Ashes of Chaos (Legacy of the Nine Realms #2) - Amelia Hutchins Page 0,7
a woman scowled angrily at Knox as she reached into the layer of the realm, sliding her fingers around his wrist, causing him to jerk back in pain. Anger snapped through me that they’d dare touch what was mine.
Power unleashed within me without warning. Power like I’d never felt before slid through the masked figures closest to me, until they recoiled, screaming as it burned their flesh, just as they’d done to their victims.
“Tit-for-tat, bitches. That monster is mine, and only mine.” My eyes slid over their burning bodies, a smile lifting my lips as the rush of magic rippled through me.
Black eyes slid to my position in the window, and I realized I was no longer invisible. Shadows swayed around the woman’s body as she released Knox, giving me her full attention. The figures all moved closer, coming toward me as one. I sent a warning shot of pure, untethered light magic at them. They recoiled since dark magic couldn’t handle light, something we were taught very young.
Once you embraced the darkness, it sucked out your soul and then your beauty. You became a cold, undying, horrifying monster. Skin withered and wrinkled as it stole the witch’s beauty, leaving her a decaying vile husk of a thing that no one trusted, or wished to be around. It made you into a witch’s worst nightmare, unwanted and ugly.
The stronger the witch, the longer she could hold onto her outer shell, but even the strongest witches eventually fell to the darkness. I watched as the woman and the masked figures vanished, removing the victims from my vision, becoming shadows, drifting on the wind before ashes drifted into the night.
Turning my attention back to Knox, I smirked at the confusion playing on his face. Ocean-blue eyes lifted and locked with mine, before turning to look around to find what had touched him. Death had touched him and sought to take him without his knowledge. Like I’d let them hurt that asshole, not when I enjoyed our cat-and-mouse game, even if he was exhausting me effortlessly. I was still winning.
Knox didn’t waste time as he entered the house, marching toward the room I occupied. I pulled a portal to me, opening it as his heavy footfalls started up the stairs. The moment he stood in the bedroom doorway, heat rolled through me, and my body grew pliant with need.
Knox’s gaze slid down my body. His eyes turned heavy-lidded and filled with lust. My reaction to his proximity wasn’t normal. It created a violent need that stormed within us both. There was normal lust, and then there was the raw, intense lust that drove us, pledging violent sex, bone-jarring, leg shaking, unending pleasure that his eyes promised me. He didn’t need me to speak because he knew my answer without asking the question.
Knox was primal, and everything within him matched perfectly, and I matched him. My gaze held his, screaming for him to end the chase, begging him to slam me against the wall, part my legs, and make me cry his fucking name. His lips curled into a grin as he inhaled deeply, watching me through hooded, seductive eyes. I shivered with the need my expression begged him to give.
This man was brutality mixed with virility. He was darkened desires that left no inch untouched when he consumed you. The need that rushed through me was razor-sharp, etched in violence that I needed him to give me. The more hostile Knox got, the hotter I burned with a need for him to take me. I didn’t understand it, nor did I even care to look deeper at what we were.
There were ordinary people, and then there were us.
People flirted. They gazed shyly at each other, sparing brief glances and smiles, exploring looks or other shallow things about one another. I’d watched my sisters lure men in a thousand times. The steady flutter of eyelashes, or the cute little smirk that said, ‘Here I am, fuck me.’
Knox and I didn’t do that. I looked into his gaze, and I saw his bare bones. I felt the carnal need to get on my knees and worship him as he destroyed me. We went to war in bed, visceral need driving us to go deeper. Together, we’re both volatile and destructive. We could ruin worlds by coming undone without walls to protect them from us.
He stepped forward, and I trembled violently, which didn’t go unnoticed. Knox noticed everything about me. He knew that I arched my