“You have sinned,” she accused. “You brought this curse upon yourself. And now my son is dead because ofyou.You must atone for your sins, you filthywhore.”
Her words struck like lashes across my soul.
The crowd nodded, and their eyes, cold, narrowed, accusing, became a wall around me.
An inescapable judgment.
A public execution by silence and stare.
I searched their faces, desperately seeking even a touch of sympathy, a hand, a whisper of kindness.
There was none.
Only condemnation.
Only shame.
My chest tightened like a noose. My breath shortened, panic blooming in my ribs like thorns. My legs threatened to collapse beneath me, and for a moment, I wanted to give in.
I wanted to lie beside Tomaso and never rise again.
But then?—
Balthazar.
He moved like fate itself, sliding behind me. His arms wrapped around me with unshakable purpose, drawing me away from the daggers of their stares.
His voice brushed my ear.
“Let me take you home,” he murmured. “I won’t let anyone hurt you again. I’ll protect you. I’ll take care of you. Let us be lovers for eternity.”
I turned my head. “Eternity is… a very long time.”
I dared a glance over my shoulder at the crowd that had already decided I was guilty. At the lifeless body that would haunt my dreams forever. At the life I had destroyed.
Balthazar lifted my face in his hands so gently it hurt.
His eyes burned into me—twin embers glowing in the darkness, ancient and unyielding.
“Yes,” he murmured. “But I would spend every breath I have caring for you. You and me, Alina. Bound through the ages.”
His touch was fire against my skin, branding me. It burned away the fear, the guilt, and the girl I used to be. What remained was something wholly his.
At the edge of the courtyard, his carriage waited like a phantom chariot drawn from a dream—ornate, black, and gleaming beneath the moonlight—a haven amidst the ruin of the night.
He guided me inside, his hands careful, reverent. He wrapped velvet around my shoulders and whispered soft promises that curled like smoke into my ear.
“I’ll protect you. Always. Nothing will ever take you from me.”
His arms wrapped around me as the coach swayed into motion, cradling me in his warmth like I was something sacred. And maybe, in that moment, I was.
We said nothing more. Words were useless when every heartbeat echoed louder than speech.
Eventually, the chariot slowed.
My house loomed in the distance, cloaked in shadows.
No lights.
