Darkness Embraced by Winter Pennington Read Free Book Online

always protected me.
    I grabbed his hands and screamed like a cat coming out of water. I thrust him away from me.
    “Do not touch me!”
    “I will touch you,” Renata said, licking my blood off her lips. She started moving toward me. Yes, I wanted her to touch me.
    “Epiphany!” Vasco yelled at me. “Fight her, damn you!”
    I shook my head. “No, I don’t want to.”
    Renata was getting closer. I reached out my hand, chest rising and falling in anticipation.
    “Do not let her make you weak!”
    Weak? I licked my lips, tilting my head. Did my desire make me weak?
    “Am I weak?”
    “No, my darling,” Renata said. “You are mine.”
    Then Vasco did something.
    An image of Renata and me lying in bed. Her nude body spooned mine. Her breath warm against my neck as she stroked my hair.
    “It is not always weak to succumb,” she whispered in my ear. “I enjoy you this way, Epiphany. I love that you trust me.” Her fingers slipped between my legs as she began to part me.
    Trust. She had broken my trust.
    I tried to scream when I came back to myself, but I couldn’t breathe. I was drowning. I pushed up off the bed, moving clumsily to the far side of the room. I probably looked as unstable and dizzy as I felt, but it did not matter. What mattered was that I got away from the two of them.
    Vasco and Renata stared at me. Their power pushed at me and this time I pushed back.
    “Stop it,” I said. “Both of you.”
    Vasco’s pupils returned to a normal size as he withdrew his power.
    Renata’s eyes were still swimming, like echoing waves calling me home. Somewhere in the back of my mind I could’ve sworn I heard the ocean roaring. “Epiphany.” She moved to the edge of the bed and offered her hand. “Come back to me.”
    I took a step forward and stopped myself.
    “No.” I shook my head, hands trembling. “No, stop this.”
    I felt her power shift, like an invisible wave threatening to take me under. For the first time, I stood my ground, bracing myself against the tsunami of her power.
    Her power receded, going back to the ocean from whence it came. I knew, without a doubt, that she could’ve forced me. Why she didn’t, why she did not use that power to break my will, I did not understand.
    “She would have failed had you not interfered.” Her words were scalding as she turned to Vasco.
    “No,” he said, “She would not have, my Queen.”
    “She was already giving herself to me,” Renata said. “You had no right.”
    It seemed a thousand thoughts flitted through Vasco’s eyes. “This was a part of your test for her?”
    Renata gave a very slow nod.
    Vasco cursed and then asked, “Why?”
    She gave me a considering look. “I wanted to taste her power. To see how strong she has grown.”
    If lying was a piece of candy, I was sucking on a really big piece of it.
    “That’s not all,” I said.
    Renata gave me a satisfied smile. It reminded me of the way she used to smile, like a cat teasing its helpless prey. “No,” she said, “not all.”
    “What do you mean?” Vasco asked.
    “It wasn’t just to see how strong I’ve grown,” I said, but my attention was all for Renata. “I felt your remorse. You meant what you said earlier.” I didn’t repeat her words, not in front of Vasco.
    She considered me for a long while. “Did I?”
    “Yes.”
    She turned to Vasco and a flicker of anger went through me again.
    “Renata,” I said and this time my voice was firm.
    The look she gave me wasn’t very friendly. “You have grown bold, Epiphany,” she said. “But I am still your Siren and you will not talk to me in such a way.”
    “I hate you.”
    My words were like a spear that I wrapped my power around and threw at her.
    Pain. As if my heart would burst. Fear.
    I stumbled as Renata pushed me out too fast. She had so much more experience that it seemed all it took was a flick of her wrist.
    “Do not try to read my emotions.” Her eyes narrowed, darkening again.
    She cared. There was some