I suppose that would be fair.
“Better hurry with your questions, sweetheart,” he gritted out. “I only had a few sips. You’ll be spilling secrets all night, but I only have a few moments more. Not as much brew, and…” He gave her a slow wink. “Faster metabolism, too.”
She could ask him anything—and he had to tell her the truth? “Where is the Eye of Hell?”
And he lifted his right hand. On his ring finger, she saw a heavy flash of gold. Big, thick.
“The Eye is in here,” he told her, gazing down at the ring. “But it won’t do you any good. Only I can wield it. You want power taken away…that’s something only I can do. On your hand, the Eye would be useless.”
Dammit. If he had to tell the truth…
This was all for nothing. She should have kept running. She could have hopped a boat and made it to the Caribbean. Maybe Garrick wouldn’t have followed her there.
“My turn,” Luke said. “Did you really tell your lover to cut out his heart?”
“No.” She felt almost numb. “What I said was…‘Do it.’” Two such simple and terrifying words. “I’d managed to get free of the chains that he was keeping me in. I tricked him and locked him in my cell instead. He was yelling at me, screaming that if I left him, it would be like cutting out his heart.” She shuddered as she remembered the feel of all the bruises on her. “So I told him to ‘Do it’. I ran and didn’t look back.” Did that make her evil? Well, since everyone thought she’d been born evil, she wasn’t sure it really mattered.
He walked around the table, coming toward her. The wind was blowing again. The ocean was pounding. And the sun had set—she hadn’t even noticed what must have been one killer view. “Chains?” he rasped.
She smiled at him. “Do you think you’re the first to lock me up? Not even close. Garrick and his agents were supposed to be the good guys. I went to them because I wanted to help, not hurt people. I just…I never wanted to be bad.” That was the story of her life. “But once the government had me, they didn’t want to let go.” Her muscles tightened as she remembered that prison, buried deep underground, far from prying eyes. “Such a small cell. And the chains were tight. They usually kept me gagged, too, just like you did, because if I talked—”
His hands were on her shoulders. “Do you want them dead?”
“What?”
“Tell me everyone who hurt you. Give me the names, and I’ll end them all.”
She hadn’t been afraid of him before…wait, okay, she had but…in this moment, he utterly terrifies me. Because she was sure he meant exactly what he’d just said.
“Don’t look so upset,” he murmured. “They have Eli. I was planning to go after them all anyway.”
He was planning—“No.” Now she was the one grabbing him. “They can’t know what you are. If they know, they’ll try to take you, too. They’ll try to use you. I’ve already brought too much attention to you as it is.” She’d put him in Garrick’s sights. Dammit.
For nothing.
“Now, sweetheart, you sound as if you truly care what happens to me.” His smile was temptation itself. “Is that true?”
“Yes.” The single word was ripped right from her. Stupid wine. “I don’t want you hurt. I don’t want them hurt, either, despite what the agents did to me. I just want…I want out. I want a normal life. Is that so wrong?”
“Normal is over-rated. And boring.”
“Normal is good. Normal is happy.” She’d never had that, though.
His gaze narrowed. “Tell me what you want most in this world, right now. Tell me…and I’ll give it to you.”
Disbelief rocked her. “Why?”
“Because I can still see the tears on your cheeks. Because they still hurt me.” Each word was growled. “Because I did this to you. I gave you the wine. I knew it would force you to tell me your secrets. I should have fucking stuck to just seducing them out of you.”
“I…thought I could trust you.”
“I know. That’s what makes this even worse.” His lips twisted in disgust. “I don’t know what you’re doing to me, but it will stop.”
Yes, yes, it had to stop. She didn’t know what he was doing to her either. This mad attraction, this need that rose within her—it all had to stop.
“Tell me the one thing you want—anything, and it will be yours.”
What did she want? That was easy. She wanted her power gone. She’d already told him that all she wanted was to be normal. So she’d tell him again and he’d use the Eye and she’d get—“You.” Mina barely recognized her own, husky voice. “I want you.”
His pupils flared. The darkness of his eyes just deepened and then—he’d yanked her toward him. His mouth was on hers. She should stop. She should say that she’d misspoken but…
She hadn’t.
In that one moment, her soul laid bare, she did want him. She wanted to let herself go. To give in to the attraction that she felt for him. An attraction that seemed to burn her from the inside. A need too powerful to be real.