“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.”