Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 81261 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81261 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
“You knew,” Amell snarls as he grabs him by the arm and hauls him up.
Knew what?
About me?
“I swear I didn’t, Your Majesty. Please.”
With no effort whatsoever, Amell pulls the incubus toward me. Even though the fae is almost as large as Amell, he’s powerless against the king’s hold.
Amell holds out his hand, and I don’t think twice.
I take it.
And then everything turns black, and I feel like I’m spinning and falling and then… everything is straight and I can see I’m standing on the Bridge of Judgment with the Crimson River churning below.
I barely have time to understand where we are before Amell casually pushes the incubus off. His screams get fainter the farther he falls until I hear the splash into the river and the ground shakes.
“Thank you,” I sigh, feeling safe for the first time.
“Don’t thank me,” Amell snarls as he grips me by the back of my neck and drags me to the edge. “You’re next.”
CHAPTER 11
Amell
Acidic rage burns within, all directed at the incubus who was on top of Nyssa, about to devour her from the inside out. But when I tossed him over the edge, my fury didn’t abate, and I realized Nyssa putting herself in danger angered me even more.
“You were in an area of the castle you were forbidden to be,” I growl as I hold her by her neck.
Nyssa jerks and twists, attempting to escape my clutches. Her feet dig hard against the stone, trying to push back against my strength, but it’s futile.
I try to force some measure of calm into myself. Had Nyssa died—which she most assuredly would have when that incubus was done with her as they suck your life force dry through sex—her soul would have gone straight into the Crimson River. There are no further chances in the Underworld for a human if you die here a second time. It would’ve happened immediately and without me even knowing. There wouldn’t have been time to save her, and that’s why I’m so fucking pissed.
Stupid, ignorant mortals.
“Let me go, you asshole,” she screams, kicking backward at me and swinging her arms in an attempt to strike my body.
I’m the asshole?
I swing her around to face me. Letting go of her neck, I fist the front of her shirt and pull her in close, forcing her to her tiptoes. Her expression isn’t the least bit recalcitrant, her eyes blazing with the same level of fury I feel.
“Do you know what that incubus would have done to you?” I demand, giving her a shake to force some regret into her eyes. “He would have raped you, repetitively. He would have used every touch, kiss, thrust into you to take pieces of your soul. It would have been agony as you gave it up to him—excruciating pain not just to your body, but to your existence. And when he’d gorged on every bit and fueled his body, this new body I gave you would be dead again. And you know where the remainder of your soul would have gone?”
She doesn’t answer. Doesn’t even give me the courtesy of a nod.
I lean in closer, my lips curled with a sneer. “It would have gone straight to the Crimson River. I wouldn’t have been able to stop it.”
I expect to see understanding, fear, and regret, and yet I get nothing but defiance. She has strength and resilience I’ve never seen before in a human. Hardly have I ever seen it in immortals.
With a sigh, my anger dissipates, and I drop my forehead to hers. “I should just throw you in the river and be done with it,” I grumble, although I don’t mean it. If I did, she’d already be over the edge.
“Or you could kiss me,” she whispers.
My head jerks back, and I glare down at her with narrowed eyes. “What did you just say?”
Gone is the rebellion from her expression, replaced with uncertainty. “I said you could kiss me.”
Permission.
Or manipulation?
“Why? So I won’t throw you in the river?”
“I can’t stop you from doing it if you really want to, and it’s no more than I deserve.”
It’s not the first time she’s said that. She truly believes she deserves damnation.
“Then why do you want me to kiss you?”
Her gaze slides over the bridge’s edge to the frothing river below. “Because I’ll probably end up there at some point. Maybe I want something good before that day comes.”
It shouldn’t affect me… the acceptance in her voice that this is as good as it’s ever going to get for her. It most definitely shouldn’t make my black heart thump that she considers a kiss from me something good in all the bad.
She watches me expectantly, a glimmer of yearning there. I release her shirt, moving my hand to the back of her neck. “You’ve given me permission to touch you, and you know I’m going to take more than a kiss, whether you like it or not.”