Page 97 of How Does It Feel?

“I can impel you, Callie Peterson, remember that,” he threatened as he stepped closer to me and the door frame.

“Don’t you dare,” I said through gritted teeth, suddenly feeling incredibly weak and helpless.

“The venom will get out one way or another, Callie. Either I call the nearest guard or suck it out myself,” he threatened, taking another step closer. “But know that I’ll kill the guard for touching you before his mouth has the chance to speak again,” he growled as if the mere thought of someone else touching me made him a savage.

Only a few feet separated us now.

“Promise me,” I whispered, all the fight leaving me momentarily as I made my plea.

I noticed his body relax slightly with his victory.

“Anything,” he stated as if it physically caused him pain not to step into me and take me in his arms.

“Promise me that you will never impel me, that you’ll never take my free will away,” I pleaded softly.

“Done.” He stepped closer, the movement fluid and graceful.

“One more thing, Mendax—”

“Malum,” he whispered as he stepped into me, the front of our bodies pressing tightly together.

His eyes were full of heat as if an inferno fought to emerge from under his gentle movements.

My body stiffened, and I fought the urge to melt into him. I wouldn’t allow it. I stepped into my footing and held my ground.

“What?” I asked, shocked. My more tender emotions recoiled with the realization of what he had just done, the power of the words he had just spoken.

“My true name is Malum Mendax, Crown Prince of the Unseelie Court,” he whispered a little timidly, as if he were handing me a gun.

As far as the Fae believed, he was.

“Speak my name from those soft lips, and I’ll give you anything—everything—you could ever want,” he whispered hoarsely against my neck as he struggled to swallow, and I could tell he meant it.

He lifted his face, and tender emotions filled his eyes. But only anger filled mine. I didn’t want this. I couldn’t do this.

“Let me leave, Malum Mendax. Forget the last trial, and let me go home. Now,” I said through gritted teeth.

His closeness was doing things to me I didn’t want—things that were making this a lot harder. I accidentally inhaled, and the smell of spicy amber filled me like a hard drink making me tense with anger.

He was the bad guy!

His features sharpened as if he’d been asleep this whole time and had only just awakened. He stepped back with a scowl.

“You will never leave me, Callie. This is your home now.”

He stepped back farther, and his black outfit seemed to radiate shadows as his features grew tight. He tilted his head, making him look even more unhinged than his crazy words had made him sound.

“The trial is written in Faerie law as a promise, and the queen has taken control of it. It cannot be stopped, but I will see to it that my—that you are unscathed.”

“If I come out alive, then I get to go back to the human realm. That should also be written in Faerie law, as you say. You promised me,” I countered.

My eyes had begun to well up from exhaustion and frustration. My dress was the same from the trial, and it blanketed my frame, heavy and uncomfortable.

“That was before you were my bonded. Before I realized I can’t live without you,” he insisted as he crossed his arms. Challenge flashed across his eyes with a gleam.

“You tried to kill me after you bonded to me! I had no say in this! You have been trying to destroy me since I got here!” I shouted at him, suddenly feeling uncontainable.

The wariness from the trials ebbed away, replaced with anger, both with myself for feeling some morbid type of connection with him and with the monster himself.