Royal of Darkness

Previously

…His presence was a physical force, an invisible current that drew me in, even as every instinct screamed for me to flee. He stopped just an arm’s length away, his eyes, the color of a storm-tossed sea, raking over me. There was a raw intensity in his gaze that made my skin prickle, a profound hunger that was both terrifying and strangely intoxicating. “You are here, Elara,” he said, his voice dropping to a near whisper, “because I cannot bear for you to be anywhere else.” The simplicity of his words, the sheer, unadulterated possessiveness in them, stole my breath. It wasn’t a declaration of love, not in the way I’d ever