“You weren’t in the cube when I returned,” he says hoarsely.
I swallow a little. “I needed some air.”
“In the light of the moon, you’re breathtaking,” he whispers.
I thread my fingers through his hair. “That’s a lovely thing for a dark wizard to say.”
Dragneel leans in close. “Even us dark wizards have our moments.”
We both smile, and without thinking, I arch into him; my core aches for him again.
There is this new need within me he’s created, a demand that hurts badly.
“It’s taking everything in me, Kat, not to fuck you right here on the roof in front of everyone.”
Seeing the wild edge in his eyes, I release a shaky breath. Dear God, he’s going to be my undoing. A part of me wants to push him to the edge, just to see what his breaking point is.
“I need to know something,” I breathe out.
“What?”
“If you were to obtain eternal magic tonight, will you still seek it out to sell?”
His back stiffens. My question is leading us into unpleasant territory.
“Yes,” he admits.
My eyes snap to his. “For the money?”
“No.”
“Then why?” I counter, needing to know his real intent. “Why cheat, lie, and steal?”
Awareness sharpens in his eyes. “I told you before, Kat. Wizards and mages are dying because their magic is depleting. I won’t sit by and continue to watch them suffer. Nor will I blindly allow them, or myself, to think the only way to save them is with blood magic,” he replies.
I think of my own situation.
How the priestess saved me.
How I suffer even now.
Dragneel’s expression turns serious. “We can stop it. Together.”
Staring down at me, he searches my face.
I see the heart and compassion he hides behind the darkness. I have no argument ready. There is nothing new or compelling I can say to him to make him stop doing what he’s doing.
Yet, I’m not prepared to lose him so soon after finding him.
As he stares at me, I realize something in me has changed tonight.
I run my fingers through his hair, and he tilts his head down.
Pushing up on my tiptoes, I kiss him.
Dragneel’s taste is decadent like dark chocolate.
He’s sinful and righteous and everything in between.
It’s bitter and intoxicating.
I press myself deeper against him, needing more, so much more.
There is no going back after tonight. He’s changed me. In a few short hours.
“Onyx has the card,” I blurt out. “Take it. I surrender it to you.”
He stills and stares at me, looking annoyed. It’s like he’s heard something in my voice that spooked him. I know this because his body language is suddenly tense like cold steel. And for a second, all I see on his face is dark intent and anger. He backs away, putting space between us.
Heated gray eyes pin me with a hard look. He shakes as his eyes dart back and forth between my eyes and mouth as if he isn’t sure if I’m lying or just buying more time. “Why?” he asks.
I close my eyes and whisper, “Why what?”
“Why surrender it to me, knowing my intentions, after protecting it for so long?” he barks.
Maybe telling him where to find it was a bad idea.
“Whatever reservations I had about you . . . they’re gone,” I reply honestly, opening my lids.
“Because I fucked you against a wall?” he snarls, and I’m enraged at the accusation.
I tense and release a quick breath. “Because you’re not as you seem.”
“Neither are you, Katya,” he snaps as if disappointed in me.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I shout.
He watches me like he’s waiting for me to change my mind.
When I don’t, he growls.
“Darkness will always come between us because we’re the same.”
I stare at him. My mind isn’t working as fast as I need it to, to understand him.
“And you just proved it.”
With those final words ringing in my ears, he slips away into the night.
Chapter Ten
In The End
Dragneel
Torment fills me. Maybe it’s confusion. That is what I fucking am. Confused. Why am I so damn attracted to someone who is just like me? Full of the same darkness. It doesn’t matter if we’re both the same. Parts of me are still broken. I’m sure the same is true for her. It annoys me that she gave in so fucking quickly. I thought she was stronger than that. And while I came here for the dagger tonight, truthfully, I didn’t expect to leave with it. Not this easily, anyway.
I shouldn’t feel guilty.
But I do.
Because I’ve never felt whatever this is pushing on my chest.
Emotion shudders through me, causing my insides to come alive. It’s as if I’m waking up from a deep sleep. With each touch of Katya’s hands, each look, each breath, she brought me back to life. Forcing my heart to beat again even when I demand it to remain dormant. Fuck.
I fume with frustration as I take the stairs down to the first floor of the ball.
I need her to push me away.
I need her to beg me to stay.
None of this is going to end well for either of us.
Once I take the final stair, I stop, watching Onyx behind the bar from across the room. She has the card. The one thing I wanted to leave with tonight. The secrets I keep. The lies I tell. I tell myself they are all worth it at night when the blood drips from my hands. I’m saving our kind. Protecting them from drowning in the darkness. Regardless of what it costs me.
Aren’t I?
The band stops playing for a moment before the sound of the siren’s voice echoes throughout the warehouse. “We hope you’ve all found love, even if only for a little while,” she says into the microphone before instructing everyone to head to the roof for the end-of-the-night fireworks display.
Love. No. I exhale slowly. That isn’t what I found.
That is impossible.
What I feel is lust. Attraction. But not love.
Numb, I stand here, watching the guests push their way to the stairs.
As they do, the band begins to play a haunting song with a thumping beat. The siren’s voice is soothing as she sings about how we’re all just living like monsters in a cage, beseeching us to choose our lover or enemy. Tonight, I may have found both enemy and lover.
And when her voice carries words of dancing with fate, I close my eyes, challenging myself not to run back upstairs to Katya. I never promised her I was good. I sell eternal magic for profit.
That’s it.
Eternal magic betrays us, saves us, brings us back to life.
Tonight, though, all of the lines are blurring.
Feelings can’t interfere with what I do. Katya can’t interfere with what I do.
When her face and lips appear behind my closed lids, I ache to taste more of her. I shake my head and open my eyes, not trusting myself not to lose it, to allow the dark to drag me into hell.
The more she touched me tonight, the deeper I fell.
Now, I’m in over my head.
Both of us are.
And when she kissed me, devoured me, I lost more restraint.
Lost control.