More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Instead of reading about happily ever after, I would have one. I would no longer be left behind or tossed to the side. Someone wanted, loved, and chose me.
Julian didn’t have a job. He had my credit card. He’d bought that ring with my money. My boyfriend bought an engagement ring for my sister with my money. And I’d thought it was for me.
Did anyone get used to having their heart broken over and over again? Did anyone ever get used to not mattering enough for anyone to stay? To being the last priority? The one always left behind? How was someone supposed to fathom that the person who they thought loved them could suddenly act like they’ve always hated them?
“No need to apologize for anything,” he told me, his hands going to my waist. “You are exactly what I have been looking for.”
“I thought you didn’t want me to go down on you?” He considered me for a moment before tutting softly. “I see. You have had a selfish lover.”
“Enver,” the stranger said, his voice dropping to a seductive murmur. “What?” “My name. So you know what to cry out.”
“Ah,” he said, his voice deep. “This again? Is this how you like it?” I started shaking my head, then caught myself. “No. I mean, it’s fine. This is just how we usually—” I cut myself off, revealing too much, bringing up Julian again. “A shame,” Enver responded softly. “Then he does not know how beautiful you look when you come apart.”
“What is it?” he asked, pausing. “Nothing.” “Tell me,” he said. “Would you like to stop?” I immediately shook my head. “No! I want this. You’re just . . .bigger than what I’m used to.” My words ended in a mumble, and I couldn’t meet his eyes. Enver smirked, rolling his hips slowly, not pressing in yet. “You are adept at flattering me, but you can take it. I will make sure of it.”
“I love the sound of you begging, but the breathless silence you surrender to when I give you what you need is just as sweet,” he said, voice rough and low.
“Gods,” he groaned. “Gods. Come with me. It could be like this forever, my little lover. Forever. Until the world falls down.”
“You look lovely wrapped up in my sheets, by the way. Almost as lovely as you looked writhing on top of them.”
“Your mouth was made for me,” he said, voice raspy and breathless. “You were made for me.”
This wasn’t like the slow, teasing lovemaking he’d shown last night. It was rough, fast. He’d given before—now he took.
“You want me to make you mine.” My body arched into his, my breath coming so fast I became lightheaded. “Enver, I—” “You want me to love you.” He murmured the words so sweetly, so sincerely, my heart lurched. “You need nothing but me,” he continued, brushing his lips against mine. “Is that not right, my little lover?”
“I knew from the moment I heard you last night,” he continued, placing his hands against the tub’s edge on either side of me. “You were meant for me.”
“Your despair is calling out to me again.” I nearly jumped, not realizing Enver had moved closer to me again. Our gazes met, and once again, I felt unsettled. His eyes were piercing and hard, and I couldn’t make out a single emotion within them. I fell back a step, and Enver’s hand shot out to grab my wrist and stop me. He stepped even closer, looming over me, making my heart rate spike. “Enver, what are you—” “You will not be leaving,” he told me, his tone composed and commanding. “You are mine now.”
“Although, either way, you have already consented.” “Consented?” I repeated, the air in the room chilly against my bare skin. “Consented to what?” “That depends on your choice,” he told me, releasing my wrist and stepping away to circle me slowly, like a predator stalking its prey. I took a shallow breath, unmoving and unnerved as he positioned himself behind me. “My choice?” “You could remain here. With me.” His lips brushed my ear, making my skin prickle. “I told you I would give you everything you ever wanted. I did not lie. Anything you wish for will be yours.” His words hung the air, and
...more
“My name is Enver,” he replied, lifting his hand to trail his fingers along my jaw. “And I will be whoever you want me to be. Whatever you want me to be. Your lover, your master, your thrall. Even your god.”
“There have been hundreds before you and there will be hundreds more.” My stomach rolled, nausea creeping through me. “But I have let none of them touch me as you have touched me,” he continued, his voice lowering, breath caressing my skin as he leaned forward to place a chaste kiss on the shell of my ear. “And I have tasted none as I have tasted you.”
