Evie stared at the book that had slammed open in front of them. She had started to recognize the pattern: every time things heated up between her and Rohmir, something always interrupted them. And quite frankly, it was getting on her nerves.
"You can read that?" Rohmir nodded at the page, his dark eyes gleaming with curiosity.
Evie brought the book closer. The letters were now readable to her. She nodded in response, running her fingers over the aged parchment pages.
"So, me tasting your skin made the bond grow?" Rohmir smirked, his gaze darkening as it met hers. "Imagine if we fucked. You would probably be able to read the whole book."
Evie's nostrils flared as heat crept up her neck. She was already fighting the memory of his lips on her skin, the way he had groaned in pleasure against her pulse point. Now he had the audacity to put that image in her head? And worse, her traitorous mind took the liberty of expanding on it—of Rohmir's mouth trailing lower, of his hands mapping her body, of that sinful voice whispering filthier promises in her ear. A much wetter part of her clenched involuntarily, and she had to take a deep, steadying breath to drag herself back to the present.
"You think our bond is just about the sex?" Evie asked, forcing her voice to stay even.
"I told you, each master is different." Rohmir shrugged as if it were nothing, but there was a glint in his eyes that told her he enjoyed her reaction far too much. "But I can promise you, this bond with you—it's by far my favorite so far."
Evie ignored the warmth pooling in her stomach and turned her attention back to the book, focusing on the text.
Rohmir, the once high-ranking priest. He had mastered the ancient ways of divine magic, curse inscriptions, protection spells, shadow magic…but his greed to know more led him to immortality magic—the one forbidden type of magic. By trying to unbind a soul from fate itself, he single-handedly brought destruction to his own house, his own people. His own lover.
Rohmir is the incarnation of evil.
Evie frowned. This guy next to her was the reincarnation of evil? She read the passage out loud, and from the corner of her eye, she saw Rohmir listening attentively. What must it be like for him to read things like this? To hear that he was a monster? To be reminded of something he couldn't even remember?
"This helps with nothing," Evie muttered when she was done, shutting the book.
Rohmir turned to her, his expression unexpectedly dark. His eyes burned with something volatile. Anger? It shocked Evie because—why the hell was he mad?
"Do you have any survival instincts?" he gritted out.
"What?" She blinked, thrown by the sudden shift in his mood.
"You just found out that I'm bad. That I'm evil. That I caused destruction to people, killed a king, even my lover—and you still want to break the bond?" His glare was sharp enough to cut glass, like he was accusing her of something she couldn't quite name.
Evie folded her arms. "All I'm reading is a one-sided perspective." She held his gaze. "And whatever you've done in the past, it doesn't change the fact that I need to read this book to find some clue as to how to unbind myself from you."
Rohmir just stared at her, then exhaled through his nose. "Or…I could just stay like this."
Evie's brows furrowed. "What do you mean?"
"I could just stay bonded to you. If you don't want to command me, that's fine. We can just…stay like this. I don't need to learn about my past. I was made to forget for a reason."
"But that's not a way for you to live," Evie replied softly.
Rohmir's eyes flickered. "Evie, I don't think I'd be unhappy living with you every day."
That spark, that heat, flared inside her stomach again, and Evie had to press her lips together to keep her reaction contained.
"But it's still against your will, Rohmir," she sighed. "And plus…what if you meet someone you'd want to start a relationship with? Or I do? Wouldn't we be slaves to this…bond?"
His gaze darkened further—anger, jealousy. The combination made her breath hitch. But she forced herself to look away, not reading into it.
"You know, if you truly want to punish someone for the things they did, wouldn't a more fitting punishment be to make them remember everything they had done?" she mused aloud.
Rohmir stilled, his expression shifting into something unreadable. "That's…you are correct." He ran a hand through his dark hair. "I never thought of that before."
Evie turned to him, a new kind of curiosity shining in her eyes. "So when you were still…alive, you could do all those magic things, huh? That must have been amazing!"
He snorted. "Yeah, amazing enough to get me cursed for eternity."
