Page 4 of The Fate of Black Hearts

Forcing herself not to look back as she exited hurt her neck. She grabbed her bag out of the bushes on the way out.

Two blocks away, heavy footsteps followed her. They were clumsy enough to be obvious.

Now she’d find out why he’d allowed her to catch him.

He pulled her into the shadows of a recessed doorway. Had this been anyone else she would’ve fought with intent to kill. Pressed against the heat of his solid body, dwarfed by him, the desire to be stilloverpowered her need to fight. Maybe he was using his magic to manipulate her?

She didn’t care. She wanted him to touch her.

No. You. Don’t. Snap out of it.

Something deep inside her shifted into an awareness of herself as a female. The sense of being adrift that had held her in thrall all the years since Lyra was born fell away. If he had left her before, maybe even forced her to forget him, he didn’t deserve this emotion from her. He certainly didn’t deserve her trust.

Maybe she made herself and everyone forget him? Less probable. She didn’t have access to that kind of magic.

She pressed her knife against his throat.

He stilled.

The streetlight a hundred yards away barely illuminated the area. His eyes were no longer blue, but a darker color, perhaps brown. They weren’t dark from dilated pupils, even though those were large. She’d never met anyone with chameleon eyes.

“Release me.” She wiggled against his embrace.

“You won’t kill me.” He loosened his grip.

“Are you willing to bet your life on it?” She cleared her throat, knowing she should step away.

“Yes.”

“What are you?”

“I’m alone.”

Time slowed. Her eyes blurred with unshed tears for him. The tightness in her chest made breathing hard.Why does the thought of youalonehurt so much?

A magnetic center pulled them together. Herbody refused to unlock itself from him despite knowing she could easily escape. People walked past but showed no hint they detected them. He must be shielding them.

“What do you want from me?” She longed for him to make this a beginning.

There’s a reason he was scrubbed from my memory. Remember that.

“What don’t I want from you?” he rasped out as if in pain.

My body might think you’re hotter than the fires of hell, but I don’t understand this.“Don’t come near me again.”

He slow-blinked, a lazy open and shut of his eyelids, clearly unimpressed with her threat.

Never one to miss the advantage of surprise, she gripped his head with her free hand and pulled his lips to hers while keeping the knife against his throat. She had to know if this desire was real or magic. Only surprise could break a magical hold he might have on her. Her rational mind screamed:run.

She should escape, but…

His mouth parted. A hiss emerged from him. She gasped when his hand gently cradled the back of her head, and his tongue plunged into her mouth. The sweetness of his taste and the confidence of each pulsation of his tongue suggested this man knew how to dole out satisfaction. Longing like she’d never experienced, or maybe had been forced to forget, swamped her. This could all be fake. It could be magic.

I don’t care.Her head fell back as he kissed along her chin and neck.

She grabbed the sleeve of his dark jacket with her free hand, crushing the material. It had been so long since she’d been held by a male. Ages since she’d been anything other than the matriarch who kept the family secure and found a morsel of joy in blowing off demon’s heads. Eons since she felt like her breasts and skin were anything other than areas to be dressed up in stylish clothes. This mage made her want more.

The muscles of her shoulders tightened as that sense of familiarity hit again. Of rightness and…