Page 16 of Fated In Ruin
My heart was hammering against my ribs when I tore myself away and flipped him off.Bothhands. “In case you need an interpreter, fuck all the way off.”
I stalked for the door, cheeks burning, heart slamming against ribs. God, he had me so twisted up right now I didn’t know what I wanted.
To kill him or kiss him. Or both.
Damn it. What was wrong with me?Malachi was the enemy. Who also helped you defeat Tyrell and save your sister. But he was totally in enemy territory and one did not have lustful thoughts about people they hated.
I shouldn’t be on my own, making life changing decisions—kingdom ending decisions—by myself with no fucking idea if I was doing the right thing or not.
And since nobody ever told me shit, I had like a ninety-nine percent chance of making the wrong one. That part was a given.
“Your word, Vicious,” Malachi called softly, and fuck me, but my feet stopped moving, as if he somehow had dominion over my body. I looked at the ruined gardens out past the windows, but there was no escape, only a choice I had to make.
“Fine.” I tapped my foot on the debris-riddled floor. “But besides warning Blake and Riordan, I want something else.” I ignored the heady scent of cedar and ice that suddenly flooded the room, the heat rushing into my belly.
These fuckers wanted to weasel their way through every fucking situation? I’d do the same. I’d get somethingIwanted for a change.
“When this is over, I want you gone. I never want to see you again. And stay the fuck out of my head. I so much as sense you reading my thoughts, I am done. You make that part of our deal, and I give you my word I won’t stab you in your sleep, no matter how badly I want to.” I picked up a silver of shattered glass from the debris-strewn floor, and after a moment’s hesitation, sliced the edge across my palm, gritting my teeth at the sudden flash of pain.
Malachi’s eyes dilated, his fangs punched out, his face suddenly looked like it was carved from stone as the scent of my blood hit his nose, but he studied my outstretched hand, flicked his finger and opened up a matching cut on his own hand.
Our slippery palms met, a warm, coppery smell filling the air, and power jolted through me, the kind that reshaped the world. Even locked down, my magic shifted restlessly, cold trickling up my arm from where his fingers closed around mine and our blood merged.
I didn’t know how long we stood there, palms pressed tight, blood melding, something inside of me shifting, too. Being around Malachi was dangerous, in too many ways to count.
“Agreed,” Malachi murmured, stepping back and without a hint of shame, flattened his tongue and ran it up his palm, his eyes dilating as he licked, never breaking our stare.
I couldn’t look away, imagining having that tongue on me and the heat between my legs turned to molten flame, charring my bones, turning me into an empty husk of panting want before I spun on my heel and stalked away.
8
RIORDAN GRAVES
“There. Close as I can get, she should be in the vicinity.”
I stared down at the map, Zachary’s finger pressed to a small town in Nova Scotia, brushing the edge of the Northern Atlantic. “I triangulated her location twice, cross referenced the data with the nearest cell stations, measuring the signal strength received from multiple towers and calculated the most likely position based on the signal delays and this is where she is.”
The kid might as well have been speaking a different language, but Nash, Blake and I all nodded, like we knew what the fuck he was talking about.
My heart was pounding so hard in anticipation, my ribcage hurt. In a few minutes—after I ensured Evangeline was safe—my hands would be wrapped around Draven’s throat and all would be right in my world as I watched the life fade from his eyes.
IfBlake didn’t get to him before me.
May the best male win.
“Let’s go before we run out of daylight.” Nash signaled his men, lined up outside in the hall. “Out front, ten minutes, then twenty in the air and we’ll have boots on the ground. Keep your eyes open, be ready for anything.”
I rechecked my own weapons, my magic scraping at my insides, desperate to be freed. Even my bones hummed with rage and revenge, and after all the reasons why he should be left alive, Malachi Draven had run out of chances.
I liked the brutal finality of that.
“The fucker’s full of tricks,” Blake reminded everyone for good measure, when his phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out, his finger hovering over theend callbutton, my feet freezing to the floor when I glimpsed the name displayed.
Blake’s Mate.
“Rohr. Fuck, it’s her.” And this wasn’t a text, this wasa phone call. His fingers shook as he hit the button, both of us bracing for the worst. “Evie?”
“Blake? Is that you?” A huge release of air. “Yeah, this is me, but I’m sure you already know that. Sorry, I’m rambling, but…” Static crackled across the line, distorting her voice, “I’m down to half a battery and almost no bars, so I’ll make this fast.”