“You would have agreed even if I had not done that,” he replied confidently. “You would have agreed the moment I first approached you, had I asked then. I was led to you by your desperation. And that desperation would have had you surrendering to me, no matter what.”
though, I suddenly became aware of a gossamer shadow encircling my ring finger. It sparkled with an ethereal darkness, seeming to pulse with energy as delicate strands wove together, taking the shape of a ring. I yanked my hand back, startled, and doing so drew my attention to a slender, string-like tendril attached to the ring on my finger, having grown taut with my action. My gaze followed the shimmering string all the way to Enver’s hand, to the shadow that wrapped around his left ring finger in a perfect imitation of the one around mine. “I cannot just let you go,” he murmured. “You and I
...more
“Not all contracts are created by physical means. Here, they are engraved in shadows. Sealed by whispered consent.” Enver reached out to brush his fingers against mine, and our rings seemed to react to each other, tendrils reaching out for each other. “Or cried out consent, in your case.”
“What the demands look like depends on the participant. I cannot tell you what yours will be. The labyrinth will bring you to what you desire most, and after that, you must figure out the rest yourself. Perhaps it will have something to do with love. But yes, all you have to do is complete it.”
“I know what you are now.” His gaze lifted, following my movements. “And what’s that?” “A monster,” I said, louder than I’d meant to, the word echoing around the empty dining room.
“A monster?” he finally spoke, his tone deceptively soft. I swallowed. “What you’re doing is wrong.” Enver rose to his feet as well now, the muscles in his jaw tensed. “Is it? They all agreed to it. They knew the risks. The rewards.” “They agreed to become your—your possessions?” I said in disbelief, backing away from the table, my body screaming at me to run. “Yes,” he responded, his voice low and hard as he approached me. “Some did not even bother with the labyrinth. Some came crawling to me, begging me to take them. Begging to become mine. To forget everything else and exist only for me.”
“Because I would also be yours,” he said, bringing his free hand up to my jaw, grasping it gently. “Entirely. Every breath I take would be for you. Every inch of my being would belong to you. I could be your sanctuary and your undoing. I would give you everything you ever wished for. Follow your every word. Obey your every command. There is nothing I would deny you. Nothing, my little lover—as long as you are mine.”
“I would unravel the constellations and lay them at your feet,” he promised softly. “I would tear the stars from the sky and build you a throne of stardust and worship you upon it until the end of time. All you have to do is say yes.”
“I suppose, for someone as committed as you, I can do something more. You may have forty-eight hours to complete it.” Forty-eight hours? Was that supposed to be a lot of time? “How much time do you usually give people?” I asked, nervous now. “I do not give anyone else time limits.” My eyes widened. “What? That’s not fair—” “You claim I am a monster for what I have done,” he said, cutting me off as he pressed closer again, his voice dropping dangerously. “I would rather be a monster on my own terms.”
“But to answer that—he doesn’t have emotions.” My body froze and my feet suddenly felt heavy. “What do you mean by that?” “I mean exactly that. A long time ago, his emotions were taken from him. And that’s why I said when someone succeeds, it benefits him. Every time someone completes their labyrinth, he gets an emotion back.”
“You? Who would do anything for love? I would have easily continued to manipulate you. I would have given you all the pretty promises you wanted, empty as they may have been. I would have had to do nothing other than praise and please you to make you fall for me. And you would be none the wiser, simply content with my attention. Content with me keeping you as mine.”
“Your notion of love is one where the actual emotion is not required to provide you with what you desire. You would have been satisfied with my presence. My touch. My devotion toward you. You would have misled yourself into believing I was in love with you, and I would have never told you otherwise. You would have let me take advantage of you and your heart without complaint.”
I reached into the pocket that held it, retrieving it. It pulsed faintly in my hand—in the way Enver’s heart should have under my touch—warm and alive. Like it’d been resting against my skin the entire time, soaking in its heat. It made me pause for a moment. If Enver’s heart was missing, then . . . No, I told myself. That couldn’t be. A heart wouldn’t fit into a pedant like this, to begin with. I touched the thin piece of ruby that remained in the setting. Where was the rest of it? What happened to it?
