CLARABEL’S POV

“Don't make me regret that night.”

The words left Malakai’s lips heavy and laced with so much condescension. His fingers were still clamped around my chin, their bite cold and unyielding, forcing my face up so I had no choice but to absorb the gold-flecked fury burning within his eyes. 

That night he saved me… had remained a threat he leveled against me in various iterations for five years, a reminder designed to make me bend, to make me remember my place as the discarded stray he had hauled from the dirt.

But I was no longer that pathetic, trembling girl. I was much more. I had done...