[THIS STORY WILL BE TAKEN DOWN ON SEPTEMBER 30, 2024]
This is a collection of bonus scenes I've written over the years. Some are part of later books in the series. Some short stories are simply 'What If' scenarios. Some moments are scenes that happe...
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That sensation that prickled beneath my skin, an itch that needed to be scratched, guided me to exactly where she was.
I came to a slow halt and just drank her in—with a stupid, goofy smile on my face.
She was tiny, my little bird, and looked even smaller on the makeshift stage, wearing one of her oversized dresses, this time in a blushing pink, bare feet kicking up as she danced with her sister, Evvie. Her hair rolled through the air with her movements, swinging around, snapping, bouncing upon shoulders which glistened with a light sheen of perspiration. She held her arms over her head, swaying in time to the beat, and she looked ... gods, she looked happy, lit up with a wide grin as she laughed, her freckles sparkling on her honeyed skin. Light-gray eyes, like a glacier reflecting back a barren rocky mountain, shone in delight as she sang along with the song.
They were doing some kind of coordinated dance, the kind I imagined Nelle's ten-year-old-self had practiced with her sisters in the privacy of her bedroom. Caidan had set up some sort of VIP section on the raised platform and was lounging in a high-backed leather chair as if he were a king holding court, watching Evvie intently.
The same thing that guided me to her guided her to me. Nelle's gaze suddenly swung wide and locked on me. It was like an electrical current barrelled through my body, jolting my bones, stuttering my heart.
Gods, she was beautiful. Perfect.
And then the air constricted in my lungs.
A sickly, irrational feeling gouged my insides and surged through my veins, obliterating all rational thought—jealousy.
A guy.
A mortal guy in formal attire—dress-pants and shirt, and a cheap-as-shit tie—moved directly behind her.
His blond hair was artfully smoothed back and not a single hair moved out of place. I imagined he'd sprayed the fuck out of it to sit perfectly still. Holy shit. The moment he put his hands on her hips and pulled her closer, my heart nearly exploded in my chest—I thought I was having a heart attack it was fluttering so erratically.
Nelle cocked a challenging brow at me, her soft features hardening with her pissiness the moment she caught sight of me. And just to make sure I knew just how pissed she was with me, she flipped me off before spinning around. She grabbed the guy's tie, tugging him along, leading him down the steps from the stage, and then I couldn't see where they'd gone.
I didn't think. I just acted. Like the hunter I was. Even if I didn't have the filaments of magic that bound us both together, it wouldn't have taken me long to find them.
I found her.
I found her and I wanted to kill her.
Not exactly fucking true.
I wanted to kill him.
They were tucked away in an alcove at the back of the rooftop entrance that led back inside the fortress. There were a few other guests mingling around, but they had relative privacy.
