Tasting Darkness
Tempting Darkness Chapter 10

The air between my hands fizzles and zaps, electricity zapping between both as the air warps and I cast the sphere. I swallowed, feeling how hard it was to maintain and hold on to. Tobias made it look easy like he did casts regularly, but as hard as it was, I could feel my magic thriving, wanting to see how far it could push itself.

“Do you know why Vampiric- Fae casts are so dangerous?” I murmur. ”You’re not vampiric, though,” The demon laughs. ”You’re right. Because I am so much more,” I tell them, and the sphere casting changed to flames, the forest Tobias created in my head now burning in my hands. ”But that isn’t what I asked?” I tell the man who mocked me. ”What are you teaching now, Aleera?” Darius taunts behind me. ”Yes, teaching you all who you’re f*cking with,” I tell them. Darius shakes his head at me.

”And to answer my own question, since you idiots don’t seem to know the answer, they compel your deepest fears and manipulate them into the cast,” I answer, making the sphere bigger. I focus on everyone’s auras, pulling on Kalen’s magic across the room, their auras dark and shadowy, and I am shocked at how easy it was to pull on his magic since I had marked him. He gasps, and I glance at the aura tainting the demon men, each a distinct shadow of darkness with a different consistency.

“So my next question is, what do you fear most?” I chuckle, clenching my fingers into a fist before opening them. My magic flew out, the cast wrapping around them all like a dark cloud, and the chair screeched as I manipulated their auras, feeling for what they fear most. Watching as they scream and arms fly in the air.

One in the front was petrified of spiders, and he clawed at his clothes and tried to wipe them off. Screams rang out through the room as others ducked, fearing Phoenixes they thought were swooping. It was oddly satisfying watching them scream and fear the images I had put their heads.

They laughed, and now they screamed. I chuckle at the coldness of the magic meddling with them and spewing out of me, magnifying, latching onto their biggest fears. All of them suddenly plunged into their worst nightmare, and I smirked, feeling the angry ripple when the one covered in spiders set himself on fire with his magic, the flames flying at the roof when Darius grabbed me and shook me. ”Drop it !” he snaps at me and shakes me.

And I see Darius go to absorb my magic and drop it before he does. He glares at me, and the screams die out. ”Are you trying to burn this f*cking place to the ground?” he snarled at me. I glanced at the Demons, who were all shaken. I smirked, my eyes flickering.

”Do you think this is funny?” Darius said while his grip on my arms tightened as he shook me. ”F*cking hilarious, as hilarious as they found me falling on my as*s,” I sneered back at him, and he growled, and I noticed out of the corner of my eye.

Tobias was helping some off the ground. Darius growls and looks at Tobias, but the moment he turns his gaze away, my magic erupts again as I clamp my hands on his face. ”What is your greatest fear, Darius? What makes you: shake in your f*cking boots?“

I spit at him as he gasped, and he became stuck in the cast. The sphere takes shape as I latch onto his fear, manipulating it and making him relive it. I see a room. It looked sterile, with lots of science equipment and steel tables. He is a little boy, maybe only six years old, and he runs over to a man tugging on the back of his white lab coat.

My breath lodged in my throat when the man turned around. I don’t know who I expected to see, but it definitely wasn’t him. The man turns, and I am suddenly staring down my own father.

I blink, watching the cast when Darius roars, his grip tightening on my arms, and I try to push the cast wanting to see more, and hold it over him when the room inside the cast catches on fire when Darius manipulates it himself and I am shoved back. My a*s and lower back hit Tobias’s desk, and I stared at him wide–eyed as he stalked toward me.

His face was furious as he snarled, and I flinched as he smashed me with his magic, s*cking the oxygen out of the air and choking me. ”You want to play, little Fae, then let’s see what you fear!” he snarls, reaching for me. His hands lock on the side of my face. I don’t fight him.

I knew what I feared, and I have faced my fears head–on. He forces the cast to latch onto me. Only when it does what I fear is reflected at him, too. He staggers back when what he sees is his own reflection. The night he killed my parents was the first thing he saw. What I fear,

I have always feared was him. The cast warps, and we are suddenly back in the basement where he broke my hand and leg, yet I don’t scream when it snaps it this time. I keep my head, reminding myself it isn’t real. However, Darius is not expecting to start in my biggest fears, his magic drops, and he takes a step back from me.

”What is it, Darius? I face my fear daily. Not as weak as you thought, huh? Because I’m still f*cking standing!” I tell him. He blinks at me in shock, which soon turns to rage when he grabs me again.

”Let’s see how much bravado you have without magic then,“ he snarls before stealing my magic so quickly I stagger, sucking in air and gasping for breath when he takes every drop, leaving me with nothing, leaving me hollow as he siphoned me. ”Darius!” Lycus growls, rushing toward us, but he freezes when Darius turns his glare on him.

”Give her power back to her, and she will be back in the f*cking cells where she belongs.” He yells at our mates before turning his attention back to me. ”If you think you can push me and win, Aleera? You can’t. You’re smart to fear me. I am the monster you portray me to be, and pull that shit again against me, and you will relive your biggest fears.” He snaps before turning on his heel and walking out.