Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 52864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 264(@200wpm)___ 211(@250wpm)___ 176(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 264(@200wpm)___ 211(@250wpm)___ 176(@300wpm)
“I had not planned to.” He paused, looking ahead for a moment. “But if, like you said, power is a double-edged sword, then I have a fifty-fifty chance of getting it wrong.”
“Then you have to make sure that doesn’t happen,” I said.
“I cannot do that unless I know everything: What event leads to me turning my back on the world? Why does everyone think I will unite the Seers and Ten Club when I do not want to help either one? They must have a reason to think I will betray my own soul.” He rubbed his forehead, as if nursing a headache. “Everyone I’ve come across does not know or will not tell me. It is as if they refuse to remember.”
Suddenly, my mind flashed to an image of someone chasing me through my backyard with a labrys.
“What was that?” he asked.
“What was what?”
“You were screaming, and I was trying to capture you.”
I tilted my head. “I don’t know. Just some…random noise, I guess.”
He frowned, studying me.
“What?”
His gaze grew more focused and intense, but he didn’t say anything. I hated how he could put me on pins and needles with just one look.
“Stop staring like that. I really don’t know what that was.”
“That is not why I am staring,” he said.
I waited.
“You do not feel that?” he asked.
I shook my head.
“Then you’re not trying hard enough.” He raised his hand and pressed it to my cheek.
“What are you doing?” I felt pinpricks surge through my face, down my neck, and into my core. It almost hurt when he touched me, but I liked it. Suddenly, my temples began to pulse, producing a dull ache.
“There is something locked away deep in your mind that I cannot get to, and I think it is the answer to why we are connected.”
What the hell was he talking about?
“Surely by now you’ve realized we were meant to meet,” he said.
He’d mentioned the same thing back at the house.
“I don’t know.” I did feel something, but there was no form or shape to it. “When I first saw you in the café, I felt like I already knew you. And when you showed up at my house, I wanted to help you.”
“That might’ve been me.” He dropped his hand and smiled.
“You used your mind tricks on me, didn’t you?”
He shrugged.
“I knew it.” I looked away, shaking my head. There was no way I’d just let some stranger into my house.
“But I am no stranger. Like you said, you already knew me.”
I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose.
“You calm me,” he blurted out.
“Sorry?”
He let out a slow breath. “The only time I can think clearly is when I’m near you.”
Was he trying to flatter me or butter me up? Is he flirting?
“I am not flirting with you,” he replied. “I am merely telling the truth.”
“Good. Because I’m in no way interested.” Or, more accurately, he terrified me. When I was around Draco, I felt like I wasn’t in control. He could make my stomach roll and my heart pound for no damned reason. Even now, there was an anxiousness swirling around, telling me danger was close. Yet I was stuck in his orbit, and nothing could pull me away.
He turns me into a mess.
“That is our connection.” He took a moment. “You have a physical reaction to me without understanding why. Just like you want to fuck me, but don’t want to admit it.”
“What?” I do not.
“Do not worry. We don’t have time for that right now.”
“I do not want to sleep with you.” I admired his body. So what? He was a beautiful man, but that wasn’t enough to make me jump into bed with him.
He turned and stared down with those cold eyes. “I think you’re smart to keep your distance, Piper. Because neither of us knows for certain where this is going. Not really. But just so you know, I would also like to fuck you.”
I swallowed down a lump. Dear God. I needed to get the hell away from him.
“Not until I say, Piper.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I’m here because I want to be, Draco. Don’t forget that.” Yet, as I spoke, I knew it wasn’t completely true. Like I’d already said, I felt trapped in his orbit. I didn’t like it, but I was.
He was about to say something, but then simply smiled. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Now my head was pounding, so I closed my eyes. As I drifted off, my mind wandered into the strangest dream: gray clouds, black rain, the smell of rotting garbage, and in the distance, screaming. So much screaming.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Draco
Piper fell into a deep sleep, and I urged her to explore. There’d been a moment earlier when she saw an image of me holding a Minoan labrys while running through a burned-out forest. The scene reminded me of Hiroshima in 1945, a smoldering wasteland.