“Afraid you may like my dick?” he asked, lifting his hand to push away a stray strand of hair. “Be a good girl, and I may even let you suck it.”
“You two going to fuck, or you want a few more minutes alone?” Luna asked, watching us.
I ignored her, pulling my arm from Knox’s hold before I sidled up next to him, watching as he studied me. “I wouldn’t suck your dick if it contained the last air molecule in the entire universe, puppy. You’re not man enough to handle me, anyway. You’re probably like every other male on this planet who thinks bitches should bow down and worship that tiny little thing between your legs. I don’t fucking bow to anyone. I sure as fuck don’t bow to “some self-conceited, self-absorbed, self-appointed king” to a town that should be burned to ashes and destroyed, asshole,” I muttered as I turned, marching back to where my sisters stood, listening to everything we said. “Let’s go before something else welcomes us back or tries to kill us.”
“I suggest you be at the council meeting tomorrow and learn the new laws of Haven Falls. If you fuck with me, little girl, I will fuck you back. I don’t have mercy when I fuck my enemies. If you don’t like the new laws, you can get the fuck out of my town.”
“Who says I would ever want mercy from you?” I snorted as I spun on him, lifting a brow in question. “You don’t scare me, Knox. You don’t even register on the scale of things I fear.”
“Yeah, let’s test that fucking theory, shall we?” he asked. A loud crashing noise exploded, and the world vanished around me.
Chapter 3
I grabbed on to Knox as the world stopped spinning and buried my face against him. I knew he’d moved us in a way that only certain immortals could, a gift from the gods to the strongest, most powerful of creatures.
My breathing intensified, growing rapid as I struggled to calm my reaction to being up too high above the ground. The air was thinner, which meant we were high above the town, in the highest peak of the tallest mountain, teetering on something I couldn’t see. My feet couldn’t find anything to stand on, and when I peered up, sea-blue eyes studied me with interest.
“Scared yet?” he uttered huskily.
“What the hell are you?” I whispered, peering down the precarious height of the drop as my heart kicked into rapid beats. Knox lifted his hand to cup my cheek, and I held on tighter as rocks slid off the cliff he held me over.
“What the hell are you, Aria?” he countered curiously, studying me as he brushed his thumb over my cheek.
“I don’t know,” I replied through quivering lips, my body reacted to the fear of being held over the edge, and yet not. Knox held me there, my feet never touching the ground, but I didn’t fear falling with him holding me. “My mother never told me, other than I was evil.”
“Are you afraid of me?” he asked, lowering his mouth to brush his lips over mine, sending a wealth of heat rushing through me. “Because you should be terrified of me,” he chuckled darkly as his chest rattled, echoing through the mountains. “You have no idea what scared is. If you were smart, Aria, you’d run now. You enter my town, you play by my rules. I own everything and everyone. You won’t like me or the changes I have made.”
“I guessed that already. I don’t want to be here, but shit happens, and here we are. You may own everything, but you don’t own everyone. You don’t own me, Knox. Or should I call you Your Majesty?” I snorted as he glared at me. “Don’t expect me to bow, Knox. I get on my knees for no one.”
“Mmm, you’d look so much better on your knees with something in that smart little mouth of yours. Too bad you’re a witch.”
“What the hell did witches ever do to you?” I snapped, exasperated with his slurs against us. Not all witches were the same, and to box us all into one group was shit.
“Everything, I hate everything about you and your kind,” he snarled, exposing raw emotion that made my heart squeeze in warning. “You’re the epitome of evil, wrecking lives just because you have the power to do so. You murder the innocent and destroy lives so fucking easily because you never have to wait around to see the end results.”
“Don’t hold back on me now,” I said, grinning at him.
“You’re all worthless bitches who destroy everything you touch. Not to mention you fuck anything and anyone willing to breed your poisonous wombs.”
“I’ve murdered no one in my life. I also haven’t felt the urge to want a man, nor wreck his life to take him by force. No man has touched me, Knox, nor will I lower myself to resort to murder to get fucked. Don’t stereotype me. I’m not like other witches, of that you can be certain. I do, however, leave destruction in my wake when someone hurts one of my own. How about we make a deal right here, right now? You stay the fuck away from me, and I’ll stay away from you.”
“This town isn’t big enough for that to happen, Aria.”
“You’d be surprised at what I can do in small spaces.”
“You stink of the need to be bent over and fucked.”
“Then plug your nose, because it won’t be you who bends me over,” I snapped, hating that my nipples were hard from the electricity that was rushing through us.
Butterflies were having a party within my stomach, and something was happening to my brain. Usually, I was smarter than this. Normally, I didn’t flirt with death. This man was a predator, which kind I wasn’t sure of, but there were sharp edges to his persona that screamed it. The way he watched me for any minute reaction stuck in my craw, and then there was my reaction to him.
I didn’t notice things about men, never cared to, and yet I already knew his eyes held flecks of sapphire in their oceanic depths. Knox’s hair wasn’t brown; it was a sandy blonde, appearing darker beneath the shadows of the moon’s pale light. His body was built for speed, not strength. He was strong and didn’t need strength from his physique to accomplish his goals because he was intelligent.
“Either kiss me or put me back on the ground. I have shit to get done tonight, Knox.”
He smiled, lowering his eyes to linger on my mouth before he once again moved us to the ground, but he did more than that; he froze time and space. I felt his mouth brushing against mine even though I couldn’t see him, then exhaled as I watched the dark SUV driving away from us. He’d taken me back and frozen time. He’d frozen time on me! No one had ever been able to use magic on me, which had puzzled everyone, but then we had no idea who fathered Amara or me. I swallowed down fear and turned, staring at my sisters, who watched me back.
“He freaking froze me,” I admitted through trembling lips.
“That isn’t good.”
“No, that’s not good at all.” I stared at the taillights, wondering who the hell he really was. I wasn’t leaving until I figured out what happened to my sister. I refused to be chased out of town by some dick who got off on being a bully.
“His presence here is troubling,” Sabine announced, forcing us all to turn toward her. “You know how we have to enter the Nine Realms and show our presence there? The House of Witches may be where Amara has gone. I’ve heard of a plan before, where if one of us was to remain in the Nine Realms, or show up when it wasn’t time, an assassin would be sent out to hunt them. What if he is here looking for Amara, and she is hiding?”