The Brightest Night (Origin #3) - Jennifer L. Armentrout Page 0,21

skin. “Let go of me, Luc. I’m hurting you.”

White lines bracketed Luc’s mouth as he slid a hand around to the back of my head. His fingers curled into my hair. “You’re hurting yourself.” He trembled—his tall, strong body trembled. “You’re bleeding.”

Pain flared along the back of my skull. The energy inside me felt like a bomb. These frail walls and old floors weren’t going to withstand it, and neither would Luc. It was possible that the houses nearby would be knocked down. That was how big the power felt, and if I let it out, it would destroy everything. I didn’t want that to happen—

“Then don’t let it take control of you.” He leaned in then, past the aura surrounding my body, and tipped his forehead against mine. I shuddered at the contact, at the way this foreign, new part in me yearned, not just to be let out but for him. That didn’t make sense, but that was how it felt.

If I couldn’t let it out and I couldn’t get it under control, what would happen if I let it swallow me? Instinct or perhaps hidden knowledge told me that all this power would go inward, and I had a feeling that wouldn’t end well for me.

But others would be safe.

Luc would be safe.

“You can’t do that.”

He was wrong. How I knew that, I didn’t know, but I could suck it back in, pull it into me until it had nowhere to go.

“I won’t let you do that, Evie.” His hips pressed into mine, and there was nothing separating us. “You’re not going to turn this back on yourself.”

“You have to let go of me.” An icy burn pricked along my skin.

“Never,” he swore, brushing his lips over the curve of my cheek.

Another shiver whipped through me. Two reactions happened simultaneously. One was familiar. That warm, tight buzz of attraction that threatened to turn my body to liquid, even right then, when things were falling apart. The other was … different. The new part Luc claimed was me shivered with anticipation, too, but a different kind I had no experience with before.

It wanted …

And it hungered.

“Let go,” I begged as this thing poured into my chest. “Please. I love you, and I can’t hurt you like this. Let go.”

“Evie.” Luc’s voice barely rose above the thundering of my pulse. “I will never let you go. Not again.”

Muscles coiled tight to the point of fiery pain, jerking my arms. The pressure kept building and building—

“You can do this.” His nose slid along mine as he said, “You just need time to learn how.”

Before I could respond, Luc kissed me.

The feel of his mouth on mine was a shock to the system. It was a brush of the lips. Once. Twice. A soft caress that sent a rush of hot, shivery sensation from the roots of my hair all the way to the tips of my toes. I tensed, and it was nothing like the bitter burning anger, the icy fear or the slippery otherness that had been spreading inside me. Everything—everything—stopped out of shock, and all I felt was the sweetest burst of agony and wanting, and all of me went soft. My lips parted on a breath, and he shuddered against me, his hand fisting in my hair as the kiss deepened. His kiss was a demand, and I sank into him, my hands returning to his chest. The kiss ended on a ragged groan.

The sound …

My eyes fluttered open, and I caught just a glimpse of the pained grimace twisting his beautiful face.

“It’s okay,” he whispered, recapturing the distance between us, catching my lower lip with his teeth. He soothed the sweet sting with another kiss, and a gasp left me just before his mouth moved over mine again, causing another shock to the system.

I’m sorry.

As impossible as it was, it was his voice I heard in my mind, and I didn’t understand what he was apologizing for when it was me hurting him.

One of Luc’s hands skimmed up my waist and over my stomach to settle on the center of my chest. His palm flattened, fingers spreading wide as his other hand left the back of my neck. He curved his arm over my shoulders, holding me—

Luc broke the kiss, snapping his head back as he tore his hand away from my chest. The overwhelming strength of power pulled taut and then snapped.

I saw it.

Strings of white and black pulsing, twisting light streamed from my chest,