I groaned and smacked my face with my hand, mortified.
Blowing out a long breath, I decided to try again. Maybe I could work my way around the spell and tell him. “You know... I can’t stay here forever.”
Blackthorn’s back stiffened. His shoulder turned with his head following slowly after.
His silence spurred me on.
“I mean... even if I wanted to, I can’t.” I licked my lips and then quickly added, “Rumple doesn’t let go of his things.”
Blackthorn’s body completely shifted on the bed, so that he faced me. “Are you trying to say that the sorcerer is more powerful than me?”
I blinked at him. “What? No. No!” I pushed up on my elbow, nervousness making me talk with my hands. “I’m saying that even if Iwantedto stay — which for the record, I don’t — Rumple has made it clear that none of us could leave without consequ—”
A startled squeak escaped my lips.
Blackthorn’s form loomed over me, his bare chest brushing against mine, his face inches from my face. “There are no consequences that I cannot protect you from. The sorcerer does not hold power over you here.”
My pulse thudded in my ear, a lump in my throat at his sudden closeness. Then his words registered, and my brows furrowed as I sat up forcing him to back up.
“You’re wrong. There are plenty of ways he can hurt me without you even knowing it. He hurts me even now.”
Blackthorn’s lips tugged down in confusion. “Where?”
My mouth opened and then closed, struggling to tell him about the spell on me.
“Where does he hurt you?” Blackthorn’s gaze swept over my form, pulling the covers back his hands moving over my arms, sliding down my sides and hips leaving a burning tingling in its wake. “Show me. I will hunt him down and rip him apart where he stands.”
Pushing at his hands, my face burning with embarrassment and an unknown feeling, I shook my head. “You can’t see it. It’s...” I paused to think of how to get around the spell enough to tell him what was going on. “It’s... in here.” I placed a hand on my chest.
“Oh.” Blackthorn sat back from me, understanding coming over his face. “Yes, our past has a way of hurting us even as we look to the future.” His hand came up and brushed my hair back from my face. “I would protect you from heartache if you would only give your heart to me for safe keeping.”
Then Blackthorn laid down and closed his eyes as if he hadn’t just done a total personality switch in the span of thirty seconds.
I stared at him for a long moment, trying to comprehend what exactly had happened before I laid down.
Well, that hadn’t gone how I’d hoped.
Sure, I didn’t say the words “there’s a spell on me.” but it wasn’t like Blackthorn or the spell had given me a chance to explain further. He just assumed I meant some kind of psychological pain. Which, when I think about it, said a lot more about him than anything.
What was this vampire’s damage?
Sighing, I closed my eyes and contemplated my next options.
Clearly, I wasn’t going to convince him to just let me leave out of the goodness of his heart or from something I’ve said. And if Fran didn’t find a way to break the spell on me, I was looking at a lifetime of trying to trick the spell into thinking I was trying to leave or eventually somehow finding a way out of the castle without Blackthorn catching me.
Maybe I could make him want to get rid of me?
My eyes flipped open, a slow smile spreading across my lips. I let my gaze slid to the side, watching Blackthorn’s face as he slept.
Would it be possible? No. There’s no way I could annoy this terrifying being into letting me go.
The longer I thought about it, the more I wanted to try it. Really, what did I have to lose?
On one hand, it worked, and Blackthorn realized I wasn’t worth keeping around for his own sanity. On the other, he would ignore me and continue on as if I wasn’t trying to drive him crazy. Worst-case scenario, he got fed up and killed-slash-drained me dry.
I wasn’t too worried about the last part since he seemed to have a strong moral code about consent. Which honestly was his only redeeming quality at the moment.
The longer I thought about the idea, the more I liked it. It would fulfill the spell’s requirements of me trying to escape via annoyance and give me something to do other than sit around and try to read books I didn’t understand.
