Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 51358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 257(@200wpm)___ 205(@250wpm)___ 171(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 257(@200wpm)___ 205(@250wpm)___ 171(@300wpm)
Need joins the hunger, instinct begging me to cross the space between us and touch him.
Which is ridiculous. I firmly keep my feet planted in the soft sand, but I hold onto that hunger, that need pulsing through me. I close my eyes and try to do what he keeps telling me to. I use it. Cling to it like I did with the anger before. I bond the emotion to the sensation of the water, demanding it to do what I say.
“Good,” Dagon whispers, and I snap my eyes open.
A handful of droplets are floating between us. Not pillars by any means, but it’s something.
I can feel each of them, like an extension of my own body. If I can move my fingers, I should be able to move the water just as easily. I try, wanting to send them soaring to his face—
They hit the water between us, the sensation slipping right out of my grasp.
I try again.
And again.
I try for the next two hours, managing to control the water between us only a handful of times before my mind feels like jelly.
I huff, my shoulders dropping in exhaustion.
“You’re making progress,” Dagon says, coming a little closer.
“It doesn’t feel like it.” I don’t mean to whine.
“You’ll get there,” he says, and for once, he sounds like he believes that. His eyes fall to my mouth.
Everything inside me narrows to that look. To the way his tongue darts out to wet his lips.
A soft breath rushes from me as I take a step closer to him—
He steps back, forcing out a laugh. “And you’ll be able to do it soon without your fangs coming out too,” he hurries to say.
I blink a few times, then run my tongue over my teeth. My fangs are out and pulsing. Omigod, kill me now.
“That’s enough for today,” he says, heading out of the water before I can even respond. “You need to eat.”
I stay in the water for a few minutes, despite him being right. I’m starving.
“Annika,” he barks at me from the edge of the jungle surrounding the warded area.
I roll my eyes and follow him silently back to Cassandra’s mansion.
After a quick shower and a change of clothes, I’m exhausted and ravenous. Turns out, Dagon ended the lesson at the right time, because any more practice and I might’ve passed out. I contemplate skipping food, but knowing Dagon, he’d drag me out of my room and force me to eat.
I join the family dinner even though I’d rather hit my pillow.
Talon and Cassandra are laughing and smiling at each other at the head of the table, completely lost in each other. It’s a beautiful sight, and a direct contrast to Aurora, who picks at her food, lost in her thoughts, and then Saint, watching her while acting like he isn’t. He doesn’t touch his food either.
Dagon pushes a plate piled high with chicken and roasted vegetables toward me as I take a seat next to him.
“Thank you,” I say on an exhale before digging in without preamble.
He tucks into his own food, nodding. “Fuel,” he says. “It’s important to recharge after expending your power. Blood is best, naturally, but food helps too. Protein is essential.”
I nod, chomping away, each bite easing some of the exhaustion.
“Thank you,” I say again after I’ve eaten half of it. I take the break to hydrate, my attention drifting back to Talon and Cassandra as they laugh again.
Longing tugs at the center of my chest at the way Talon grazes his hand across her cheek, at the adoring way they look at each other. They’re so in sync, I’m not even sure if they notice it.
Not for the first time, I yearn for that kind of support, that kind of understanding.
It’s easy enough to want it, especially seeing how Ransom treats my aunt. Easy to want that kind of love when before them all I saw was marriages for political or powerful gain. Sure, some of those matches may have ended in love, but more often than not, they were cold and empty relationships where they each indulged in other people. To each their own, but I’m holding out for something closer to what the residence is full of—partners who match each other, strengthen each other, and have a passion that can’t be cooled.
I smile softly when Cassandra and Talon catch me looking, and hurry to return to my food.
“Want seconds?” Dagon asks me when I’ve finished, already reaching for my plate.
Something swells in my chest as he starts filling it before I can answer. Like he knows how starved I am. Is that because he understands me or because we share a similar gift?
He pushes the plate in front of me again, his gaze lingering on mine for a moment before he returns to his food.