Page 82 of Kat Bethel

His only goal was to make me suffer.

Claws sliced through the skin on the back of my neck. The pain was more than skin and nerves. It ripped at something in my chest that was essential to who I was.

“Stop!” I hated the way my voice quivered. He didn’t care that he was destroying me from the inside out, cutting strings inside me that I needed to live. “Please!”

Every slice sent a panic through me. Like the room I was trapped in was shrinking, and I wasn’t sure there would be any space for me.

“Who do you belong to?” Claws dug deeper, hitting something inside me that was as real as bone and blood.

“Abiel!” I shrieked before I could consider that silence would have been a better option.

The silence echoed loudly as if the entire world had been waiting for my answer. My breathing stuttered as I realized what I’d said.

I belonged to Abiel. I felt it in the frayed edges throbbing inside me, radiating from the fucking mark until I felt it in my toes.

It was a hell of a time to start spouting the truth, but I couldn’t take it back.

I wanted nothing more than for Abiel to wrap me in the safety of his darkness and make me believe I was more special than I was.

It was the most honest I’d been in decades.

“You don’t believe that.” He roared enraged with something solid and possessive.

He’d never understand exactly how much I did believe it. More than I ever wanted to admit, and I shouldn’t have admitted it here with him.

He tossed me to the side, and I tried to catch myself, but my muscles gave out. I grunted as I slid across the rocks and hit my tender head on the ground.

“You won’t believe that if I carve my mark into you.”

I understood now.

That wasn’t how it worked.

These weren't a few cuts scarring my skin..

The mark was more like a contract that etched into my very soul. Which meant some part of me, signed on the dotted line. Magic that even my people didn’t know about.

He could do whatever he wanted to my body.

I’d never be his.

And he was going to kill me trying.

I went limp, accepting my fate, and that my own actions led me here. There was no one to pin the blame on. Aunt Jackie always said that panic killed a witch faster than anything else. She was right.

Rage bubbled inside me. Why did I always have to be so stupid?

The invisible prison shrinking around me turned to flames. I was being burned alive.

Howls filled the air, sending shivers down my spine. Fear and relief poured over me like a balm.

He was here.

Chapter 31:

Painslicedthroughmyshoulder blade in long sloppy slashes that didn’t seem to have a rhyme or reason. I bit my tongue until it bled, refusing to cry. I’d let him have too many victories over me. He wouldn’t get anymore.

I may have laid down and surrendered, but I wasn’t going out with at least a little bit of dignity.