Lord Xenon marched straight out of the room, barking over his shoulder, “You bastards are going to let me sleep for four full hours before you leave again! Don’t you dare wake me before then.”
My father scurried toward the door. “Same for me, please.”
I sniffed. “You’d think by their reactions they actually want us around.”
King Belshazzar’s eyes met mine, crinkling on the edges with mirth. “I guess our talk will have to wait until the Breaker is found. Privacy will be a luxury we would kill for.”
I lifted a black eyebrow. “Dorian could always bite it.”
“Don’t even think about it, little one.”
“You take away all the fun.” My eyes roamed his face. “Just tell me one thing.Honestly.No omitting the truth like you have for the last thousand years. And we won’t need to have a private conversation.”
My soul mate presented me with the most seductive, lazy smile that warmed my gut. He drawled, “Yes?”
“Was it hell waiting for me to grow up?” I asked bluntly.
Bel leaned back in his chair and glanced at the vampires working around us. He took his time to speak, giving my question ample consideration. His frosty blue eyes finally met mine again, and I knew what he was about to say was the truth—and he didn’t give a fuck who was here to listen in.
He stated clearly, “There were days that I hated you. Almost a thousand years that I hated you. I resented the fact that mysoul matewas so young and so idealistic in her views. It festered to the point I thought an Eternal Slumber was the best option for me—even over the promise I’d made my brother.”
I licked over my bottom lip, not about to interrupt his brutal reality of the heart. I asked to know, and now I heard it.
“Somehow… Somehow, through all of that, I still managed to have the slightest sliver of hope that when the time came, you and I would be everything I had hoped for. And that is what kept me alive all those years.” He stared unflinchingly into my gaze. “Hope.”
I inhaled heavily and then leaned into his personal space. My eyes flicked between his before I vowed, “Your hope wasn’t misplaced. It will be everything that you dreamed it would be. I swear that to you.” I knew what thismanwas capable of, the good and the fucking ugly. And I still wanted him.
No, Ineededhim.
Belshazzar helped me be the best me I could be.
In all ways.
The man currently staring into my soul was the beast I would never tame and didn’t want to—because I wanted him to be the best that he could be, too.
And he and I? We could only do that with a partner who understood freedom. You don’t cage the butterfly. You let it fly.
