SERAPHINA'S POV
I suddenly find myself laying down and staring right at the white ceiling of the infirmary I've visited more than a few times in two weeks.
The golden light of the setting sun seeps into the room through the window in front of me and lands right on my face, almost blinding me the second my eyes open properly.
I groan from the brightness, slowly sitting up and rubbing my eyes.
How did I get here?
I don't remember coming in, or even thinking of coming in here.
The brief memory of the previous events that followed right before I passed out rushes into my mind suddenly, hitting me hard like a tidal wave and I freeze in place.
That's right. I was choking on the spiked food Gabe had given me.
Pain shoots up my chest, pain that isn't physical. His betrayal hurts, but not as bad as my own self-disappointment.
I should have seen it coming. The signs were there, constantly in my face like an obvious reminder.
He was too eager to be friends but never showed genuine interest in anything else and yet I let it slide, lowering my standards just because he was the only other person that acted nice to me.
But he was just another Artemis ass-kisser, and I was wrong about him. Very wrong.
This is just another elaborate scheme directed at me.
I don't know when I start crying until I feel the trail of liquid sliding down my eyes and blurring my vision. Suddenly, I want to go back home to Miss Lucy and all the little kids.
I want to remember what it feels like not to be hated by everyone around you for simply being you.
"Are you crying?" A deep voice suddenly speaks up from beside me and I scream.
With every last of my residual energy, my body jerks away from whoever it is, propelling forward and in the process, sliding off the bed.
I brace myself for the fall, getting ready to crash onto the hard grounds, until large hands reach out and grab me by the waist.
The fall doesn't happen and I pry my eyes open to look up at whoever it is that saved me, and my eyes immediately fall on bright blue eyes with an iridescent glow in them.
A gentle light that stares into my soul and holds my gaze for what suddenly feels like forever, and I'm drawn to them briefly - for that brief moment of shock, my sense of reasoning is paused and his face doesn't click.
But once the shock finally fades away, I snap out of it like a broken spell, immediately pulling away from his touch, the very same person that put me here in the first place.
"You." I say dryly, immediately shoving his arm off me. "What are you doing here?" I ask, clutching onto myself.
He scoffs in annoyance and tired eyes. It's like he's been wanting to take a nap but hasn't let himself do just that.
"Not a very nice way to thank the person that saved your life, don't you think?"
His words leave me baffled and speechless for two whole seconds before I laugh bitterly to his face
"I didn't ask to be saved, and if it weren't for you, I wouldn't have needed to be saved in the first place!" I lose my chill and start yelling.
There's just something about him that drives me absolutely mad, and I just want to lose my top off and give him a piece of my mind. But he remains unbothered by my reaction or the fact in my words, all of it, none of it matters to him while he's stuck in his own world.
He glares at me only, ticked off as he leans closer with a threatening glare.
"Be grateful that I didn't leave you lying there like everyone else."
His audacity is unbelievable, even as he blames the very same people that probably wouldn't have done shit because he didn't want them to. Now he expects me to praise him?
Grovel at his feet for almost killing me and deciding not to at the last minute?
"Over my dead body." I whisper harshly at him.
He lets out a wide evil grin, suddenly drawing closer to me.
In my anger, I feel fear crawl up on me. The closer he gets, the more I move back until there's no more space to run and he's too close to the point that his lips ever so lightly graze the skin of my ear.
"I can have that easily arranged again." He whispers, blowing hot air right into my ear in the process.
I'm terrified and yet shivers spread across my entire body from the sound of his deep raspy voice and the hot air that leaves his lip.
I immediately feel a pulsing right down in my core, an ache sprouting up from nowhere and messing up every single one of my senses all in a second.
Whatever it is happening to me feels too overwhelming and scary, all just from being this close to Artemis. So, I try to create space between us, but he doesn't let me do that.
His eyes slowly shut and he suddenly takes a deep inhale, as if breathing me in - all of me. His breath shakes in the process and once his eyes open to stare at me, they're different.
Golden with the irises morphed into that of a beast's, and asides all that, a look of yearning stretches over his features. It nails me on the spot.
He pins me down against the bed from nowhere, holding both my hands above my head as I gasp from the sudden action.
"What do I have to do to break you, Seraphina?" His words are soft, as quiet as a siren's plea to clueless sailors.
I suck in a sharp breath, my voice coming out rougher than I want.
"Maybe you should start by saying please."
Artemis surprises me with a light chuckle; it's vibrations rolling down my skin, hitting me in places I'd never admit.
"You know, Sera, I can smell you desire." His voice turns sexual and yearning, waking more feelings within me immediately.
He leans close, taking more of my scent, burying his head into my neck.
"P-Please, let me go." I plead and yet my own voice sounds foreign and unconvincing to me. More of what ever this feeling is between my legs only grows further.
"Stop pretending like you don't want it. I smell it all over you; you're wet."
Wet?
I don't get to ask what that means until I feel his finger sliding up my skirt and slightly brushing against my panties between my legs.
Sparks like never before fly all around me and this time, I can't control the high-pitched moan that escapes my lips nor fight the movement of my body that presses itself harder against him.
What the hell is this?
"Fuck." He swears hoarsely, squeezing his eyes again in an attempt at self-control.
"Artemis." His name leaves my lips on their own, wanting something I haven't figured out myself.
"Fucking shut up." He swears fiercely, grinding his teeth together. "If you say one more word... If you say my name one more time, I'm going to lose my shit and you'll regret it." He warns.
I don't know what he means, but the last bit of logic in me advices against disobeying him this time.
He remains like that, calming his rushed ragged breathing until it reverts to normal and his hold over my hands softens.
The next time they open, they're blue again, the color I'm used to, and he's staring back at me in silence.
Something foreign possesses me and my hands move on their own, aiming for his cheek but before I can touch him, the Artemis I know returns and he slaps my hand away violently.
"Don't touch me, human filth." He spits.
Just like that, he climbs off me, almost fleeing out of the room.