Black Sunshine (Dark Eyes 1)

He doesn’t finish his sentence.

He doesn’t have to.

I know how he feels. At the very least, I know how I feel.

Like my ever-changing world changed once more.

I know now why Solon was so reluctant to sleep with me.

It wasn’t the beast, though I don’t doubt its existence.

It’s because it changes things.

Because right now he’s still inside me, still hard as steel, and I know everything between us has twisted. I’m not sure if it’s for good, but I think it might be forever.

If I wasn’t bound to Absolon before by blood, I am now, with every inch of my body and soul.

I swallow thickly, staring up at him.

“What have we done?”

Chapter Eighteen

I’m dreaming about men with no faces.

They circle me, curtains hanging from their hoods, but I feel like even if the curtains weren’t there, there would be no face at all.

Just teeth.

And there’s a man standing behind them.

At least, I think it’s a man, he’s in shadow so it’s hard to see.

He’s very tall, bone-thin, limbs unnaturally long, with claws for hands and what’s either shields at his back or giant folded wings.

“I know what he’s going to try and make you do, child,” says a slithering, insidious voice. “It won’t work.”

I stare at the creature, a sick sense of dread pulling down on my heart.

“He’ll use you, and then you’ll die,” he adds.

Then you’ll die.

Then you’ll die.

I roll over, tangled in sheets, gasping.

Awake.

I reach over, expecting Solon to be beside me, the last memories I have are of the two of us together in his bed. At t

he memory, my heart leaps in my chest, legs squeezing together, bringing me fully out of my slumber.

But when I open my eyes, I’m not in his bed, I’m in mine. Still in the haunted mansion.

I move onto my back, staring up at the lacey canopy. All the lights in the room are off, but there’s a slice of daylight cutting through the curtain, dust motes dancing in the air.

How did I get here?