“I’m not fucking finished. You stampedProperty of Destonne O’Daireon my damn hand!”
“I’ll only explain this once, and I want you to listen.” She opened her mouth to snap back but he went on, “Bonds can’t be forced. Blood has to be exchanged and there must be a phrase to tie it, but aside from those conditions, whatever the soul willswins. Both parties have to want it, and not temporarily. It has to be a deep desire in your bones and your blood. Somethingtrue.”
He crossed the distance and stood in front of her, smelling of night air and mint tea, and she wanted to cry or scream or hit him or tear off his clothes. She didn’t know. Couldn’t get any damn sense through her mind.
“Would you look at me?” he asked.
She shook her head. She couldn’t, not with him this close. All the things she’d heard in the labyrinth, all the images she’d seen, all the inadequacies and fears were all real. She was a vile, despicable person, and she’d let Zyphira down, betrayed Shade, and failedeveryone.
Gently, he took her face in his hands and met her eyes, and she let him, only for a moment. “The truth is you, Emmery Hawthorne, my perfect, pretty angel, have feelings for me you can’t admit. Even to yourself.”
Guilt struck her so violently, it may as well have been a fatal blow. “That’s—that’s not true. You’re out of yourdamnmind!”
He nodded at her hand. “Why don’t you tell the bond that, and see if it’ll listen? Because you aren’t convincing me.”
She seized his hand from her cheek and searched it. “Then where’s your mark? Or is your soul too blackened to want anything other than to control me?”
“Middeo. It’s a … half bond.” He uttered it like a dirty word. “If you repeated what I said it would be whole, but I didn’t expect that from you. And I don’t expect it now.”
Emmery dropped his hand like a hot poker straight from the fire, jabbed her finger into his hard chest, and snarled, “Take it back!”
His jaw worked as he studied her hand, like he barely clung to the ledge and falling would be both terrifying and catastrophic as his quiet rage rattled the bars of its cage. “I can’t. Even if I wanted to, and I certainly don’t. Bonds are permanent. Onlydeath can sever them. And I hate to break it to you, but your heart stopped, and there it remains.”
Her legs numbed as her body became a coffin; a choice she didn’t make. She no longer belonged to herself. All the pieces of her would always belong to him. He’dstolenthat from her.
Destonne’s stare bore into her as they battled for air, the room too small, too quiet, and thick tension clouded the space between them. Images rose in her mind of his tongue on her scars, his mouth on her body, his face between her thighs, and his blood in her mouth, visceral like the labyrinth’s vision where she could feel herself on that bed.
But she refused to look away. Refused to let him win.
“I won’t apologize for what I did,” he said, his voice low. “I told you as much the first day we met.”
“No. The first day we met I watched you snap someone’s neck.”
“The first day wereallymet. The first day you knew who I was. Like I said before, I’ve never claimed to be anything I’m not. I take what I desire. And what I really want—” He braced his arm on the wall over her head, the sliver of space between them agony. “I want you, Emmery.”
Her heart stuttered, cinched tighter like a hand clutching an overripe fruit until it burst. “You can’t have me. I’m notyours.”
“You were certainly mine when you had those beautiful legs spread for me. When you bared your soul. And if you recall, I did the same. Or was I mistaken?”
Emmery ground her teeth, trying to shove away the heartbreak. She’d trusted him and it’d seemed mutual but now it was … warped. “Just because I let you touch me—”
“Let me touch you? Like some favour?” He choked out a laugh. “Oh, angel, youbeggedme to. And if you took a step back and looked at yourself, you’d see that you in fact used me. We’re the same, you and I.”
“I would never do this to you! You stole my choice. You tricked me! And you—you ruined everything!” She clamped a hand over her mouth as a sob worked its way up her throat. “The prophecy. This fever. You fucked it all up. You took me away from Shade! He’ll never want me if I’m bonded to someone else.”
His face hid beneath that mask, but he blinked, and pain bled through. “If your Shade doesn’t want you that’s his choice.”
“Why did you do it, Destonne?” His breath brushed her lips. “I know you. You don’t do things without reason. What’s in this for you? Is it—did you get something from this bond? I don’t even know what it means. Is it so you can use me? My magic—”
“Stop.”
They both gulped air as they stood close but not close enough.
“Make me,” she challenged.
“You wouldn’t want me to. Because if I kiss you right now, you’ll fall to pieces in my hands. I can already see it in your eyes.” He blinked slowly at her. Blinked something away. Hid it from her like everything else. “So, please, juststop.”
“No. Tell me why you did this. Tell me.” Her voice cracked and she squeezed her eyes shut, battling tears. “Tell me why.”