I shake my head. “Like I said last time, I can’t help you. I just came here to tell you that.”
Samuel’s expression drops for a fraction of a second before returning to one of cool neutrality. “You don’t know what a monumental mistake you’re making,” he warns.
“He’s not hurting anyone,” I argue. “I’m not going to help you take anything away from him.”
Samuel scoffs. “Not hurting anyone? Do you know howmany people that man has so callously killed in order to extend his life? Do you know how many women just like you he’s manipulated?”
“He’s not manipulating me.” I almost sayanymore, but stop myself before I let it slip.
Shaking his head, Samuel says with pity, “You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into.”
“And what would that be?” I challenge, crossing my arms over my chest.
“Do you really think you’re the first woman he’s brought here for entertainment? He’s essentially immortal. You’re nothing more than a distraction for him, a blip on his radar, a way for him to exercise his lust for power. And there is no greater power than making someone who claims to hate you fall in love with you. You’re not special to him. It’s all a game.”
You’re not special to him. The words resound in my ears, though I try to ignore them. He’s lying. The thought of his words being true makes my stomach turn, but I need to stay strong right now.
“I don’t believe you.”
He shrugs. “That will be your problem to deal with in time, then. But just know, there’s a reason he went after you. You were isolated, had no family or friends besides that awful husband of yours, and you were entirely desperate and broken. Heknewyou would have nowhere to run after coming here. That’s why he chose you, despite whatever proclamations he’s given about you being ‘special.’”
My breath catches in my throat. He has to be lying. The mere thought of everything between us having been a cruel game… It would ruin me.
“You’re lying,” I say, though my voice wavers. “It started as a bargain, but things have changed.”
Samuel smirks. “I didn’t want to tell you this before, but…”
“But what?”
“Our kind have no power to make binding bargains. It’s all a trick.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, any deal you made with Ambrose holds no more weight than a deal you might make with a friend. He used your ignorance against you, made you believe that supernatural elements were at play when there are none. It’s a tactic he likes to use for naive girls like you.”
I swallow around the knot forming in my throat and will myself not to cry.No. It can’t be true. Everything he’s said, everything I’ve done to fulfill the bargain…
My stomach rolls with nausea. It’s not like I ever tested any of the things Ambrose told me because I was too afraid of the consequences. But if any of Samuel’s arguments are true, then everything between me and Ambrose begins to unravel.
“Then why did he always care so much about when I’d be coming back?” I ask. “He said I wouldn’t be able to leave for more than a day without it affecting me physically.”
Elias draws my attention by tsking and shaking his head in disbelief, the first reaction he’s given to this conversation since it started. For what it’s worth, he looks genuinely sympathetic.
Still, Samuel answers. “That’s difficult to answer. Maybe he was worried you’d stay away if you left. But from what I know of him, the only thing he’d ever care to part with is his artifact.”
Dread sinks like a stone in my stomach.
Because every time I left the house without him, I had that stone around my neck.
Maybe it’s true, and maybe it’s not, but his argument is becoming more convincing by the second. What the hell do I do?
“If you don’t believe me, test one of his lies,” Samuel says, noticing the conflict warring in my eyes that I no longer have the will to hide. “Leave for a few days, because I guarantee you’ll be perfectly fine.”
I shake my head. “I can’t. He would find me and?—”
“No,” he interrupts. “He wouldn’t. As long as you don’t have his artifact, he has no way of finding you beyond normal means.”
“But…” My mind is a whirlwind of conflicting thoughts and emotions.But what? I have nothing more to say.
