Enchantra (Wicked Games, #2)

by Kaylie Smith

Hell was made of swirling darkness and secrets just like the man in front of her.

“Love. Loathing. Same passion, different names,” he told her. “And how easily and swiftly the line can be blurred, don’t you think?”

“You’re going to tire yourself out long before you hurt me, trouble.” Her jaw clenched as she pulled her punches, the blood rushing to her head giving her a migraine. Then she did the only other thing she could think of: she bit him. In the ass. His grunt of surprise echoed well into the cold night around them, but he never loosened his hold.

Rowington Silver was a vision in obsidian against the white of the snow and marble beneath their feet.

“And I won’t be showing you any mercy if you lay a finger on my wife.”

“Let’s get one thing clear,” he warned, eyes darkening with each word he spoke. “I have zero interest in putting my hands on you unless it’s to keep you from harm or because you’ve asked me to. Understood?”

Which should instill trust by the sheer fact that it was absolute truth, whether you liked to hear it or not. I will not ever lie to spare your feelings.”

“Hearts can never truly be trusted, anyway.”

“Hearts are not ruled by logic or loyalty. They can easily betray you.”

She tossed the letter aside and pried off the box’s lid to reveal the mask beneath. The sense of dread that flooded through her at the sight of it nearly made her choke. A hare. The Devil had dressed her up like shiny, gilded prey.

She’d always want to be found. No matter how many times she ran away.

“We have to fight it,” he gritted out again. When she saw how hard he was clenching his jaw, the strain of keeping his breaths steady in his chest, she knew she was not the only one losing her mind. “I don’t want to fight it.” “Fuck,” he hissed. “Neither do I.”

Because despite always being surrounded by people, very few ever paid such close attention to me.

He looked at her then. Really looked at her. And whatever he found must have been enough.

“Yeah, well,” she said, looking down to pick at her nails as her voice grew quiet, “some people are poisonous that way. They touch you once and somehow infect every little thing you do thereafter.” Hell, she’d nearly lost all her friends because of that bastard. She’d nearly lost her spirit. Her sense of self. Thankfully, she’d found spite along the way.

“She’s mine,” Rowin snarled, his shadows beginning to swirl in the air around him. “Whatever you might think of that, whatever problem you have with it, if you ever try to touch her again, I will make the rest of your eternal life even more fucking miserable than it already is.”

“It’s never easy to realize that the people who are supposed to protect us are the ones who can create the deepest scars.”

“Genevieve, you have to choose to live for yourself. You are the most real thing you’ll ever be able to experience. Your light. Your determination. You can search every corner of the universe for something else and it will never be enough if you’re trying to escape yourself.

I don’t know who told you that you weren’t good enough, but they were fucking wrong. You’re more than good enough. Your heart is more than good enough. No matter how many times it has been burned. How many scars it might have. It will keep on beating, brave and passionate, if you will only let it.”

Let yourself fall in love. Let yourself fall out of it. You never know when you could lose someone and not have the opportunity to do so again. Believe me.”

“Shadows can only be seen in the presence of light,” he told her, the words agonized. “I worry when you leave, there will be no one left to see me.”

“I’m glad you didn’t listen to me, when I told you to leave that first day,” he said. “No matter what happens, I need you to know that you’ve saved me.” “You’ve saved me too,” she told him as she ran her thumb over her ring and then her bracelet.

“I want you to know, I really would have waited for you, right here, forever if that’s what it would have taken. I would have stood in this spot until I could no longer distinguish my own soul from the shadows. Until your light came back to me.”