Timothy’s eyes narrowed, and he turned to me. “Friend? How come I have never seen you then?”
“Timothy!” Gorm yelled out, louder than before. “Don’t make me get up out of this bed. If you do, Ariana will be upset with both of us. Let the poor man pass.”
Timothy eyed me once more but stepped away. Clearly displeased, yet respecting the old man enough to listen.
The floor creaked as I moved to where Ariana disappeared. I pushed open the door, the hinges squeaking in loud protest, and then again when I shut it behind me.
Ariana stood with her back to me, hands on either side of a sink. She had to have heard me enter, though made no move to acknowledge it.Her posture was stiff with tension, rigid in a way that was not typical for the woman who was made of quiet composure and confidence.
“I want to help you, but I do not know how,” I spoke instead of physically going to her. Something strange settled in the space between us and the last thing I wanted was to give her any reason to retreat from me more than she already had.
There was something so fragile about her.
“I do not deserve your help,” she said, her voice low. Sadness enveloped her.She did not elaborate, leaving my mind to race with what this could have possibly meant.
“Why would you think this?” I asked after a moment.
“He kissed me,” she murmured.
Was that what concerned her? “I know. At the party, he tried to kiss you, but you stopped him.”
She released a shaky breath. “No, after that. He tried again.” She swallowed. A tremor racked her body. “Except I didn’t stop him.”
The heart in my chest missed a beat, and then another. Air pressed out of my lungs and somehow kicked my pulse back into gear. My skin suddenly felt too tight, blood too hot.
The poison of anger snared my heart. Trapping it to a small cage where it hit its confines with every beat, sending a pulse of pain through my chest over and over.
My hands balled into fists at my sides one moment. Only for my fingers to spread wide the next, claws sliding out.
Rage shot through me, wild and hardly contained. My veins burned, and I wished more than anything that I could release it. That I could burn everything around me.
“You must hate me,” she whispered, her voice small and frail.Still, she did not turn, did not look at me.
My hands shook.
I tried to center my thoughts in order to respond somehow. “Edda warned me...” My voice trailed off. The effort to keep from exploding required too much focus. Though the Seer warned me, I unquestionably believed that my connection with Ariana was strong enough to withstand whatever unnatural pull Clause might have had on her.
“Warned you of what?” Ariana’s voice turned cold and sharp. Something about it drew my attention to her, and the way she went completely rigid.
“Before I left, Edda found me.” My voice was rough, the words like sandpaper in my throat. “She said there’s something tying you to him. That the two of you affect each other. That inthe end…” I swallowed against the bitterness rising in my chest. “That you might choose to stay.”
I needed to fucking leave. Right now.
Ariana stood there, frozen, until finally turning. Red-rimmed, swollen eyes locked onto mine. “I don’t want to stay,” she whispered, her voice fragile, laced with a misery that shattered something inside me.
The tightness coiling in my chest loosened just enough for me to breathe.
“I don’t want him.” Her gaze didn’t waver, though it brimmed with pain so raw, so consuming.
Relief flooded through me at her words.
“What do you want?” I asked.
She hesitated before answering. “Someone I am unworthy of having.” She paused as if trying to collect strength, before whispering, “I’m sorry.”
The way this woman could unmake me was unlike anything I had ever known.
“I forgive you,” I said nearly at once.Ashes, I hated this. But I had seen firsthand what this sort of thing could do. I refused to allow my path with Ariana to travel the same road Kole and Eislyn fell down. There was no world in which I would not hear her out. Would not try to understand.
