Feathers That Bleed

by Sana Khatri

“How ready are you for me, huh, Princess?”

Gavin continues to scowl. “You’re a fucking menace, Cigs.”

Her beating me is a usual feat, but sometimes, she crosses the line; makes me see exactly what I mean to her, which is absolutely nothing. Because really, I don’t mean shit to her. I’m the product of a drunken one-night-stand, for Christ’s sake. I’m as neglected as they come.

He stops me by leaning in and pressing a chaste kiss on my lips. “Shut the fuck up, Cigs,” he whispers. “For once in your uptight life, just shut up and listen to me.”

Cignette Adler exudes wild beauty, and I’ll be damned to the pits of hell if I even try to convince myself otherwise.

Besides, being alone with her might give me a chance to do the thing I’ve wanted to do since she got here: stake my goddamn claim on her. And yeah, it’s very Neanderthal-like of me to say that, but this is who I am, and Cignette will have to get used to it, whether she likes it or not. Because one thing I know for sure is that she can’t be with Gavin, not after I’ve laid eyes on her.

Dorran Ledger exudes danger, and I’ll damn myself into hellfire before I even try to convince myself otherwise.

Dorran is night incarnate – soundless, incalculable. Fucking fatal by nature.

“You’re going to be the end of me,” he tells me, then scans my face. “And I promise you, if you take me down, I’m taking you to hell with me.”

Kissing Dorran is like walking on sea. There’s an inevitable fear of drowning involved, along with a frantic hope for a torrent to all but consume you.

“You’re so damn ethereal, Little Swan,” he says. “Even the clouded darkness fails to hide your fierce beauty.”

“I’d fall on my fucking knees in front of you, just to get a single taste of you.”

This man is going to get me brutally killed one of these days, and honestly, I can’t wait to meet my end, especially because I know he’ll be there

with me – making me yearn for him, even in death.

Either way, I’m fucked, and fucked for good.

“This is what you do to me, sweetheart. This is how much I want you; how much I want to ruin you, fucking worship every part of you.”

“I like to think that I have just as much right to order you around as you do me.”

“The only reason I’ll ever spill your blood is if you ask me to. And trust me, with how much you’ve already affected me, it won’t take a lot of persuasion from you for me to get a taste of what I so madly crave.”

“Who fucking did this to you?”

“Because I can’t see you like this,” I admit. “Because it fucking maims me to see these bruises on you; to see you so tired of trying to be strong for yourself.” I grit my teeth and cup her face again. “I wanna bring your mother tenfold the amount of pain she’s caused you. I wanna show her what it’s like to be marred. What it’s like to be the one receiving what she’s been so cruel to deliver – for years on end.”

I drag my tongue over the cut, then suck on it, earning a grunt of approval from Dorran.

says. “Witnessing you let loose like this is fulfilling as fuck.”

To say that this woman has me by the balls – both literally and figuratively – would be an understatement. She brings out a side of me that I didn’t even think existed. She challenges my instincts and distracts my focus whenever I’m with her, and for someone like me, that’s a dangerous situation to be in. But in all honesty, I can’t bring myself to give a fuck.