Only to find that it is empty. Gritting my teeth, I lift my leg and slam my foot into the cushion, sending it bouncing against the desk behind it.
“Fucking coward! Get out here and let’s have this bullshit conversation!” There’s nothing behind me but a wall… or at least, that’s what I saw when I approached.
The hot breath that fans against my neck causes my baby hairs to stand on end. “You remind me of Proserpina so much…”
I’m not even sure what possess me. Anger, rage, whatever the catalyst to making me turn and punch solid mass, I need to get it in check. It isn’t that I feared repercussions of possibly punching the ruler of the Beyond, I regret it due to nearly every bone in my hand breaking on impact.
Blinding pain shoots straight through my skeletal system and I nearly crack my teeth at how hard I’m clenching them to keep from screaming. I stumble back, my wrist clutched in my grasp, feeling my shattered bones begin to reconfigure themselves under my skin and muscle.
A rough, scolding hot hand grips around my throat.
“Don’t hurt her, please,” I hear Tyson say behind me.
I move my gaze from my mangled hand, up the arm that has me held tight. His dark red skin strained, veins popping from every which angle.
The hold on my neck gets tighter. With my useful hand I try and slip my fingers between his grip and my throat.
Eyes like an eclipse get closer, a set of sharp horns disappear out of my vision as he invades my breathing space. I have no doubt this is Belial himself, the smell of ash and firewood permeate my senses. I can physically taste him, as though I’ve opened my mouth while walking through a burning forest.
“Such a feisty little thing,” he croons, and begins to stand straight,taking me with him. The moment my toes can’t touch the ground, I kick at him. “I’m excited to remind you of your place,Daughter.”
Chapter 43
Kairhyse
It’s been three days, and nothing has been able to keep me still. I could care less that Kayn has told me time works differently there, and it’s likely only been an hour, if not less. It’s nonexistent, and because of that I should justsettle down.
“It’s because I love you, godsdamn it!”Fuck the Gods above, Xeraphine.“I’d suffer a million deaths to ensure I have you to come home to.”
My body aches—whether it’s my heart, which stopped beating the moment she walked away, or my mind, which won’t stop racing. It all hurts. And the second she’s back, all I’ll want is to run away with her. To let everything that happened to my girl vanish like the wind.
To have what’s mine without anyone trying to claim her.
How did I fall in love with a woman wanted by the Beyond, the Vayl, and this mortal world alike?
She is my everything, and at this point, the world and everyone on it can fuck off.
“Checkmate,” Brice says, getting a long, drawn out groan from Sydni. I’ve been pacing back and forth in front of the floor to ceiling windows, staring out into the darkening forest.
It’s a strange sensation. I hadn’t realized it until she was gone, but I don’t feel her presence anymore. It truly is like a part of me is missing, as though I’d severed my body in half, and was only functioning with the phantom limbs my mind created for me. I suspect it’s because of me claiming her, but equally I being her Mark.
“Want to give it a go, Kairhyse? Kayn?” I don’t look at the Werewolf, I don’t even peek at my friend. I’m having a hard time not snapping at the smallest of conversations.
No one has spoken to me since I nearly made Sydni cry, and I feel like shit for it. She didn’t deserve that. But damn it, if she had asked me one more time how I could have just ‘let her go’, I would have lost it.
So instead, I just told her to leave me alone.
I know there’s no one in this world she loves more than Xeraphine. That’s why she was upset, I get it.
“Rhyse-poo?” As though I had summoned her through my thoughts, she appears in front of me. “Talk with me?”
I take a deep breath, looking down into her crimson eyes with a solemn expression. “I’m fine, Syd. Just… I just need silence, but I can’t be alone.” Placing my hand against her cheek, I give her a smile. My thumb draws under her eye. “I know you’re concerned.”
She places one hand over mine, the other around my wrist, holding on tight. I know her desire to talk isn’t necessarily out of concern for me. As close as she is to Brice, she wants to be with us—Xera and me. It’s where she feels comfortable, and while I hate shrugging her off, this ismycomfortable place: silence in the presence of others.
Someone’s cell vibrates, causing both Sydni and I to look in its direction. Niyla grabs her phone off the counter and answers it.
“Everything okay?” My eyes narrow as she speaks. Who could be calling her, and why would she be asking that?
