LOGINIn Evenmoor, women did not touch each other unless it was polite, brief, or required.When Lewison mentioned that I could have a female mistress if I wanted to, I took it as a joke. Something said in the heat of the moment.,I believe that it was one of those things that people always said but never meant, like all the times my father said he'd quit smoking.Without waiting for permission from Lewison, I sat on his bed, allowing all the information I had just heard to settle in.“You’re lying,” I muttered without thinking. “Women don’t… Gabriella wouldn’t have… That’s not how the world works.”Footsteps crossed the room, and then I felt Lewison’s towering presence hover above me. Still, I didn't look up.My hands curled into the sheets. I needed to make sense of something. Anything.Gabriella was here and found love with Iris? But that was so long ago, and I would have known if any of Father's siblings disappeared, wouldn't I? He’d kept this pact thing hidden from me for so long, an
Iris was the one who led me back to my room.And then she stayed.She dragged a chair in front of my bed and watched me like I was something fragile… or something broken.Whichever one she believed, she was not too far off.It was ironic how days ago I would have done just about anything to see this woman and now that she was here, I wanted her far away, and yet there was nothing I could do to make her leave.On our way here, I had told her that she did not need to be around me several times, but she didn't listen.Upon our arrival to my gilded cage, I thanked her for the escort and told her that she could leave, and yet, she still refused to budge.Saliva had now become an expensive resource, and I had no plans of wasting any more of it on her, and so I lay in bed, thinking of how all the other Feywins survived this place as I let Iris continue to spill more stupid nonsense.It wasn't until she muttered one key sentence that I turned to face her again.“You can ask me as many questio
According to Frank Aubrey, there was no better way to end a tour than to have me spread-eagled on a medical bed.The healing quarters of SouthPoint Pack and Feywin cemetery had one thing in common—the concentrated smell of impending death.Where one had already prepared a piece of land to bury my body, the other had prepared all the instruments I would need for a more mental and social death.I believed that the healing quarters here would be just like the hospitals back in Evenmoor but I was terribly wrong. Instead of antiseptic, bleach, and alcohol, the metallic stench of blood hit my nostrils first. Then it was herbs. Too many herbs all at once, like they were all fighting each other to see who would dominate.I never knew how special my room could be until today.Frank trudged forward, and I was forced to follow quietly behind him. The last thing I wanted to do was anger the man who had just informed me that no matter what I did, I would end up dead and in a grave that he had alre
My parents never shared much about our family history, but thanks to Frank Aubrey, I was going to know more than enough.Completely and utterly helpless, I kept throwing looks at Lewison, hoping that he would take the hint and make up some perfectly sane excuse that stopped me from going anywhere with his monster of a father, but perhaps I had been too hopeful because, after my third attempt, Lewison got up and left without a word.When I turned to the left, in hopes of finding comfort in the only stranger at the table, I discovered that he was gone. He had completely disappeared, as though he weren’t even here in the first place.A scream threatened to spill from my lips, but I knew that it would most likely make things worse for me, so I sealed my lips and turned to meet my captor.He was wearing his ever favorite smile.“I finally have a Feywin all to myself. Come with me child,” he gestured forward, already walking.I followed him in silence.And when I saw that where we were goin
All forms of thought vanished in a microsecond, and I found myself doing the unthinkable.I leaned forward.Lewison closed the gap.And then there was no space for thinking at all.His mouth crashed against mine with none of the gentleness I'd expected, but it was not gentleness that I needed. What I craved—what I needed—was enough ferocity to make me forget whose bed I was in… and who was on top of me. What I needed was to forget everything that was not involved in chasing the kind of pleasure I needed to escape.I gasped against his lips, and he took advantage, tongue sliding against mine in a way that made my entire body ignite.Lewison knew exactly how to make me forget. And forget, I did.My hands were everywhere—his hair, his shoulders, the hard planes of his back—searching for something to anchor me because I was falling apart.He made a sound low in his throat, feral and raw, and suddenly one hand slid from my waist to my chest, while the other held me down against the bed.I
After my slip-up, things between Lewison and me became rather bleak.Despite the fact that we lay in bed together, silence became our only companion. Sleep would not find me no matter how hard I tried and I had lost all interest in the wine.With a sigh, I turned to my side, to find Lewison staring at me.I jerked back before my nerves settled and I lay down again.“You should be asleep.”Lewison was the first to break the silence between us so I was forced to wonder if this was indeed reality or one of those strange dreams I would have from time to time.I bit my lower lip for a moment and when nothing happened, I was finally convinced this was real.“You should be asleep as well,” I finally answered.He shook his head. “I don’t sleep much but last night I could have mistaken you for a corpse so tell me what has happened?”I sat up, crossing my legs on the bed. “I had a lot of wine yesterday and tonight, the last thing I want to do is have some wine. I am no longer in the mood.”Lewis







