were soaring into the clouds with the warm wind kissing over my cheeks and blowing my hair back off my face.
“Shift,” he hissed in my ear.
My arms moved to wrap tight around him as I dragged in a gulp of air. “I can’t—”
Suddenly, I was free-falling.
Holy shit. The bastard dropped me.
A scream of panic clogged in my throat. Wind tore at my hair and clothes. And my arms and legs flailed, desperate for something to cling to. But there was nothing. No net. No Ashor. Just the ground closing in.
No way was he going to let me break nearly every bone in my body. He wouldn’t dare, but the closer the ground got, the more that fear he wanted me to feel became real. The impact wouldn’t kill me, but holy shit would it hurt like hell.
Once I healed, I was going to kill the princely prick.
The world spun past at blurring speeds, and I finally managed to release the scream that was caught in my throat. “Ashor!”
Swooshing wings came out of nowhere, seconds before strong arms plucked me out of the air, stopping my downward progression. My feet hit the sturdy ground, and I whirled, blonde hair flying through the air as I faced my mate. “What the fuck!” I spat, shoving at his chest. “You asshole. How dare you play games with me? I’m not your mother or your brother. I’m your mate. If I had hit the ground, my pain would have been yours as well,” I snapped.
Ashor tucked his majestic wings behind him. “I am no stranger to pain.”
How devious of him to throw out the I’ve-been-tortured card. Pine needles and pebbles crunched under my boots as I paced in a circle, nearly pulling my hair out. “Is this you trying to scare me into shifting?”
His violet eyes gleamed demon-bright in the dark, lips curled. “A dose of fear is healthy, but you can’t let it consume you.”
I halted in my pacing and snarled, “You don’t scare me.”
“So you keep saying, but my power, the one inside you, does.” He angled his head to the side. “How does that work?”
“Prick,” I said between my teeth.
“Shift,” he ordered, folding his arms across his broad chest.
My nostrils flared. “How about I just kick your ass instead?” Then I lunged, throwing out a kick, but the prince anticipated my attack, sidestepping to the left.
He crooked a finger at me, egging me on. “Good, use your anger.”
Prick. I threw a punch at his pretty face, but he caught my hand and whirled me around.
“Hitting isn’t nice, luv,” he murmured.
“Who said I was nice,” I growled in response, my chest heaving. I slammed my elbow backward, catching him in the gut, and grinned when I heard him groan.
“Cheap shot.”
I whirled around, my eyes twinkling with humor and annoyance. “Cheap or not, I still hit you.”
“You’re an exceptional fighter, I’ll give you that, but you need to be disciplined to control the darkness and your demon. You have that discipline inside you. You just need to trust yourself.”
“Show me,” I said, grim determination set in my features.
He nodded, and so it began.
Ashor was grueling in his training, treating me not like a pampered princess or his mate, but as he would any other demon. I didn’t know how much I’d needed to release all my pent-up emotions and energy. The magic within me was just as eager to be set free as the demon. I couldn’t handle both, not at the same time, so I directed my focus on the darkness, wielding it, manipulating it, summoning it, and banishing it.
My cheeks were flushed with exertion when Ashor called for a cease-fire. I plopped down on a patch of grass and plucked a strange-looking yellow flower. “How do you do it? Release your control?” It had taken all my effort just to maintain a handle on my power.
He took a seat beside me, one leg stretched out in front of him, the other arched up. “It’s different for me. I was taught to embrace that side of myself, not suppress it as you were. I’ve never had to fear my demon. He is a part of me as I am a part of him. But make no mistake, even when he is free, I’m the one in control.”
And that’s what scared me the most, losing myself to that dark part of me. “What about when we’re in bed?” Yep. My brain went there, back to the bedroom when Ashor let his demon free