“You were never mine to keep. You made that abundantly clear.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” he demanded.
His voice shook.
“My coven thinks I made you up because you refused to come to even one event with me. I was good enough for you behind closed doors where no one else could see us, but you were too embarrassed to even speak a word to me in public. The signs that you were not my mate were there, but I loved you enough that I wanted them to be wrong. I thought if I loved you enough that it would change fate.”
Let him feel it. Make him burn.My chest heaved with a combination of grief and rage, and it made my voice sharper, colder.
“Please, take it back. I did not say I wanted a divorce.” He frowned.
“What are you going to do, Abram? Have me and your mate? I get you on weekdays, and she can have the weekends?”
His eyes flickered with guilt, and for a brief moment, hope tried to rise in my chest, but Nyxthra twisted it into anger.
“I need time to figure out what is going on.”
"Reject our marriage bond." I told him.
"No." His jaw tightened.
I glanced over his shoulder at everyone staring. Nyxthra hissed in my mind.They watch. Make them see what he took from you.The thought flitted through me, and I knew askingwould only hurt my feelings—but maybe that pain was what I needed. I needed him to tear me apart so I could finally be strong enough to leave for good.
“Did you tell any of them that we were married?” I asked, my voice shaking.
He licked his lips, eyes closing for a beat, and then whispered, “No.”
I pulled my arm from his grip and stepped away. Each step burned through my chest, ripping me open, but Nyxthra fed on it, making me fierce.
I watched him as I lifted my hand and pulled off the wooden ring he had carved for me.
“Stop,” he whispered, but the plea only stoked the fire in me.
I tossed it at his feet, letting it clatter like a verdict. Then I grabbed the amulet and went to our home. When I got there, I ripped my clothes from the drawers and stuffed them in a bag. Tears streamed down my face, each one bitter with heartbreak, each one feeding Nyxthra’s hunger for vengeance. Everything I knew, everything I wanted, was being ripped away, and I let my anger roar.
“No.” Abram stormed in, his hands snatching clothes from the bag, trying to fix what was already shattered.
I shoved him away, ripping my belongings back, my heart hammering, my hands trembling with fury.
“Move,” I demanded, my voice low, hard, and edged with something darker—Nyxthra’s anger echoing mine.
Let him feel what he made you feel,she whispered, her voice sharp enough to cut.
“Don’t disappear,” he pleaded. “Stay until the morning so we can talk. I will go make everything right with the coven tomorrow. I promise.”
Nyxthra snarled in my skull, and the fury slipped out before I could stop it. “Your promises mean shit to me.”
He jerked back as if I’d actually struck him, and Nyxthra purred with satisfaction.
“And you aren’t my husband, so there is nothing you can do.”
Abe grabbed my arms and pressed me into the wall with his body. Shadows flared in my peripheral vision as Nyxthra surged forward, ready to rip him off me.
“Stop saying that,” he demanded. He grabbed my finger and forced the ring back on it. “I did not agree to the divorce. You are my wife.”
He tried to kiss me, but I turned my head so sharply Nyxthra hissed approval.
“Ex-wife.”
