I stared up at my ceiling. It was so dark, and the only thing I could think about was what Marcus said. He wasn’t wrong. He was a good match in a lot of ways.
My hand absently rubbed at the spot on my neck where the mystery mark was. It tingled when my fingers moved over the ridge of it. My mind drifted to the night it showed up.

Two weeks prior

Everything was quiet, but something felt off. The darkness was thick, and the surrounding sounds muffled. I could feel the cold of the shadows moving around me. Something inside them breathing. The touch of shadow fingers up my body, igniting flames of my own magick under my skin.
The shadowy fingers lightly touched my skin on my legs, stopping briefly on my thighs, lingering just below the hem of my pajamas. A low grumble sounded from somewhere I couldn’t place. Then the fingers trailing up my stomach and between my breasts. Light scratches of claws running over my skin until they reached my neck. A clawed dark hand wrapping lightly around my neck and cocking my head to the side before sharp pain that turned into electricity under my skin.
I wanted to lean into the feeling, but the one clawed hand kept in me place. Fire pushed through my veins and then the coolness of some kind of foreign magick.
My breathing went ragged, and I reached for the clawed hand, feeling its solid form against my body. Another groan sounded somewhere before hot breath on my neck and one solitary word.
“Mine.”

***

My eyes slowly closed even after thinking about the way the shadows felt that night, but the sound of slow breathing caught my attention. It wasn’t mine. My eyes blinked, and the room turned dark. So dark I almost couldn’t breathe. It was as though the air itself was smoke threatening to choke me.
A low grumble to my left made my breath catch. I reached for my fire magick but there was nothing there but ice wrapping around my skin. The shadows hardened into something I couldn’t quite make out, and those same purple eyes locked on me.
I rolled to the side to get out of the bed, but shadows grabbed my wrist and a hard body behind me yanked me into it. The low growl of something distinctly not human sounded in my ear.
Before I could scream, everything turned to darkness around me, and the air shifted, and I was falling.

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Chapter Three

Start From the Beginning – Chapter One

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