Free Bound in Black by Juliette Cross

embodiment of breathtaking beauty, and yet all I could do was imagine how quickly I could plunge my dagger into his heart.
    I wanted to show him the depth of my rage, of my grief, of my loss. But I didn’t. When he moved closer, a mere foot from me, all I could do was stand there, literally shaking in my boots, trembling from the myriad emotions shooting through my frame. Before I killed him, I wanted answers.
    “Genevieve.” Even his voice was beautiful. I cringed, wanting my name off his tongue. “You are so lovely. I’ve missed you. I—”
    “Shut up. I can’t believe you’d just walk up and pretend like nothing happened.” I shook uncontrollably.
    “You have a right to be angry—”
    “You got that fucking right.”
    “Please…Genevieve. Calm down for a minute.”
    He raised his palms in supplication, as if gentling a wild animal. That was when I noticed the air around me was moving. A torrent of wind swept in a circle, lifting my hair. I gripped my dagger so hard, my bones cracked and my skin pinched against the hilt. A sharp sound crackled in the air. Electricity snapped in a halo around…me. He was using something to try to calm my ire, but it wasn’t working.
    “What did you do with Drummer Boy?” I asked.
    “Who?”
    “The guy I was chasing. The lower demon.”
    “I banished him back to hell. I took care of him for you.”
    “Doing favors for me? Like last time?” A tear streaked down my face as I remembered. Jude had cupped my face in his hands, mouthed the words I love y ou, then leapt into that foul creature, Lethe. “Don’t do anything for me anymore. I swore I’d kill your ass the first second I saw you again.”
    He lowered his palms to his sides as the wind died. “I understand your anger.”
    “You understand nothing. Were you trying to trap me? Or Jude?”
    His eyes cast downward in a moment of remorse, though I knew better. “I knew Jude would be there. I knew he would take your place.”
    “It’s as I thought, then.” I lunged, slamming his body into the brick wall. Before I could shove my dagger into his chest, his wrist wrapped mine, my blade an inch from the fine linen of his shirt.
    “Don’t, Genevieve. Please listen.” His plea, filled with anguish, made me pause.
    One fist in his pretty shirt, I kept my weight angled against him, waiting for his grasp to relent. Panting fiercely, my breath white in the night air, I said all that my heart screamed. “You took my husband from me. You sent him to some torturous circle of hell where I can’t…I can’t see him, can’t hear him, feel him. I hate you, Thomas. I wish I could make you feel the pain I feel now. Even if I killed you, it wouldn’t change anything that you’ve done. He’d still be gone.” I choked on a bitter sob.
    His grip held hard on my wrist. But his other hand came up, gently brushing the loose strands of hair from my face, his fingertips trailing my cheek. His eyes pooled with unshed tears, electrifying them to an unnatural glossy green. I was transfixed by the moment…by him.
    “He doesn’t deserve you.”
    “And you do?”
    His mouth tilted on one side, cracking his cool facade. “I suppose not. I only wanted… I love you, you see. A desperate man will do what he must to win his lady.”
    I jerked back out of his grasp, needing his hands off me. His honeyed words didn’t have the same impact as they once had.
    “But I can feel it.” He pressed his fist to his heart, over which I’d held my sharpened blade a second before. “We were meant for each other. Don’t you sense it?”
    I shook my head. “Are you crazy? Didn’t you just hear me?”
    “Do you dream of me as I dream of you?”
    I flinched and moved farther away. Were the dreams some kind of vision? More than mere fantasy?
    His tender smile sickened me. “You do dream of me.” He shoved off the wall, stepping into my space. An unearthly force pulled at my core, like gravity drawing all things toward Thomas. I stood still,