She couldn’t make herself say the word ‘slave’ in relation to being Natalya’s. It felt wrong to even think it.
“Something would change.” Lily gave her a soft smile. “People would know.”
The words made Evie’s heart start racing. She imagined holding Natalya’s hand where people could see. Kissing her and touching her. Natalya running her fingers through Evie’s hair in that way she liked to do, and which always made Evie feel so wonderfully calm.
Being hers. PeopleknowingEvie was hers.
It was a strange feeling. Wanting something you thought you shouldn’t desire.
When everyone left, Evie was stuck with a decision she didn’t know how to make. Putting on the pendant was like taking a leap into the dark, a place she knew had hungry teeth. She’d experienced their piercing pain before. She was still terrified of them. But it wasn’t the same.
She wasn’t giving herself toanycreature. Just one. And though she may be a fiend, she was no monster. She was just Natalya.
Frightening and powerful. Distrustful and vulnerable. Evie’s protector. Her lover. A woman she’d called Mistress and found both calm and comfort in the title. A woman she’d come to care for so much it hurt.
Evie wouldn’t be her slave. She would just be hers.
She spent hours staring at the purple Chain pendant. Hours thinking, deciding, and then changing her mind. When she finally picked up the necklace and put it around her neck, it felt like she’d jumped out of an airplane wearing a torn parachute.
Pain.
Everything was pain. Everything was agony.
Natalya regained consciousness slowly and regretfully. Her skin was made of fire. There was a smell in the air, of smoke and hell.
Faintly, Natalya registered she was lying in a bed. There was gauze wrapped around her, with padding against a wound in her side. The one Stefano made with his fiend-fixed knife.
Groaning and wincing, Natalya pushed herself into a sitting position. She was in her bedroom. Alone. It was dark and quiet. How had she gotten here?
Then she remembered. After getting to the high-rise and bringing Hasan to the infirmary, Natalya had excused herself to go fix her ruined body. She’d intended to sit in the shower until the salt dissolved and then retreat to a nightroom where she’d remain, shivering and staring at the door, until she was healed enough to leave.
She’d fallen unconscious almost as soon as she turned on the water. She’d turned cold. It was what happened when fiends had no energy left. Corpse-like, agonizing stasis where you couldn’t even scream. Evie’s kiss had brought her out of it.
Evie had taken off her ruined clothes. Dug the salt out of her skin. Guided her to the bedroom. Natalya put a hand on the bandaged injury. Had Evie done this too?
If she hadn’t, that meant someone else had. Who? Aleksander? Just the thought of Aleksander seeing her like this made her cringe.
Drago then? The fiend would be the only one she’d be accepting towards, but he didn’t possess the gentleness required to tend an injury in this way. At most, he’d have pressed a towel against her and let her be. He wouldn’t have been this careful. He would have known there was no need.
Evie didn’t know. Evie would have been careful with her.
Natalya slowly got to her feet. She found a black silk robe and put it on over her naked body, groaning with every movement.
She needed energy, badly. She needed to get to the Second Circle and stay there for a few days. Then she’d be fine.
It would be faster with Evie.
Natalya pushed the thought away. She couldn’t do that. Evie wasn’t hers, and she didn’t want to be. And after the pitiful display Natalya had presented in the bathroom, Evie wouldn’t want to do anything with her. It was what had happened with Elliot, and she’d shown him less vulnerability than shivering from pain in a shower stall.
No, the Second Circle would suffice. It would have to.
It was dark out, and the living space was quiet. At first, she thought it was empty, but then she spotted a bundle of blankets on one of the couches, and the woman curled beneath them. Evie was asleep, her strawberry blonde hair loose and tangled. She was whimpering. Haunted by nightmares.
Natalya wanted nothing more than todamnthe Second Circle. She wanted to lie next to Evie and hold her close. To smooth out her long, soft hair. To make her sigh by giving her sweet dreams.
It wasn’t possible. After healing her injuries, Natalya was so drained that just brushing against someone’s skin would cause indescribable pain. With no energy to control her abilities, she was walking doom. She could kill someone with a touch in this state. Even if Evie was resistant, Natalya didn’t want to take the risk.
She staggered through the apartment, trying to be quiet. She failed when she had to grab a chair for support and made it clatter against the dining table. It wasn’t that loud. Maybe Evie hadn’t heard.
