Free Dark World (Book I in the Dark World Trilogy) by Danielle Q. Lee Page B

head,
quashing the feeling immediately.
    Don’t be ridiculous, she’s…a
killer. She’s a shade. She’s not capable of kindness
or—love. He
glanced again at the scene. Is she?
     
    She giggled as she played with the
newborn gargoyle, experiencing the first sense of peace since she’d
arrived in this foreign world. She’d felt so torn with this new
place.
    And the voice.
    The voice that had welcomed her to Dark
World, the voice that haunted her from the moment she’d arrived was
growing louder. Begging for her to come home.
    Where is home?
    She recalled a place where she raised
her face to a brilliant ball of light shining in an open, blue sky.
A place where oceans of tall green grass rolled in waves over
voluptuous fields. Where snowflakes waltzed within a crisp, morning
air, glistening like weightless diamonds. As memories trickled
through her awareness, flashes of her former life haunted her, as
did the girl she saw in the mirror.
    “ Ick.” The gargoyle purred
and pawed at her leg gently, comforting her as if sensing her inner
torment.
    “ Is that your name?
Ick?”
    Fate picked him up, intending to
introduce him to Kane. She was stroking the soft fur on his back
when she smelled something. Something delicious. Worried her hunger
was getting the better of her and she was picking up Kane’s scent
again, she started to back away. She’d been trying hard to ignore
his enticing aroma. The mask he’d attached to her face was
annoying, but helped to dull the desire to consume him. Even though
her instinct was to devour him, she didn’t know why, but she didn’t
want to hurt him.
    She scanned the forest with her
infrared eyes. At first, she saw nothing, but then, from deep
within the shadows, she saw them. Red eyes—lots of them.
    “ Kane,” she whispered,
hoping to get his attention without alerting the ones stalking
them.
    “ Yes?”
    “ There’s something…out
there,” she said, her voice low as she gestured towards the
woods.
    Kane immediately stood and gazed into
the depths of the Crystalline Forest.
    “ It might be Deme,” he
offered, uncertainty tainting his voice.
    Fate countered, shaking her head, “No,
there’s more than one.”
    “ Get behind me,” he ordered,
raising his sword and glaring into the dark.
    “ I can help you!” She
narrowed her eyes at the hulking black demon and stomped her foot
against the forest’s marbled floor.
    His blue eyes flared in warning, a look
of stubborn determination eclipsing his face. Fate tucked Ick
tightly under her arm and moved reluctantly behind Kane.
    Now closer than she’d ever been to him,
she examined the demon. Her eyes drawn to him. His physique. His
sheer presence left her breath caught in her throat.
    He exuded a palpable air of nobility
and honor, yet a quiet vulnerability lurked beneath the surface.
With his jaw clenched and muscular body poised for battle, she
couldn’t help but allow her gaze to linger longer than intended.
Her stare slid over his extraordinary form, noting the multitude of
scars marring his velvety black skin, a patchwork of his many
battles and hardships. She wondered how it would feel to run her
hands along his arms, his shoulders—his back.
    It was odd, she considered suddenly.
The first day they’d laid eyes upon one another, there was an
instant hatred. An instinctive distrust and loathing. Except now,
only a day later, her feelings had changed drastically. Something
was different. But what? And how?
    Ever since I touched
him…
    The low rumbling from the throat of a
wild animal jarred her from her reverie. The creatures edged
nearer, their red eyes closing in around them. From all sides, the
beasts glowered, their identities hidden by the darkness. Kane’s
gaze panned the forest, anticipating an attack. He bared his fangs
and growled at the unseen stalkers, maneuvering his sword in a
figure eight pattern.
    The owners of the red eyes emerged from
the shadows and came into focus. Four enormous creatures