my magic, and had certainly never practiced with it.
The plants that might have obeyed me lay dormant.
The deeper the shadow carried me into the library, the more solid his form became. His face was distinctly masculine. Strong jaw, sharp cheekbones, flashing eyes.
Rage filled me.
How dare he come into my library and do this?
He strode past a desk set against one of the bookshelves, and I spotted a heavy glass paperweight. I grabbed it and brought it up, slamming it onto his head as hard as I could.
He jerked and growled, and I tried to hit him again, putting every ounce of strength I had into it. His arm flashed up so quickly I didn’t even see it, and he yanked the paperweight away.
A moment later, a black doorway appeared in a section of wall that had once been empty. The door swung open, and he stepped through.
Terror welled up inside me. Dark shadows surrounded us, a swirling vapor that sucked us into the portal and spun us through space, tearing me away from the library and everything I knew.
3
Seraphia
The ether tore at us, spinning us toward an unknown destination. I screamed, trying to tear myself away from my captor. I had no idea where I would end up—it was deadly to enter the ether without knowing where you were going or touching someone who knew. He was the only one who knew where this portal went. If I broke away from him, I could end up anywhere at all.
Or nowhere.
I was willing to risk it.
But his grip was too firm. Too tight.
It was liking fighting an iron cage.
Too soon, we landed on solid ground. My head stopped spinning and my vision cleared.
I gasped, jerking away.
This time, he let me.
Suddenly, he was fully corporeal. No longer made of mist and smoke, but a man.
Holy shit.
He was well over six feet tall, impossibly beautiful in a way that almost hurt to look at. He looked like a damned angel, fallen right from the clouds to land in this shadowy hell. Dark hair and blue eyes that recalled a stormy, wind-tossed sea. A strong jaw and cheekbones that could cut glass. His full lips were set in a hard line as he looked at me, but they appeared far too soft for a man so hard.
It was the only softness in him, however. Despite his otherworldly beauty, there was no humanity behind his eyes.
Though he appeared to be made of flesh and bone, I’d bet anything there was nothing but cold, hard glass beneath the black armor covering his broad shoulders and chest, a strange matte metal that twisted with tiny, glowing silver symbols.
The magic that surged from him nearly took me to my knees. Powerful supernaturals had all five signatures. This guy . . . A sixth sense needed to be invented to accommodate the sheer force of him.
Anger and determination kept me on my feet as his magic rolled over me. Ash and fire, as I’d smelled before. I hated that I liked it. Worse, I hated that his magic felt like a caress.
That was the only good thing about his magic, though. It sounded like waves crashing against a cliff, destroying cities in its wake. And the taste was that of bitter, bitter chocolate, almost burning my tongue.
His aura, though.
Pitch black. Like he was the source of night. The source of darkness.
It pulled at me, far too hard. I wanted to walk into it. Embrace that darkness. My magic flared to life inside me, responding to something in his.
Fear sliced through me, and I stumbled back. “Take me home.”
It was stupid to ask.
I had no idea what he planned for me, but he wasn’t about to let me go. Nana had said that once he got me, terrible things would happen. She’d been dreadfully vague, since she’d only had part of a prophecy, but I believed her about the terrible bit.
I turned to run, finally seeing my surroundings.
A library.
The polar opposite of mine.
Darkness. Everywhere.
Ebony shelves housed books bound in midnight leather. Gold and silver letters decorated the spines, and glittering spiderwebs created a lattice in front of them. The webs stretched over the shelves, never touching the books but protecting them from whoever might dare approach.
Gorgeous spiders, emerald green and vibrant purple, ran back and forth across the webs like sparkling jewels.
The ceiling soared high overhead, the black candles topped with pale white flame. The black stone floor matched the ornately carved ceiling, and I felt like I’d stepped into