passed over the scars from the first time he’d healed me. His fingers found the inner crease of my elbow, then traced up to my shoulder. My held breath rushed out between my parted lips.
His crimson eyes skimmed across me and found my bare legs—then his hand wrapped around my knee. He ran his fingers up the side of my thigh, his thumb rubbing across the slight bumps, his touch sliding higher.
Paralysis breaking, I scooted away from him. “Yes, my skin is different from yours. That’s enough of—”
He stuck his hand under the hem of my tank top. His hot fingers brushed across my waist. “You are smooth here.”
“Zylas,” I snapped. “Stop—”
He pushed away from the wall, gaze fixed on my middle, intent on the mystery of gooseflesh. I pushed backward, feet slipping on the carpet. He followed, a graceful shadow with glowing eyes. His hand slid up my side, triggering a rippling shiver along my spine and causing a fresh wave of gooseflesh to rise in the wake of his touch.
I shoved away and my head bumped against my mattress. Nowhere left to retreat. His hands were on my waist, pushing up my shirt, and undiluted panic shot through me.
I grabbed his wrists. “Zylas!”
He stilled as my nails dug into his skin. The only sound was my quick, harsh breathing.
His mouth shifted into a frown—then he released my shirt, hands pulling free from my grasp. He sat back on his heels, his frown deepening into a scowl. “I did not hurt you.”
The words were a question, a complaint, and an accusation all wrapped into one.
“No.” I gulped down air. “But that doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want.”
“Ch.”
I shoved forward, glowering at him before I even realized how angry I was. “You aren’t the only one who wants their autonomy respected, Zylas!”
He recoiled from my vehemence.
“You don’t want me to use the infernus command unless absolutely necessary, and I’m respecting that. You need to respect me when I tell you to stop doing something I don’t like.”
His head tilted in a puzzled way. “You do not like it when I touch you?”
My stomach gave an odd, panicky flop. “I—I’m not …” My head spun. “Don’t touch me under my clothes.”
His nose scrunched like that was a bewildering stipulation. Heart beating uncomfortably fast, I pushed myself to my feet and tugged my shirt straight.
“I need to sleep.” I flipped my blankets back. “We have a lot to do tomorrow. Uncle Jack, the grimoire … and we have to figure out what’s happening with Zora.”
“Figure out what?” he muttered. “It is easy to fix.”
I glanced over my shoulder, eyebrows raised. “Oh really?”
“I will kill her.”
“We’re not killing her,” I scoffed, climbing into bed. “We’ve discussed this before and—”
“Drādah.”
I hadn’t heard him stand, but he was on his feet, his crimson stare fixed on me but not with the keen curiosity of a minute ago.
“She knows I am not enslaved,” he growled quietly. “She will tell others, and they will come to kill you. I must kill her first to protect you.”
Alarm buzzed across my nerves and I pushed my shoulders back, hands gripping my blanket. “Do not hurt her, Zylas.”
“She knows—”
“We’ll find another way to deal with it. If you kill her, Darius will know it was you and he’ll report us to the MPD anyway.”
“I will make her disappear.”
“No!” Panic rose through me again. “She’s a guild member, she helped us, she—she’s my friend, Zylas.”
He curled his upper lip in disdain. “You will die so she can live?”
My mouth trembled and I clenched my jaw. “I won’t kill her to save myself.”
“Nailis,” he sneered.
“Cruel!” I retorted, pointing at him as tears stung my eyes. “Heartless! Barbaric! How can you even think about killing an innocent woman to save yourself?”
“To save you,” he snarled. “I bound myself to protect you.”
“We’ll find a different way.”
“What way? This is most safe. It is most easy.”
“You want to kill her because it’s easy?” My throat tightened with fear. I couldn’t stop him from doing whatever he wanted. Even if I forced him back into the infernus, he would escape as soon as I fell asleep. “If you hurt her, Zylas, if you so much as lay a finger on her, I—I won’t send you home.”
His eyes widened. “You promised!”
He could tell if I was lying—and he knew my threat was deadly serious.
“I did, but if you go behind my back and hurt her, I won’t do anything to help you.”
He stared at me