Starkeeper of the Fractured Crown

I swallowed, sweat trickling down my spine at the way he towered over me. “What truth?”

His brows furrowed and then he laughed. “Your mind let you forget, didn’t it? Because I was so fucking terrifying you couldn’t handle it.”

I shook my head, a roaring sounding in my ears. “You don’t scare me.” What had I forgotten?

“No,” he mumbled, his eyes falling to my lips. “I don’t scare you like the monsters under your bed, but I do scare you because of how badly you want me.”

I bared my teeth at him. “You are too arrogant.”

“Am I?” he asked.

He grabbed my jaw suddenly and leaned in until his nose passed mine, until my lips parted, his hot breath dusting them. “Then why am I hearing you beg me to kiss you?”

My cheeks burned hot, lungs freezing. “You’re not.”

He smiled, his eyes locking with mine, so close, I could see the darker flecks of green and black that dusted his iris’s. “You’re in such deep denial you can’t even hear your own inner voice, can you? Focus, baby. You’re screaming.”

I forced my eyes closed, gripping the edge of my chair so tightly, the wood bit into my skin.

“Just do it already,”I heard that little irrational voice say.“Fuck me until I can’t remember my own name. Kiss me until I forget where I am. Make me forget everything but the way you fe—”

I shut my thoughts off, my eyes opening to find his still inches away.

His eyes fell to my lips again, his shoulders relaxing as he stared at me as if I were some sort of masterpiece. “I am happy that you still draw breath into those pretty little lungs of yours,” he mumbled, so quietly, I almost missed it. “I am relieved that your heart still sings my song. I had to fight to get to you,” he whispered, eyes lifting back to mine. “Fight against myself, and I…hated it.”

My head spun at the low snarl in his words. A pool of liquid heat grew in my stomach, my legs squeezing together tightly as my pussy throbbed.

Shit.

“Call me, and I will come. Say my name, Angel, and I will find you. That is a promise and a threat.”

I couldn’t breathe for entirely different reasons now. “A threat? To who?”

He chuckled, but there was no light in his eyes. “To the thing your mind made you forget.”

I wanted to know more. I needed to understand what that meant, but before I could respond, Mark’s bedroom door opened.

I looked over, my head spinning, every other thought draining from me as I found Mark standing in the doorway, his eyes cast down, cheeks red, the anger gone. “Mark,” I whispered, Trick’s touch, his presence towering above me, disappearing.

Mark sniffed, wiping under his nose aggressively. “The General said—” He inhaled sharply. “Said that you can’t keep every bad thing away, you just have to do your best and hope that you’ve trained them enough to leave on their own. He said that you’ve been doing that to me, and that you believed that you were protecting me, and protecting people sometimes means keeping bad secrets.”

I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “Yeah?” I asked, finding Cole’s eyes.

“Yeah. Mom shouldn’t have hit you,” he went on, making his way over, “but he said he would teach me how to fight so that no one ever touches you again.”

My brows lifted, my lips tightening. “Did he now? Did he say he’d do it with real weapons?” I asked, finding Cole’s gaze once again.

Cole rubbed the back of his neck, mouthing an apology.

Great!

I turned back to Mark as he stopped in front of me. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have yelled. Or called you a jerk. Or cursed.”

I slid my hands over his cheeks, wishing I could just wash away every ounce of pain he was feeling. “I’m sorry too, little fox, but I’ll tell you what. I promise that I’ll be better about letting you know about the scary things if you promise to eat your broccoli.”

He sneered. “Ew. That doesn’t seem like a fair trade.”

I managed a bare smile and pinched his side, causing him to laugh. “We’ll smooth out the details later.”