EMMA
"She dares refuse the ritual food. Even after we threatened the life of one she values."
The words slithered like vipers across the stone chamber. Delivered with the same detached malice as someone commenting on the weather.
I stood rooted, just outside the circle of firelight, my fists clenched so tightly my nails bit into my skin.
Then I looked up and saw him, Xander
The man who claimed to desire me… yet never ceased to strip me bare with cruelty.
The same monster who wore power like a second skin, and wielded it with all the delicacy of a butcher's knife.
His expression was carved from marble, a smirk lingering in the corner of his lips as if he found amusement in my pain.
A pulse of fury began to rise. Slowly. Like embers turning to flame. It coiled in my stomach, pushing its way up my throat. My vision blurred for a heartbeat not with tears, but with rage.
And then it came.
That moment. That memory.
My father's face.
