Was Desmond desperate for connection, too?
“That may be true, but how can we earn his trust if our first inclination is to be on the offense, Wanda?”I crossed my arms, feeling the chill of the stairwell.
“Violet—”
“I trusted you once,” I said softly.“And even though I should not have, I did because I wanted to be your friend.Perhaps Desmond just wants afriend.”
Wanda sighed, opening the door for me.She held it still as I walked through.“Desmond O’Neil doesn’t know what he wants,” she said coolly.“He does not have a spine or a brain of his own.”
“Are you saying he is a puppet of the King and Queen, then?”
Wanda shook her head.“Not a puppet.Just a casualty.”
I slowed my stroll beside Wanda.“How do you two know each other?”I asked carefully.
Wanda stopped in front of her room.“We have...history.That’s all,” she said.“And that’s all I’m going to say about the matter, so I suggest you drop it, darling.”
I knew enough of Wanda to know if she wanted you to know something, she would tell you.The fact everyone else had asked and she brushed them off, but gave me the tiniest sliver of information was not lost on me.
Perhaps I was too easy to trust, but something told me Wanda found it too hard to trust people.To let them in.
But lucky for her, I was a patient person.Most of the time.
So, I nodded and bid her goodnight before finding my bedroom.
* * *
I awokein the middle of the night to the sound of whooshing air, and I sat up in bed, frozen with fear, but soon enough all that fear faded when I looked at the foot of my bed and saw a recognizable body standing there, familiar wings on display.
My heart leapt into my throat as I blinked, my gaze fixated on the faint glow of Bane’s infernal tattoos along his forearms.
“Bane...what...”I swallowed harshly.“What are you doing here?It’s two in the morning...”
“I couldn’t sleep,” he said, his wings sheathing, but not disappearing completely.
“Did youflyover here?”I asked.I turned my gaze to the window, which I was certain I had locked.“And break in through my window?”
He sauntered closer to me, sitting at the edge of my bed, but he did not look at me.“Yes.”
The way he answered me was almost as if he were ashamed.
Guilt-ridden.
And something about that stirred my heart.
I crawled toward him, out of my sheets.“Bane...”
“I fucked up,” he said, but he did not look at me.“I don’t know what came over me, I just— He sighed, hanging his head.“I just lost control of the situation, I guess.”
I settled myself next to him, my thigh brushing his.I reached out and grasped him by the chin, turning him to face me.His eyes shone with the hint of sparkle I loved, and my magic responded of its own accord.Purple and ochre flames danced and he looked at me wistfully.
I thought about Wanda’s words.
He was only doing what he vowed to do when he claimed you.
“You were only doing what you thought was right,” I said softly.I traced his jaw with my fingers.“I fucked up, too,” I said, leaning my forehead against his.“I have been here three weeks, and though I know there is much to learn, the first test of diplomacy my mother gave me, I panicked.I failed.”
“You did not fail,” Bane said, shifting and settling his hand on my neck.
