Strong hands gripped my upper arms and shook me until I blinked the shadows from my eyes.
I was standing on the roof of a tall tower on top of Acrux Manor with the warm wind tugging at my hair and the stars shining brightly above me.
“Are you ready to get to work, Roxanya?” Lionel purred as he looked into my eyes and I sighed as I glanced back at him. Something about him just made me feel like I belonged.
“What work?” I asked, a frown tugging at my brow as the shadows slipped around me, kissing my skin and whispering sweet nothings in my ears. They were hungry…so hungry.
“Do you want to please me?” Lionel asked, his hand moving to grasp my chin as he forced me to hold his gaze.
His eyes were dark green like his Dragon and captured all of my attention as I gazed into their depths and hunted within them for his shadows, wondering if they’d rise for me too. He’d put on a pair of grey slacks, a white button down and brown loafers which I guessed he’d kept here for his return.
“Yes,” I breathed as my heart beat harder. I did want to please him. I wanted that more than…anything.
“Good girl.” He shoved my face out of his grip, knocking me back a step as he turned and headed inside with Clara skipping forward to take his hand in hers.
My lip curled back as I watched them descending a curving staircase and I was left to follow behind.
Down we went. Down and down and down. Until all the summer warmth was stolen and we entered a corridor well below the Manor where it was just as cold as the empty space inside my heart.
Lionel led the way through a long stone corridor, lighting sconces as we went with his fire magic.
Clara kept hold of his hand, swinging it back and forth and my gaze narrowed on the point of contact between them as the shadows swirled within me.
“Why?” I snapped, when I couldn’t take it any longer.
“Because I’m the favourite,” Clara hissed, shooting a glare over her shoulder which made me snarl.
Lionel tsked as he moved to open a heavy wooden door and I followed them inside. He pulled Clara aside so that I could look at the huge stone chamber. There was a chair in the centre of it with thick leather straps on the arms and legs. A row of hooks and knives and other torture devices hung along the wall to the left and a tank of cold water lay to the right.
“Do you want to be the favourite, Roxanya?” Lionel purred as he released Clara’s hand and took a step towards me.
The shadows shifted within me, aching to feel that with an urgency I couldn’t comprehend. “Yes,” I breathed, taking a seat on the chair and waiting as he strapped me in.
“Then tell me who you love.” He walked away from me as I frowned at the question, the shadows wild and seething beneath my skin.
I closed my eyes as I tried to answer, searching the deep chasm of nothing within me until I caught a glimmer of something which I’d lost.
“A girl with blue hair,” I breathed as the echoes of memories stirred within my heart. “And a man with a dark soul.”
Something slammed into my gut and the electric slice of pain that crashed through my body shattered me into a million pieces as agony ruled my flesh and the shadows reared up hungrily to feast on it.
I moaned in pleasure as the torture lingered in my body and my vision blacked out as the shadows veiled my eyes for a moment.
I sagged forward in the chair, panting and heaving as my heart raced and the bliss in my limbs threatened to ruin me as I bathed in the pure power of the shadows. It was so much pain and so much pleasure. I didn’t know if I was screaming in agony or ecstasy.
“Wrong answer, Roxanya,” Lionel growled as he moved to stand before me, my gaze landing on his expensive loafers as I tried to catch my breath. “Who do you love?”
I tipped my head back slowly, my gaze moving over every inch of him until I finally met his eyes and the bottomless depths that were waiting for me within them.
The Aries brand on my arm burned with the need to be closer to him and I whimpered as the shadows let me feel that ache for a moment before burying it again. But it was enough to give me my answer.
“You,” I breathed as I stared up at him and the darkness in his eyes blossomed like the shadows in my soul. “Only you.”
