Starkeeper of the Fractured Crown

I scoffed and shook my head. “You didn’t count when you bandaged me up?”

“Magic, my little addiction. I saw no more of you than is revealed right now.”

My eyes found his again, narrowing in anger. “Liar.”

His eyes flamed. “I. Have never. Lied. To. You.”

I rolled my eyes, pulling at the bandages on my hands. If he was telling the truth, then that was a bad thing, wasn’t it? That meant he hadn’t seen the truth yet. He wasn’t disgusted enough to leave.

Maybe that’s all it would take. For me to strip in front of him. I wanted him to leave, didn’t I? So what was stopping me?

He searched my eyes for several seconds before he spoke again. “I understand why you need to control everything. I’m not challenging that.”

I gaped. “Are you fu—”

“Sometimes the best way to remain in control is to let it go.”

I clenched my hands into fists, my nails digging into the bandages. “I’mnotplaying games with you right now. I do not have it in me.”

There was something dark and sad inhis eyes as he shook his head. “I’m not playing a game, Angel.”

My mind slowed at the heaviness in his voice and for just a moment, I let myself wonder how heavy the burden on his shoulders was. Then to lose his parents and his little sister on top of everything else? It didn’t excuse anything he had done, but in that moment, part of me wondered what percentage of the stories I had heard were real and what had been formed by minds terrified of a magic they didn’t understand.

At that thought, my eyes fell to the shadows drifting around me. The ones that avoided Cole because they didn’t want to hurt him. Why were they worried about hurting Cole when they touched me so freely?

“Explain them to me,” I demanded, my eyes finding his again. “Tell me about your magic.”

Something flashed through his eyes before disappearing. “So you can understand what you saw in the hall this morning?”

I couldn’t remember seeing anything in the hall, I only remembered him. “So I can understand,” I replied evenly. “So I can figure out for myself what you are.”

“A monster, the world has already spoken,” he said bitterly.

I held up a shaking hand, watching as a tendril drifted around my fingers, my wrist. “You’ve been following me for a year, Trick,” I said, meeting his bright green eyes. “You should know that the only stories I listen to are the ones I write myself.”

I needed to know. I needed to know the truth. I needed to knowsomething. Even if learning this information led me nowhere. Even if this was futile and Ifound out he truly was nothing more than a beast of the night. At least it would distract me.

At least it would keep my thoughts busy.

“Darkness can be beautiful,” I went on when he didn’t respond, “and darkness can be nothing but evil. Mom, Evanora? They’re evil. You?” I shook my head, seeing something in his eyes shift. “Sometimes hurt people don’t know how else to show people they’re hurt than to act out. You get so angry, you kill people. I get…”

“Controlling,” he offered.

My eyes narrowed to slits. “Armor is still armor no matter what it looks like.”

His eyes iced over, his shoulders stiffening. “You’re changing your tune, Angel. Have you realized my obsession is nothing to fear?”

I think I would always fear it. Wanting something that much? It was terrifying because things can be taken away. Everything and anything can be stolen. No one in the world could stop that, not even the great Trick Michael. “You still scare me,” I admitted. “Just not in the way you should, and I think that scares you. Behind all of this…” I waved vaguely. “Bravedo. The shadows and growling and teeth, there’s something inside of you that is scared that I’m not scared like I should be. I challenge you. I fight back. Me, just some…measly little magicless human. And once I stop caring, you’ll move on because it’s not a challenge anymore, I’m not a mystery.”

He laughed, but there was no humor in the sound. “You still don’t get it.”

“I get it.”

“No,Angel, you don’t. I don’tcarehow scared you are.I don’tcareif you piss yourself out of fear. I don’t care if you scream andbegfor me to disappear. I don’t care if you grow numb to what I am and you stop caring, you are mine. You have always been mine, and you will be mine until the last star goes out. That willneverchange. No matter how hard you pray or beg or scream, it willneverchange.”

I shook my head, trying to ignore the stutter in my heart, the warmth in my stomach. “Has anyone in this world ever told you no?”

He curled his lip and Jumped to my side of the table. He grabbed the edge of my chair, spun me around, and slammed his hands down on the table on either side of me, his face inches from mine, my heart racing. “Yes,” he growled, the sound vibrating through me, “and I killed them for it, but you? You’ve never told me no. Not once. You’ve never told me to stop, to take myself out of you. You’ve never asked me to take my shadows back. You want me. You want me so bad your pussy drips for me even now. Even after seeing the truth of what I am.”