BOUND (#1, of Crows and Thorns)

Chapter 81

My hand went instinctively to my thigh...it wasn't there...I hadn't strapped the dagger to my body like I always did.

But then, I realized as I glanced down at my empty palm, I had never really needed a dagger.

The creature stirred within me uneasily. I ignored its hissing, the way it coiled around my wrist bones as if it were trying to stop me from raising my hand. To stop the dark power welling in my palm and the fire dancing upon my trembling fingertips.

Flames as pale as moonlight illuminated Graysen's handsome features. I could burn him alive. Shatter every bone. Rupture every organ in his body. Crush the air in his lungs and watch him suffocate in his sleep.

Don't—the creature hissed.

I could...I should.

It was either him or me.

Do it, do it, do it—

I reached for his vulnerable throat, spreading my fingers wide. The flames burned higher as silent tears trickled down my cheeks.

All it would take would be for me to squeeze that throat of his marked in ink and shove fire down his throat to set myself free.

My hand shook. The pale flames wavered against the night air.

Do it, do it, do it—

I hesitated, watching the pulse point flutter in his throat.

Don't think about it, do it, do it, do it—

But I knew if I took his life, something inside me would shatter so completely, I'd never mend.

I rocked back on my heels with an anguished sob.

I can't! I can't!

Shaking my hand free of dark power, the flames extinguished as my shoulders slumped and my hand fell slack by my side. I couldn't...I couldn't do this. Couldn't take his life, though he could easily take mine once I reached my twentieth birthday.

I swiped at the salty teardrops dripping from my chin.

What am I going to do?

If I couldn't end him, I had to run.

How? Where to?

How can I even find a way to leave the estate?!

The barest bones of a plan began to take shape.

Graysen's car... There were too many guests leaving in vehicles for our guards to check every single one of them. I could take his car, get outside the gates, and swift away.

I frantically dug around in his pockets searching for his car keys and found nothing.

Nothing!

Graysen's lips parted slightly and there was a sudden tension in his body as he slumbered. My gaze honed in on the shiver that shuddered through his body and my mind paused to wonder—what he was dreaming of? I dreamt of the dark, ensnared in pitch-black nightmares. But what would make him shiver that way? What would cause cold sweat to bead above his lip and give his forehead that waxen sheen? What was he dreaming of to make a deep line form between his eyebrows?

There was no time, no time for anything but escape—

I'd find the car keys in his room, perhaps inside the luggage he'd brought with him.

Half-twisting around, I went to push myself to my feet when I heard a low growl.

All the fine hair on my body prickled with warning.