“But you are.” Clause came around me till he stood before me. A finger nudged my chin up, forcing my gaze to lock with his. “The way you move, the way you speak, even your conjuring. The way it feels to be in your presence. You are my mate. I feel it. My bloodsingsat your existence.” His hand moved, tenderly brushing against my cheek. “And I thinkyou can feel it too.” There was something nearly heart breaking in his cold gray eyes.
My throat tightened.
I stepped back, breaking contact with him.
He was right, partially. There was always something strange moving through the air when we were near one another. When he had kissed me, it was not normal, nor was it right. Whatever tied me to him, I did not want. I rejected it.
I examined the painting again, desperate to understand. Clause’s eyes were warm and welcoming in it. He seemed different. “Are you the same person as the one depicted in that image?”
“It is a painting of me.” He observed me as the wheels in my head spun.
“But are you the same?” I glanced at him. “The person in this painting feels warmer, hopeful almost. Whereas you have a brutality that is not conveyed in the canvas.”
He took a step towards me, and I moved away. “When I lost you, things changed.” Gray eyes burned into mine.
Fear clogged my throat. I needed space, air. But there was nowhere for me to go, to run.
I caged myself with him, with this secret. It was difficult not to choke on the disgust. The Sidhe King and the Spirit itself were cruel and twisted beings, and I was never more than a pawn. In all of this, my fate was sealed. I was something to be used.
I tried to force a steady voice, but it wavered. “So. If you are correct and my soul is the same one you claim it to be–”
“It is. I feel it in every ounce of my being.”
I glanced at the image. The warmth radiating from the man in it. “Then in my past life, I fell in love with someone who no longer exists, mated someone who is no longer real.”
Clause’s gaze narrowed. Tension connected us, the cord amazingly strong as it coiled around my wrists and ankles, tying me to him. Anger washed over me. For the Spirit played with my fate like this.
That resentment fueled me.
I spoke the next words with certainty. “I have said it before. My heart is not yours.”
He tilted his head, viewing me with calculating eyes. “It is, Ariana. You are mine, and I, in turn, am yours. We will always be that.”
“I do not want this version of you,” I boldly stated, and the room grew colder, darker.
“Would you have the other?” He peered at the painting, at the man he no longer could be. The person he himself destroyed.
“After last night?” I shook my head. “It is impossible.”
His lip curved slightly, as if not swayed by a challenge. “You will come around. You will see. Our mating was unique, changing us on a mystical level. Nothing can shadow the bond we share. It is eternal.”
“Except perhaps the most powerful conjuror can.” I stared at him pointedly. “You shadow that bond by your actions.” My back straightened with my resolve. I was not some puppet with no choice. “What you forced me to do, the way you took an innocent boy’s life without a second thought, it is disgusting. No amount of pain or history from your past excuses those actions. If my soul loved you in another life, then I am truly saddened to witness the monster you have become.”
His jaw clenched, a dangerous edge cut through his gaze. “Like I said, you’ll come around.”
“No. You are going to relinquish your control, or I will notstop till you are put down, or I am dead,” I stated. It was a warning of truth I hoped he heeded.
“You are not going anywhere, certainly not the afterlife.” He took a step, and I remained where I stood, refusing to back away again. “The reason you died was because you trusted those you shouldn’t have. You were not prepared for what came for you. You were too soft for this world. I will now help you withstand anything and everything. I will not allow you to slip away, todieagain.” Pain accompanied those words, attempting to pull at me.
He cared about only his own pain, no one else’s, not even mine, hisprecious mate.
I dared to scoff at his words. “You are a fool to believe that your actions are hardening me towards the world. The only person they are hardening me against is you.”
The tension tightened around me, pulling me, yet I refused to move.
He stepped closer and nearly all the space between us vanished. Dipping his head, I felt his breath on my ear as he spoke. “Tell me you feel nothing when I am close to you.” His hand found my wrist, pressing into it. “Tell me your pulse does not race for me.” He released it and his hand traveled up my arm before finding my neck and pausing there. He pulled back and his eyes burned as they met with mine. “Tell me you do not crave this.” He leaned towards me, but his lips never found their mark.
With my heart thundering in my chest, I backed away. “You sadden me nearly as much as you disgust me.” There was an anguish to him when it came to me. A blindness. He secluded himself from everyone, remaining untouchable. But there was one who could cut through his defenses, one who he would open the door for, and the Spirit used that to their advantage.
