I couldn’t bear the tumult of everything right now. I scarcely had a grasp over my own and I was so damn close to losing the last thread of my sanity.
She scoffed but stopped trying to wriggle away. “Like you’d care.”
Little did she know.
Some sick, twisted part of me wanted to. Wanted to hold her and take away all her pain. The thoughtterrifiedme.
She was supposed to be part of my obligation to the realm.Capture her, bring her to Iaoth, help the Angels win the war against the Demons.
But even before the moment the fabric of my being was rewritten, I’d let my control slip. I’d let desire leak into my duty.
Now that I’d caught her, now that I wasmated to her, she looked at me like I was a curse from the Goddess.
And maybe I was.
Because I already knew I was a monster.
I was the Issaraeth, the Mindbreaker, after all.
Swallowing back the swell of thought, I focused on what was in front of me. Taking a quick survey of Sylaira, I noted that her bronze cuffs had disappeared. “Is your healing magic kicking in? Do you need further aid?”
I had potions in my pack for just this purpose. Couldn’t have myself or one of my hunters injured and unable to complete our mission.
“I don’t want your help,” she shot back, venom in each word.
Frustration crept across my neck and shoulders. I was raw, flayed open, by our fresh bond. I needed to stop fucking feeling and start fucking acting.
An irritated sigh slipped out before I could stop it. Sylaira lay there, rain pelting her frame, clothes soaked through and clinging to her lithe form, refusing to so much as look at me.
Again.
Something clicked in the back of my mind. All the times she’d kept her head down. Curled in on herself. Ignored me.
“Did you know?” I pressed, closing the space between us. Yet I did not touch her. Merely vibrated with violence held back by fraying restraint.
I’d hunted her into the lake country. Forced her to flee into the mountains. Risked everything because of the thrill—because of her.
And if she’d known the entire time? I didn’t even want to think about it.
Her long lashes trembled against her cheekbones as she closed her eyes. “I’m done talking to you. Leave me here to die.”
“You know I can’t do that. Especially not now.” Each word was hard, sharper than the blades strapped to my body.
“I’d rather be dead than be mated to you,” she said, her melodic voice so soft, so resigned.
Rage gripped me.
How could the Goddess have blessed me with a bond so deep, so pure, it transcended all other love, only for it to be with a fucking Elessarum Seer?
A scoff slipped out of her. “There is no blessing in this.”
I hadn’t realized I’d projected the thought to her. Yet her words cut deeper than any my sister had ever spoken to me.
After centuries, I was numb to it. But to feel this, now, after a moment that should have been one of the greatest of my life?
That urge to break her returned tenfold. My father’s cruelty flickered in the back of my mind. I shoved it down, along with the twinge of shame.
“Clearly not with your sour attitude,” I growled, shoving to my feet and stomping away. Splinters dug into my chest, a punishment from the magic chaining me to her. I pressed my hand over the well of light like that could stop this new entity inside me from writhing and fighting.
