My feet move from solarium to war room.
“Perhaps one day, you can find it in your heart to forgive me for my reckless choices. I don’t know how I would have done things differently, but I would have found a way to be with you.”
I drift from war room to solarium.
“There is so much we have wanted for you. Your fathers and I. We would spend hours talking about you, about all the things we would make sure you had. The experiences. We argued about names to no end.” I chuckle wetly and turn on my heels. “Yet, despite all the things we disagreed on, the thing we did agree on was how much you would be loved. So much that it would never even be questioned. And they would have loved you.”
I freeze in the foyer.
Heart a million powdery shards bleeding through my fingers. Tears, hot and sticky drying on my cheeks.
I will not die.
I will not leave my baby.
What kind of mother am I if I simply roll over and let this be the end? To leave my baby alone in the world without even bothering to fight? How dare I wallow in my own self-pity and abandon the gift my boys gave me?
No.
I will not.
Fingers tight around the iron handle, I march the familiar path through the corridors. Marble dissolves into wet, sticky carpet that guides me deeper into the heart of the manor.
Veyn stands at the top of the incline when I throw back the curtains and step into his domain. A beautiful silhouette enveloped in shadows despite the overabundance of candles. His dark eyes watch me, unsurprised by my appearance.
“I want my soul back.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Veyn
Iknewshewouldcome.
I knew if I waited, her purpose would return without coddling and pacifying. Lenora isn’t weak. She’s not a delicate flower that requires a pedestal and gloved hands.
She is reckoning.
She is vengeance and mayhem.
She is a goddess worthy of worship.
The human man treats her with such disrespect. Such useless drivel. In his mind, she needs him to protect her. To comfort and slay her dragons. He has no idea that my woman can slay her own damn monsters and is strong enough to stand over their corpses.
Even full and round, the fire in her eyes is a brilliant inferno I feel from across my chambers. The candlestick in her hand could have been a sword the way she grips it with tenacity. This is a woman who will stand toe to toe with me with a dagger over my heart and I would fall to my fucking knees for her.
But I wall it all up.
At the end of it all, she will hate me and she already wields enough power to destroy me without me handing her the ammunition.
“I want my soul,” she repeats with a vehemence that almost makes me smile. “My baby will not grow up without her fathers and her mother. So, either you give me my soul back or we make a different bargain.”
That raises an eyebrow.
“I’m listening,” I tell her, curiosity drawing me down to her.
She hasn’t moved from the opening. I doubt it’s fear that’s holding her there. But I don’t push her. She will come to me when she’s ready.
“You let me die like I was supposed to of old age. I get to see my baby grow up and when I die, you take my soul.”
