Tears streamed as she forced her way through the brush, trees, and bushes until she reached her home. Gaining the cottage, she entered and slammed the door behind her. Thank goodness Cassian was not about because she did not want to have to explain.
Orion loved her. What would bring anyone else joy, shattered the wall around her heart.
She could never say the words, but Nina did love him to the bottom of her soul. No matter how wrong, or what arguments she could make because he was the only man she knew, it did not change the fact that she loved him.
She had to make him leave, or at least stay out of the grove. He could not give up his life nor become a prisoner of Nightshade Manor as she was a prisoner of the sacred grove. But how did she convince him to leave.
Humans suffer many painful emotions. As you are part of them, you too suffer. Cressida’s words echoed in her mind.
Nina now fully understood such suffering.
They also have many joys that we never experience, Hermia had said, but Nina couldn’t imagine those joys as she would never experience them. Happiness perhaps, and in time, but joy was out of her reach.
But we always have peace, Danae had said.
Peace would be a wonderful thing, but was she ready to make a decision that could never be undone? It was also a decision that she’d have to live with for not just decades, but possibly centuries.
Do not think with your heart, only with your head, and do not make any decisions on your future until there has been time and distance in which to look back, without emotion, on what is best for you, had been Galene’s wise words and that is the advice that Nina had to hold close and dear. No matter how much she longed to end her current heartache, now was not the time to make a choice that could irrevocably change her future.
In time, she would look back and consider her options again. But not today. Today she would cry and mourn the loss of what never was and could never be.
Twenty-Two
After leaving Nina, Orion returned to the vault. There was so much to read and so much to learn. He also hoped that it would help keep his mind off Nina.
No matter how much he tried to reason away that it was impossible to be in love with someone so quickly, he was, and he’d told her. She was more beautiful than any other woman he had ever met. Her heart was incomparable, and he had never, ever wanted to spend each waking hour with someone the way he did with Nina.
Orion now knew what love truly was, yet Nina had rejected him.
Nina was beyond anything he ever thought it possible to feel for a woman, but she would only allow him to be her friend.
Taking a lamp, Orion wandered the aisles of the vault until he came to the door in the back. His father said he would not be able to open it until he was married, but Orion tried anyway. The door would not open.
What if he never married, which was likely? Would he ever know? If he didn’t marry, then no other Drakos male could enter until the key had been passed on. Rather poor planning to pass it onto someone who may remain a bachelor, especially if there was important information for a man married to a witch.
With a sigh, he turned to see what else was back here and picked up a small leather book that had been set on a table beside the door. There were no items about that it could belong to, nor was there a label on the table.
Curiosity had him opening the cover to read what was within.
There was not much written, but before he was halfway through with the introduction, his knees nearly gave way.
He quickly read and turned the pages until he came to a list of names. Couples to be exact, dating back to long before the family left Greece. The last set of names was Damon and Cordelia.
Orion closed the book and now knew why they had laughed at him that day in the garden.
Why hadn’t his parents told him?
Well, this certainly explained their sudden change in demeanor and opinion.
Taking the journal, he left the vault, marched up the stairs and into his father’s library. He stood in conversation with Damon, the most recently wed male of the family.
Orion kicked the door shut behind him then tossed the journal to his father. “Is it true?”
His father picked it up and began to read. Some of the color left his cheeks. “Where did you get this? You are not supposed to be in that part of the vault yet.”
“It was sitting on a table beside that door,” Orion bit out. “Is it true?”
“Yes,” his father said in surrender.
