Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 56189 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 281(@200wpm)___ 225(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56189 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 281(@200wpm)___ 225(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
I’m spiraling. I don’t know if I’ve ever spiraled before. No matter what trials arose, there has always been a logical solution. Even with Anika, my disappointment and heartache never overrode my ability to think. Right now, I’m not thinking. I’m panicking. I have to fix this, and I don’t know how to. “Go back to bed.”
“No, I don’t think I will.” She hitches the blanket higher around her shoulders and sinks into the chair across from me. “What’s going on? Why are you acting so strange?”
“I’m not.”
Her brows draw together. “That’s the second time you’ve lied to me today.” Her hand goes to her bare neck. “This is about the pendant, isn’t it? Because you ripped it off.”
“I’m sorry,” I grind out. “I shouldn’t have.”
If anything, she frowns harder. “I’m sorry, were you the only person participating in what we did?”
Shame makes me hunch my shoulders. “That’s not the point.” I had never been more aware of the differences between us than when I stalked her through the forest. It felt like predator and prey, and I enjoyed it far too much. We weren’t equals. “Ripping off your pendant and then fucking you was taking the game too far.”
“You did what?”
We both startle as Azazel himself appears. He fills up the doorway, his horns curving up to scrape against the mantle as he steps into the room. His dark gaze takes us in, and his brows slam down. “Explain yourself.”
“I—”
“Not you, Briar.” He doesn’t look away from me. “I want the dragon to explain why he’s apologizing for an incident removing your birth control and then fucking you.”
Apologizing to Briar is one thing. Putting what just happened out there for Azazel to sit in judgment is something else altogether. “That’s between us.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, my boy.” He takes another step forward, looming over the desk. “My contract says otherwise.”
Alarm bells peal through my head. Surely he doesn’t mean to… I push slowly to my feet. “If I violated the contract, you would have been waiting here for me when we arrived back at the keep. You would have known before showing up that it happened.”
He narrows his eyes. “The contract might not have pinged what happened as harm, but what I just heard does.”
He’s right and I hate that he’s right. That doesn’t mean I’m about to bend on this. Not when the stakes are so high. “We’re fine. Leave.”
“Briar.” His tone is significantly softer when speaking to her than it is with me. “Did you consent to have Sol’s children?”
She pales, her skin turning almost green. “What? No. I mean…” Her voice goes raspy. “We haven’t talked about it since our initial conversation.”
Azazel’s dark eyes glimmer red. “And during that conversation, you told him you…”
She goes even greener. “That I didn’t want children during this contract.”
“Wait—” I’m not sure what argument I have, but in the end, it makes no difference.
His eyes flare crimson. “I don’t know how one qualifies harm in this territory, but in mine, the definition clearly applies.” He looks around. “I’ll return to iron out the details shortly.”
Briar looks between us. “Wait, that’s not what I meant.”
“Don’t try to protect him now.” He stalks to her, two quick steps. I register his intent and dive for them, but it’s too late. Azazel grasps Briar’s shoulder and they blip out of existence, teleporting away from me.
Forever.
“No!”
Chapter 24
Briar
One moment I’m staring into Sol’s panicked face, watching him dive for me, and the next my stomach gives a sickening lurch and I’m back in the room where this all started. Or, rather, where my entrance to the demon realm began. It looks almost alien after getting used to my low bed and cluttered cabinets in Sol’s room. I want to rip the pretty lace curtains from the walls.
I jerk out of Azazel’s grasp, well aware that he allows it. “You’re wrong!”
“I’m not.” He eyes me, the red in his eyes retreating until they’re the more familiar black. It’s not a heated look by any means, but I am suddenly aware of the fact that I’m naked beneath my blanket. Azazel frowns when I tuck it tighter around myself. “Are you in need of medical care?”
I flush from my toes to roots. The only pain points are the little teeth marks across my body, but I’ll be damned before I let him take those away. “I’m fine.”
He nods slowly. “You’re safe here.”
“I was safe with Sol.” I might have complicated feelings about what happened and how he acted afterward, but I have no doubt we were both victims to our lusts and a game going too far. He didn’t set out intending to trap me. I certainly didn’t set out to force him to violate the terms of the contract.
Azazel stalks to the wardrobe and flings it open. He grabs a robe and tosses it onto the bed. “Put this on, and then we’ll get you another pendant. I’m assuming it hasn’t been long since he tore the other.”