“Lexi,” a voice purred from beside her.
Her eyes closed, and she bit back an inner groan as she tried not to cringe away from the voice. Could this night get any worse?
She had no idea why Malakai Calsov insisted on using her nickname when they barely knew each other, but he’d done so ever since she was a child. Having grown up on neighboring properties, she’d seen Malakai a few times a year.
However, since he was more than two hundred years older than her, they never played together, barely spoke, and the way he looked at her had always scared her a little.
He stared at her like he knew her, no… not knew her. Once she became a teenager, he started staring at her like he wanted to devour her.
The last time she saw him, her father, his father, and Malakai were on a brief visit home from the war. She’d come downstairs to discover them sitting at the dining room table.
She’d ignored Malakai’s ravenous stare as she walked over to rest her hand on her father’s shoulder. She’d leaned forward to get a look at what they were studying, but her father shoved the papers away before turning to smile at her.
“My beautiful daughter.” He took her hand and clasped it in his. “I won’t bore you with such trivial things as war.”
“It’s not trivial,” she replied. “I’m interested in what you’re doing.”
He squeezed her hand. “Maybe some other time. Could you please see if Sahira can bring us some blood?”
She knew he was trying to get rid of her, so she didn’t argue with him. Her father preferred to keep the atrocities of war hidden from her. Besides, she disliked being in the same room as Malakai.
She felt his eyes boring into her back as she walked away and decided to avoid him while he was home. Unfortunately, that only lasted an hour.
She was in the stables when he found her and backed her into a corner. With his hands on either side of her head, he lowered his face, so they were eye level with each other.
His disheveled, dark brown hair hung around his handsome face, and his brown eyes burned with an intensity she’d never seen before. It made her skin crawl as she searched for some way to bolt, but she wasn’t getting past him.
“Hello, Lexi,” he greeted.
“Malakai.”
“How have you been?”
She swallowed to wet her suddenly parched throat and forced herself to smile at him. “I’ve been fine, and you?”
“I’ve been fighting a war.”
Unlike the look of horror, wisdom, and age that shone in her father’s eyes when he spoke of the war, the look in Malakai’s eyes was one of almost twisted, perverse pleasure. Her stomach churned as she realized he enjoyed the fighting, the death, and the brutality of this unnecessary war.
She could never express how his enjoyment of the war made her feel sick. It was treasonous, and he would use it against her. She was supposed to be for the war; she was supposed to want the humans to know about them so immortals could walk the earth freely and stop hiding in the shadows.
But it never bothered her that she had to keep her true nature hidden from the humans. She much preferred hiding to watching the slaughter of countless mortals and immortals every day.
“We are going to win this war,” he stated.
“I’m sure you are,” she said and glanced over his shoulder again. “If you’ll excuse me, I have some things I have to do.”
When he didn’t move to let her pass, she tried dodging underneath one of his arms. He laughed and lowered his hand to her hip to keep her in place. Lexi buried the anger surging through her at the intimate gesture.
He wanted to rattle her, and she refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing it happen. But she had no idea how to get out of this.
Lifting her chin, she was about to ask him to move his hand when he said something that stole the words from her. “I intend to marry you, Elexiandra.”
She couldn’t keep her jaw from falling at the statement; she also couldn’t stop a nervous chuckle.
“You find that funny?” he asked.
Not funny, more astonishing, but the malice in his eyes caused her chuckle to stop abruptly. “No, I don’t find it funny at all.”
She’d never spoken truer words in her entire life.
“We come from good families, our properties adjoin each other, and you will give me fine children,” he said.
Lexi could only stand and stare at him. She had no intention of marrying him. Of course, she didn’t say that to him, but he would soon learn it didn’t matter what he wanted. He couldn’t make her marry him; her father would never allow it.
Lexi grimaced as she replied, “I’m not marrying you or anyone else.”
He smiled as his gaze raked her. Despite keeping her shoulders back, her spine straight, and her chin raised, she had to resist covering herself with her hands. She wore a black sweater and jeans, but she’d never felt more exposed in her life.
“Malakai, where are you?” his father’s voice, drifting through the barn doors, didn’t make Malakai move away.
“I’m coming back from this war, Elexiandra,” he told her. “And when I do, I expect to claim all the rewards the Lord of the Shadow Realms promised us for winning. You will be one of the first things I claim.”
“I am not a spoil of war.”
She was not one to push back or fight against others, and she had no idea where those words came from or how she found the strength to utter them, but she refused to be something he claimed.
If she did marry, it wouldn’t be to a man who believed he could own her. It would be to someone who treated her as an equal, and that would never be Malakai.
He smiled as he lowered his hand to run a finger down her cheek. Lexi compelled herself not to recoil from his touch; she would not give him the satisfaction.
“But you will be mine,” he murmured.
“Malakai!” his father called from outside.
He lowered his finger from her cheek, and before she could stop him, he kissed her forehead. Lexi was too stunned to respond, and by the time she formed a response, he was striding down the shedrow. His swagger caused her teeth to clench.
Now that she could see beyond him, she spotted her father and Malakai’s stepping into the barn. His father’s irritation was evident on his face, but she couldn’t quite make out his clipped words. When they disappeared, her father walked toward her.
The light filtering through the windows and the doorway at the end illuminated his broad shoulders and solid frame. Stubble lined his jaw, and dark circles shadowed his eyes, but they were still sharp as they narrowed on her.
“What did he say to you?” her father demanded.
“He said the Lord of the Shadow Realms has promised to reward the fighters, and he intends for me to be one of those rewards. He wants to marry me.”
Her father snorted as he ran a hand through his pale blond hair. “Well, since he ranks far lower than me, you won’t have to worry about that. It’s not something I’ll ever let happen.”
Her shoulders sagged, and she smiled as she linked her arm through his. “So, you don’t plan to give me away anytime soon?” she teased.
The smile slid from his face as he patted her hand. “I never want to give you away, and I’m certainly not going to give you to someone you don’t choose.”
His words had assured her. He was her protector; he was stronger and held more power than Malakai. She never had to fear being forced into marriage.
But that was months ago. Now her father wasn’t here to protect her, Malakai’s father was dead too, and she was standing beside Malakai, who had that awful, leering grin on his face. It was the grin that said he could see straight through her clothes, the one that said he’d come to claim his reward.