“What are you doing here?” I asked, my muscles tensing. “This is my castle,” he responded, his eyes taking in my form, then narrowing at the coat draped over me. “I may roam and reside wherever I desire. The question is—what are you doing here, my little lover? You should be busy trying to complete my labyrinth so you can escape this cruel, heartless monster, should you not?”
“Desperation is born from the silent screams of shattered souls. The relentless agony of a tragic loss. The endless yearning for something that remains out of reach. The cruel awareness that what once was can never be again.” Enver’s voice was soft as he spoke, carrying a somber tone that matched the melancholic atmosphere of the room. “The aching emptiness that consumes you, leading you to the edge of hopelessness.”
“Careful with your words, my little lover. You do not want to make an enemy of me.” “I’m not making an enemy out of you—you’re already an enemy to me.” “Is that so? You allow your enemies to touch you in the way I have touched you? To kiss and taste you? To make you writhe in pleasure under them?” he murmured, leaning down so his lips were a breath away from mine. “If that is the case, I am pleased to be your enemy. I will make you hate me even more. Until you cannot think of anyone but me, your irresistible nemesis.”
“I will be the cruel villain who makes you come so hard you forget you are supposed to hate me. The heartless monster you scream and beg for more from.”
“I do not consider you an enemy of mine, my little lover,” he said. “I only consider you mine.”
“Who did this to you?” he said, his voice unsettlingly steady, given the cold severity of his gaze.
why. Because with him, in the moments when his caresses made my body burn, I wanted to stay. I couldn’t deny that. I couldn’t get enough of the way he yearned for me. But when the temptation of touch didn’t cloud my mind, reality set right back in. Nothing he felt toward me could be real. Not the desire, not the want, not the need. I had to leave before I lost myself to him.
“I told you I have a connection with the labyrinth. When I am in disarray, it is as well,”
“Your distraction, while divine, could only lessen my reaction for so long. The sorrow remains.”
“While your desperation only whispered to me before, it resonates within me now. It is so closely tied to your sorrow. While it is not as intense as when we first met, it lingers.”
“I sense magic on you, too,” Aki said, pulling me from my thoughts, oblivious to my unease. “What?” He frowned. “It’s strange, though. It doesn’t feel like yours.” “What do you mean?” He shook his head. “I don’t understand it myself. Perhaps it is the labyrinth leaving traces of its magic on you, too, or perhaps the ruler himself is. What are you seeking from the labyrinth, anyway?”
I caught sight of my shadow ring, its tendrils reaching out for its mate, the one on Enver’s hand on my waist. “Beautiful, are they not?” Enver asked, catching my line of sight. “Yes,” I responded honestly. “But these aren’t like shadows you control, are they? They feel different.”
“No, my shadows did not create them,” he said after a moment. “But mine can be just as beautiful.”
“I will swear to keep you by my side as my lover and consort for eternity,” Enver stated. “You will swear to become mine.” “You keep saying lover,” I said, “but you can’t even love me.” “No,” he agreed softly, “but that does not mean I cannot long to love you. I would make you feel wanted. I would offer you intimacy in every other way. I would make that enough. I would be enough for you.”
“I vow that, should you fail my labyrinth, no manipulation of your mind or soul will befall you. Your autonomy will remain untouched by my influence and that of the labyrinth forevermore.”
“It is done. Now, a kiss to seal it.” My mind spun, our sudden proximity sending a jolt of warmth through me. “What? Really?” “No. I am merely desperate to kiss you.”
through me. “Enver, please,” I tried again. “Or . . . what if I were to have my shadows fuck you while I watched?” he murmured, his breath hot against my neck. “Would you like that?”
“Do you want to find out now? How it would feel to have my shadows fill you until you cannot think of anything else? I would love nothing more than to watch you come undone by my creation and command.”
