Page 30 of The Unseelie Wish

“No. You won’t.” He held up a hand, and with a flick of his wrist, a loop of what looked like metal appeared with a shimmer in his grasp. He thrust it down toward her neck as if he was going to punch her in the throat with it.

A cry left her as she turned her head away, reacting instinctually to the pain that didn’t come. When she looked back up at him, he was sitting back on his heels, smiling like the Cheshire cat. And waiting. Waiting for what?

And then she heard it.

Nothing.

Blinking in confusion, she strained to listen. Maybe it—no. It was gone.

The music of the world around her was silent.

“What did you—” she started to scream at him. But his hand clamped over her mouth, muffling her shout.

“Sssshh…do you hear that?” He leaned closer. “You can’t, can you?” Chuckling, he sat back again and flicked her throat. But instead of hitting her, there was a metallic plink. Before she could react, he climbed off her, walking away. “What a shame!”

In her panic she hadn’t felt it at first. But there was something cold and hard around her neck. Sitting up, she put her hands to her throat. It was that loop of metal that he’d summoned. It was?—

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Standing, she wavered on her feet for a second, glad there was a column nearby. “Get this thing off of me, you assclown!”

Izael was standing some ten paces away, laughing at her again. “You did this to yourself, songbird. If you hadn’t run away, you wouldn’t be bound in an iron collar.”

A collar with a fucking loop in the front of it, no less. It felt decorative—but of course it was. If she was going to be his pet, he’d want her to look nice doing it. “You were going to torture me. And use me.”

Amusement snapping into anger like the flick of a switch, Izael stormed up to her. “I was going to keep you safe!” His fangs flashed in the light of the candles and lanterns he used to decorate his space.

She stared into his eyes, meeting his anger with equal portions her own. “You have a fucked-up definition of safe.”

Hand darting upward, he snatched the loop of her collar and yanked it closer to his face. It sent her up to her tiptoes, and she had to grab hold of him to keep her balance. His lips crashed into hers, fury and rage mixing with a wild and shattered desire.

One of her hands tightened in the fabric of his shirt while she punched him in the chest with the other. All thought had left her head. Only the same anger and desperate need that she felt reflected back at her.

Gods, she wanted to surrender. Wanted to let the animal consume her. Wanted to feel his wrath. But she couldn’t go down without a fight. She bit his lip hard, tasting something copper.

Snarling, Izael dropped her, pressing his hand to his lip. She hit the ground, grunting in pain. She was going to be sore in the morning. And something tells me I haven’t finished collecting bruises.

Izael checked his finger for blood, before licking it with his forked tongue. “I was going to make your penance an easy one, songbird. I was going to make you gag a few times on my one cock and be done with it.” Humming, he wiped his finger on his pocket square. “But if that is how you want to be…”

Alex shuffled away from him across his checkered white and black marble floor. She needed to put distance between them. Turning, she scrambled to her feet to run away. “Izael, wait?—”

Something wrapped around her ankle. A thick cord of scaled muscle. It immediately yanked her off her feet. Unable to stop herself, she braced for impact. But instead, she was once more upended as he lifted her from the ground upside-down.

“Oh, silly songbird…don’t you understand?” He grinned at her as he lifted her so she was eye-to-eye with him, wrong-way-up regardless. “There’s no escaping me now. Not again—never again.”

“If Abigial finds out?—”

“There is the best part of all of this!” He cut her off with a sharp laugh. “Are you ready for this? It was her idea!” He cackled. “Can you believe that?”

Her world spun again as he set her down, if only for a moment. His hand was at the loop of her collar again, yanking her to her feet. When she tried to pull away from him, a wrap of his tail went around her waist and cinched. Not much. But enough.

She froze. “Izael, please…” Before, she had believed Izael wasn’t going to hurt her. Not seriously. Not anything she wouldn’t enjoy. But now? Now she really didn’t know. Would he crush the life out of her? Or just break her spine so she couldn’t crawl away?

Bayodan’s line about necromancy went through her head.

“Are you ready to be a good little songbird?” He dropped the ring of her collar to run his nails slowly along her collarbone, pushing the strap of her shirt aside. “Are you ready to apologize to me for running away?”

Alex was shivering. She should be crying. Screaming. Telling him no, telling him to stop—but none of that happened. Namely, because it was the last thing she really wanted him to do. Her mind went wild with what was about to happen to her. And she knew she wasn’t doing any of the options justice. However, she was still fucking pissed. She narrowed her eyes at him. “Fuck you.”

“That’s my girl.” He took her face between his hands and kissed her again, this time biting her lower lip hard enough that it stung.