Artificially Obsessed : a Morally Grey Dark Romance Fantasy by Belle Knock

Author:Belle Knock [Knock, Belle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-06-21T00:00:00+00:00

When I wake up, I sit up, and stare into the middle distance at nothing. I want to go back to sleep. I listen for the sounds of morning birds singing and hear nothing.

There is nothing for me in this world. Indifferent to my misery, the morning dawn’s soft light makes everything beautiful, streaks rays of orange onto everything, makes everything shine. The flowers, the trees. Our burned-out campfire, my satchel, Theo’s snoring, freckled face. His rust-colored hair is especially brilliant with streaks of shining orange. Then I see the flowers rust-colored, freckled from Theo’s blood, Patty's blood, and the dragon’s blood.

Without a horse, we are as good as dead. All our money and supplies were on Blacky’s back.

When I wake up a second time, it is because Theo is gently shaking my shoulder. “Wake up, Eva, we need to get going. Wake up.”

“Go where?” I grumble, going to finger-comb my hair only to remember it has been cropped short. I can feel it sticking up. Patting it down hardly helps.

“Go find Blacky, go to Esseff, get out of here.”

“Go yourself,” I say. I’m grumpy. I’m sad. I’m hopeless. And I’m scared. I have no right to be anything but the sweetest sugar to Theo. I should be grateful he didn’t leave without me while I was asleep after my behavior last night, after I let a dragon gobble up Patty’s corpse with no remorse. After I called for the Magus’s help instead of his. But here I am, grousing at him.

Kneeling in front of me, Theo takes my hand in his warm, rough one. He strokes my hand with his thick, freckled fingers. I want to pull away. I want to punch him in his handsome nose.

“I’m sorry for how I acted last night,” Theo says, “I was out of line. I was just...Well, I mean, I guess it makes sense you would reflexively call for the Magus when you were scared. He was your guardian. You are more of a victim in this than I am. I don’t have the right to be angry at you. I think I was taking it out on you because I was scared too. You fixed my arm, and I was nasty to you...and I knew preserving Mom’s body was a lost cause.”

I’m not entirely surprised by Theo’s apology; he did hold me close when we were falling asleep last night. It just irritates me more. Because he should hold a grudge. He should be mad at me. He is making excuses for me that I can’t even make for myself. He was right about me last night. My go-to man, the one I wanted when I was at my most frightened, was the Magus. And I didn’t want him because he is one of the most powerful beings in existence. I didn’t want him because he could easily defeat the dragon. I wasn’t thinking clearly enough to care about those things last night. I simply wanted the Magus because I wanted him, the Magus, the man—maybe even the man named Genji.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.