at him. His jotter flies across the room instead, landing on top of his discarded clothes.

I place a hand on my hip. “You done?”

“Not even close,” he says. “From all of that, I picked up that you find me attractive and think I’m well endowed.”

“ Think being the key word. That doesn’t mean you are.”

He grips the towel in one hand, as if it’s about to fall, running the tip of his tongue along his bottom lip. My traitorous eyes follow the movement. “Would it scare you if I said I’m neither human nor creature?” He takes a step towards me, and I retreat to keep our distance. “What if I said I’m worse?”

Another step forward from him, and one back from me.

“Maybe…” Another step and my back hits the wall beside the bathroom door, trapping me between two immovable objects. “Maybe I’m a shadow? The shadow to be exact.”

His hand comes up, and my breath hitches as he traces my jawline, pupils dilating as the green flickers to a dim silver, not quite as bright as it gets when he’s… excited.

He grits his teeth and slants his head to nudge my nose with his. “Would that suit my hideous soul?”

My throat works on a swallow, but a lump gets caught as the closeness of him infiltrates every sense, every shred of common sense.

The strap of my top slides down my shoulder, and Dane’s eyes follow it slowly, mesmerized by the piece of fabric against my heated skin. His gaze doesn’t falter as I reach up to fix it back into place.

A wildfire spreads all over my body as Dane captures my throat and presses me into the wall. “I asked you a question, mortal.”

“Yes,” I breathe.

“Yes what?”

I have no idea. All I know is that my mind is going a million miles an hour, and if I’m not careful, Dane will pick up on the one thought that hasn’t stopped repeating since we were on the ballroom floor.

I block him out when he tries to infiltrate my mind, and I somehow manage to keep him trapped in the confines of a part of me filled with conversations between me and the twins while I dig deep into his.

But he’s doing the same as me.

We’re trapping each other, keeping each other from knowing what we’re thinking about, the images we’re seeing. He forces me to watch his hand slide up my thigh while in class, while I thrash against his mind from frustration.

As if I have a death wish, I want to tell him to fuck me. Death be damned.

I want to peel down my panties, dip my fingers deep inside myself, and let him taste me again. I want him to drive his cock so hard into me that I scream loud enough to shatter every window in the castle, to snuff out candles, to scare the monsters hiding in the walls.

I want this man far too much to be deemed normal. It isn’t a case of lusting or catching feelings for him. This feels like an obsession. A dangerous, terrifying obsession. Because when he isn’t around, I wait for him. I think of him. I imagine a different life with him that I haven’t lived. I even dream about him.

It must be the pairing. And with each task we do, something between us grows stronger. It’s like I’m adjusting to him, to his life and his personality. He’s still rude, but not in the way that he used to degrade me and actually bully me.

He pinned me down by the thighs with his shadow hands in class once, and thinking back, I want him to do it again.

I want Dane Dalton.

I’m not sure when it happens, but he slides out of my mind, freeing me, and tucks a lock of hair behind my ear, his brows knitting together. “What are you doing to me?”

“I think it’s the tasks,” I manage to say breathlessly. “We seem to want each other the more time we spend together, and the more… things we do.”

Dane pulls away from me completely, tsking. “Of course it’s the fucking tasks. Why would I ever want a human? Why would you ever want me?”

Fifty-seven fucking times , he says in his head.

The abrupt change in him is like a slap to the face. “Wait, what do you mean by fifty-seven times?”

“You wanted me to be cruel. An enemy. You wanted me to make you hate me. This big idea that falling in love with me again through these tasks is ridiculous. How can you when you despise me?” Dane shakes his head. “This was your idea. This was all your idea, Seraphine. It isn’t working. It never fucking works. And this…” His hand takes mine, lifting it between us to see the faint lines of darkness as the curse starts to reassert itself. “It’s strong. It’s never this strong and I don’t know how to slow it down without killing myself in the process. You’ve never been human, so we have no idea what happens when you die. I’m fucking stuck and I might lose you forever.”

I stare, confused, as I pull my hand free. “I don’t understand.”

He grips his hair and turns his back to me. “Fuck,” he blurts out. “I can’t fucking do this anymore.”

“I think you need to sleep. I’ve no idea what you’re talking about. What was my idea?”

“You were ninety years late, and then Orsen and I found you as a human. What changed, Seraphine?”

He’s delusional from siphoning the curse. “I am human, Dane. I don’t know what you’re talking about. I was born twenty years ago. I have a full life of memories. I’m Seraphine Winters from Chic—”

“No,” he grits, his eyes glazing over. “Your name is Seraphine Dalton, Queen of the realms, and have been for nearly six hundred fucking years.”

I blink, holding my breath. None of what he’s saying makes sense, and the look in his eyes tells me that he’s losing his mind.

“You need to leave,” I say, my voice shaking. “You’re scaring me.”

He rubs both hands down his face. “I’m sorry. It’s not your fault. I’m just…” He walks to me, cups my cheeks, and strokes his thumbs under my eyes as if he’s done it a thousand times. “I’m tired. I’m so fucking tired, and I miss you and can’t stand talking to you this way. I’ll keep trying. You gave me orders and told me not to take shortcuts. I won’t. I’ll make you forget just now—and the power linking. It’s too much of a risk for you to remember.”

Frowning, I try to find words. “Make me forget what?”

He presses his forehead to mine, then presses his lips softly against it. “I won’t fuck up again, my love. I promise.”

A wave of guilt hits me. Unexplainable. It nearly suffocates me as the back of my eyes sting. “Dane…”

“I’m sorry,” he replies. “So, so sorry.”

My lips part as he pulls his face away, but then my gaze follows a lone tear falling from his eye as he mutters something in a different language. My chest tightens, as if something is being pulled out of me. My vision blurs, and a part of me panics and wants to pull away, screaming for him not to do this, but there’s a snap in my head, and my mind goes blank.

I blink a few times as Dane moves away from me and wipes his face, rubbing his eyes, waiting for me to speak.

“I think it’s the tasks,” I manage to say, breathless all of a sudden. “We seem to want each other the more time we spend together, and the more… things we do.”

He nods. “It seems so, mortal. Sleep—you will need your strength for tomorrow.”

“What happens tomorrow?” I ask as he wordlessly magics himself a fresh pile of clothes and starts pulling them on.

“You’ll see.”

And then he winks at me as he disappears into nothing.