I’m still not healed from that. “We don’t have to rehash these incidences.”
“So, what do you feel right before it happens?”
I think back to the attack in the woods. The fighting. The clashing of swords. I can practically see the dark cosmic smoke of the Nightlung breathing me in and closing in on me as it throws us into a new time. I take a deep breath.
“Fear. Panic. Adrenaline…” I shrug.
Niklaus stops, perking his head up. “Adrenaline?”
I nod.
But Niklaus looks past me, and I follow his glower. Dellilian kicks at dirt, nodding with me like she agrees with this assessment of my travel triggers.
“You know something, Dellilian?” Niklaus barks, causing her to flinch.
The black wolf with starry eyes backs away as if she’s being cornered, darting her eyes between the two of us in distress.
“Hey! If you know how to fix this and get us home, and you’re choosingnotto say something, I swear to God—”
I shove at his broad, stone chest. “Leave her alone!”
But the asshole advances, pushing his chest back into my hands, and pointing an interrogating finger down at the frightened wolf.
“No! She knows how to get us home! Look at her!” His voice is a beat of thunder that rolls beneath the earth.
I make the mistake of glancing down at Dellilian. She trembles at the sight of Niklaus’s anger. And that does it for me. Watching a sweet creature like that cower in fear at a man I grew up hating is all it takes.
Krimson taught me this.
He made me practice it with him twice a day.
He made sure I’d get so good at it, not even my own brother would see it coming or be able to stop me.
I drop down into a squat, swing my leg out and like a blade it cuts through his stance. Niklaus falls backward, hitting the dirt with a grunt as I jump on him, straddling his waist, and pinning his hands to the ground with my feet. With my forearm pressed to his throat, I let him see my stare. That in this moment of rage, I have the intent to kill. If he hurts her, I’ll break his neck.
“What kind of man enjoys intimidating something smaller than him?” I grit through my teeth.
Niklaus blinks up at me in surprise, peeking down at my legs spread over his torso. The muscles along his stomach coil tightly together, forming hard squares under my seated position. And I’ll be fucking damned if he doesn’t look…aroused.
“I am not trying to intimidate her, Spitfire. I am trying to get answers out of her,” he says, though his voice is too calm, too sensual for someone with an elbow to his throat.
“Don’t care. I’ve had enough of your attitude toward her.”
Niklaus relaxes under my grip, like he’s getting comfortable. Like he has no intention of fighting his way out of my grip.
“I realize you seem to hate animals. Even though my DaiSzek saved your life as a child, you still hate creatures like him—but I don’t! They’re better than humans. Understand?” I huff in his face.
His relaxed gaze bounces from my green eye to my brown eye.
“Understood.”
“Very good. Apologize to Dellilian.”
The asshole narrows his eyes at me with a curious glint that I haven’t seen before, and his smirk is faint, almost unrecognizable.
“I’m sorry,Dellilian.”
I look over my shoulder to see the mystical black wolf sitting upright, watching us meekly. “It okay, Mr. Niklaus.”