Turning to lean against the wall, she let out a frustrated cry.How could she be trapped in a room with no exits?
Glancing around, her head ached.It was almost as though the room was getting smaller around her, as if the white glow was closing in, hellbent on her suffocation.Similarly, her throat felt constricted, the opportunity for air waning with the restriction.She knew there was enough oxygen in the room, and that her breathlessness was only due to alarm, but somehow, that did little to console her.
Gasping for breath, she slid to the floor.She had to slow her respiration.Everything would be okay.She wasn’t sure how, but pulling herself into a ball, she had to believe that it would be.
Kronos would come back and let her out of the tiny white cage.She would survive his onslaught, and when the right opportunity presented itself, she would find a way out.
Closing her eyes, she tugged her knees closer and hugged herself.
Maybe shewasgoing mad.
“Little one.”
Her eyes flew open at the sound of his voice, its volume convincing her that it was real that time.Craning her head to meet his concerned gaze, she caught her breath.Unless he was the most tangible hallucination yet, Kronos was back, and he was standing right beside her.
Chapter Sixteen
Kronos
Materializing in Kristina’s room, Kronos’ focus had flitted to the bed, his stomach knotting when he found it empty.For a split second, dread erupted, roaring inside him like thunder.
Where was she?
He’d left her sleeping with enough enchantment settling over her to last several more hours, yet he’d returned to find her gone.
The panic was placated when he peered around the place to find her on the floor.Curled into a tight ball with her head resting on her legs and her blanket strewn around her shoulders, she seemed not to have noticed his appearance.He closed the distance between them in one long stride, watching her in silence.While his alarm was assuaged, he was still troubled to find her so overtly anxious.Her fingers gripped around her knees so tightly that the digits had blanched.
“Little one.”He called for her softly, waiting as her chin rose and her gaze sought him.
He wanted to ask a hundred queries, like how she had been able to sleep off his magic so quickly and why she was so distressed.Her watering eyes conveyed her upset, and the way she pulled her lip between her teeth suggested she was nervous, although he couldn’t immediately understand why.He’d left her sleepy and satisfied.What had happened in the interim?
“Master.”She wiped her eyes with the heel of one hand.
“What’s wrong?”
“Waking up here is just…” She hesitated, and he had the sense she was choosing the right word, trying to downplay whatever she was feeling.“A lot.”
“What do you need?”
He lurched immediately into problem-solving mode.Things between them were better than he could have possibly hoped, yet it seemed those hours alone, even in sleep, had disturbed her.
Fleetingly, he considered how unusual his response was.He never normally gave a damn about his captives’ emotional wellbeing, especially at the beginning of her captivity, accepting it took time for her to acquiesce.So long as her physical needs were met, he simply induced a greater slumber and allowed her that time to come to terms with her plight.
As with every metric he could recall, though, Kristina was different.With her, hedidcare, her fretting tightening the ball of tension in his stomach.
“Nothing, Master.”She climbed to her feet with a sniff, wrapping her blanket tighter around her.Even at her full height, she still hardly even reached his chest.“I just need to get out of here.”
“You are upset, and you will tell me why.”Her words barely registered as he made the demand.
She glanced around the room, fear still flickering in her gaze.“I don’t like being kept like a lab rat.”
“You are no rat.”His lips curled at her analogy.“I told you what you are back in my parlor.Were you paying attention?”
His mind flitted back to the intensity of the connection they’d shared in his private space.It had felt right having her there with him, and when he’d finally claimed her, he realized there was no other woman he would rather have brought into his fold.
Providence had long been his foe, but with Kristina, it seemed fate was finally a friend.Tempting, testing, and complicated though she was, the mortal was everything he’d longed for during all those eons.Someone who offered fascination as well as compliance, someone who was so flawlessly aligned with his sexual needs, and someone who, for some reason, was able to counter the effects of much of his magic without even realizing she was doing so.
A match for me.