“No, no, Peony.” His eyes are reddened around the edges, and strangely wet. “I want you. I want you more than anything. I want you right at my side, but…” He clears his throat and wipes his eyes with one wrist. “But you’re not safe while you’re with me. Whether we’re here at the manor, or somewhere else—wherever I go, you’re at risk.”
“But they don’t know where your other house is, right? I’m sure we could lose them so they can’t follow us.” Even as I say the words, dread is creeping into my heart at the look on his face. “We can just lie low for a while. Keep an eye on the news.”
“No.”
Rupert’s tone is firm. Unyielding.
“What?” I ask, reaching for him, wanting him to take my hand in his and reassure me. “What do you mean, ‘no’?”
“You are going. I am not.” He steps away from me, putting space between us. My hand falls back to my side. “Your association with me will only make life harder for you.I will always attract attention. My money will always put you at physical risk. If not Andy, someone else might try to abduct you for a ransom, or worse.”
“No one’s going to abduct me for a ransom!” My voice is rising higher as my heart rate quickens. He can’t be doing what I think he’s doing. “What are you talking about, Rupert? I don’t care about the reporters. I just want to be with you.”
“You shouldn’t.” His expression is painfully hard, his eyes flashing. “I will only hurt you, Peony. You aren’t safe with me. You willneverbe safe with me. Even now, I’m hurting you.”
“Because you’re dumping me!” It comes out strangled by the sob rising in my throat.
Rupert turns his head away but doesn’t refute my words. A powerful bolt of pain rips through me, radiating out from my chest.
He wants me to go away. Without him.
“All because, what, you think I’m in danger?” I ask, hoarse.
“It’s what the old man said to me. Back then, back when he changed me.” Rupert hisses between his teeth. “That’s part of my curse, Peony. The part I didn’t tell you, but I should have. Everything bad that’s happened to you… It’s all my fault. It’s the spell. Thecurse.”
“What are you talking about?” I’m afraid, so afraid, of what Rupert might do right now. He wouldn’t really destroy this thing between us, would he? After everything we’ve shared, what we conquered to get here?
My monster rounds on me, his fangs glinting. “And you will never, ever be happy.Those were the words the old man said when he cast the spell. And now I truly understand them.” He growls low in his throat, and I find myselfstepping back, not recognizing this version of him. “Every time I have been happy, every time I’ve been on the cusp of finding joy in my life with you… something threatens to take you away from me. Andy kidnapping you, the press on our heels? That’s why! Because I’m cursed, Peony! Because I traded away living a life with you for that useless thing called money.”
With that, Rupert spits on the ground.
I’m too shocked, too hurt, to even speak. He would end things between us because of some silly words?
Suddenly, I’m angry. “That’s just some shit he said to upset you!” My voice is rising in volume. “Nobody can keep you from happiness except you, Rupert.”
“He was able to turn me into what I am now,” he snaps, surprisingly venomous. I would almost think he’s trying to hurt my feelings. “Who says he’s lying? That he didn’t doom me to a life devoid of joy, where anyone in my crosshairs gets hurt?”
I could simply scream and stomp my foot. “I can’t believe you’d be so delusional.” I cross my arms over my chest. “That you would… that you would get rid of me because of some utter nonsense!”
I turn around and start walking back the way we came. Behind me, Rupert snarls, and he jogs to catch up and walk alongside me.
“Listen to me, please,” he says, his voice softer this time. “You can’t be with me. It will only bring you pain?—”
“Rupert!” I shout in my frustration. “If you do this, if you abandon me because of some made-up reason like this, I will never forgive you. I will leave you and never come back. Because it means you never cared about me at all.”
It looks as if this has reached him. He gapes at me as if I’ve buried a dagger in his chest.
“I… I love you, Peony,” he says, desperation in his voice. “I would never—I would only—it’s because—” His eyes are rimmed with red and shining. “I can’t have you. You will be safer if you go.”
“I get it.” I continue walking back to the manor, stifling my own tears. “You want me to leave, I’ll leave.”
I hear Rupert’s footsteps behind me, but then, they stop. He doesn’t follow as I continue alone, through the woods to the garden. When I peek over my shoulder, he’s gone.
There’s no point in holding back anymore, so I cry as I head inside the back doors of the manor, and I hold my peacoat close. Back in my room, I yank my clothes down from the few pathetic hangers they occupy in the big closet, then pull the other clothes out of the drawers, stuffing them into my duffel bag.
Superstitious asshole. No matter what I say, he won’t hear me.
I’ve never been so angry in my life as I hurl my things together. All this because of some jackass wizard? Rupert is going to let a grouchy old guy dictate his entire future when we’ve fought so hard to get here?