"You're always such a ray of sunshine." Evie rolled her eyes. "But aren't you curious about it? I mean, that's probably the reason you are what you are now, right? Whoever cursed you must have recognized your power back then. You must have looked so cool."
Rohmir raised a brow, clearly amused. "I don't think I looked cool. I was probably an old, ugly man. Remember, you chose this body for me. This is all your fantasy."
"True…" Evie smirked, then tilted her head. "So what forms have you taken before?"
Rohmir leaned back, smirking. "For the first I was a golden king, with a crown and everything…made entirely of molten gold, this master's obsession was wealth, the second one turned me into a half man half snake, his obsessions was to manipulate people with words," his eyes held a specific hatred as he remembered this master. "third one I was a man, but I looked younger than now…probably an 18 year old human boy, I had pale, luminescent skin, this master was the one who tried with me…sexually. She was obsessed with beauty and eternal youth."
Evie's eyebrows shot up, not expecting the in depth information, but she let him continue. "Fourth, I was a demonic behemoth of war statue made of jagged obsidian and molten iron, he was a war lord, interested in victory in battle."
Evie could not imagine the things this man must have seen.
"Fifth I was a formless, shifting entity that existed as a storm of black smoke with glowing gold eyes. I had a great big mouth - he called me the djinn of hunger, because all he was interested in was gluttony and consuming." This time there was pure disgust in his expression.
"The sixth one…she made me a faceless, translucent humanoid made entirely of unbreakable crystal; she was obsessed with perfection."
"The seventh? A silver wolf," he mused. "I was a fucking cool wolf."
Evie snorted.
"But that was the only up side of that master." Rohmir continued, this time he had a little sadness tinged in his eyes. "He was a brute, hellbent on getting power, always full of rage, and always wanting control over his surrounding & the people around him."
"And the eight?" Evie asked softly. An immense sadness coming over her, trying to comprehend the gravity of the things he's been forced to do over the years.
Rohmir smirked then the sadness gone from his features, he said. "My previous master was a nutjob, he made me a six-winged, porcelain-skinned angel. A crazy cult thing. He even erected a church with crazy demands for their congregants, to satisfy his own dark desires, and they gave in to anything he demanded, all in hopes that I would answer their prayers. Then he would nitpick which prayers would be answered, but always with his own dark twisted way so he has them coming back to him for more. You could even google it, he called me The Hollow Angel. "
Evie was shell shocked...people could be that cruel? She was definitely going to google that church later.
Then his smirk deepened, his voice dripping with mischief as he said, "And my current owner turned me into this sexy, every girl staring at me, six-pack, dark hair, brooding, devastatingly handsome… did I mention very, very sexy man." He leaned in closer, dropping his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "And I'm quite certain that my very well thought of, very beautiful cock has never been this big in any of my previous lives."
Evie turned beet red. "You could have stopped at number eight."
"Where's the fun in that?" Rohmir tilted his head, his gaze simmering. Then his tone softened. "Are you sure you want to break the curse?"
Evie nodded, smiling softly. "I can't have you stuck with me forever. You'd get bored."
Rohmir's expression darkened again, but she ignored it, standing. "I have work to do." She gestured at all the strewn books & papers that were still in disarray from her fixing the book store up. "I need some space."
"You know I could fix this up for you in a flash." Rohmir said.
"I know you can" Evie answered. "But I want to do this myself…something about my own touch to things. So please…you'll have to uh…excuse me." She didn't want to sound rude but she wanted some thinking space…away from him. There was so much she needed to process. She had learned so much today. And the part of that lover he killed was starting to creep into her. There was so much she needed to process.
Rohmir studied her for a moment, then sighed, getting up from the chair. "Fine. I'll leave. I'm going to try cooking—see if its something i did when i was still...me. Don't stay late." He paused, then corrected himself, eyes softer. "Please?"
Evie snorted as he left. She had never heard of an even bossier 'please' in her life Yeah, she had given him his looks (and that huge cock), but without his personality, that cheeky and always too forward tongue,without his soul, he wouldn't be him.
And as she thought of it...no one else would have suited that body better. It was who he already was.