Nor would he ever let Darci know what he suspected. She’d probably want to give it back without thought of what could happen to her. As long as he had her, he didn’t care about anything else.
Chapter 27
Taking a deep breath,Darci pushed away from Blaéz. The time had passed for being able to speak to him in private.
“Blaéz?” She nervously kneaded his chest. “There is something you should know.”
Whatever he saw in her face, his entire manner changed, became rigid as if cast in stone. Darci instinctively grabbed a fistful of his t-shirt to hold him there. “Blaéz, it’s me. I—”
“No! Absolutely and unequivocally, no!”
She blinked at his vehemence. Protested. “You don’t even know what I was going to say.”
His eyes blazed pearlescent in fury. He pulled her hands off his shirt.“Don’t I?”
The others stilled. It was a rare thing to hear Blaéz yell, but she refused to be intimidated. “Blaéz—” she said with quiet determination, “I am the one. I possess your soul.”
Like the wind sweeping through the clearing, it left behind only silence. Deadly silence. Even the leaves stood still.
Blaéz’s fury solidified into ice. “So what?”
He knew?No matter, it changed nothing. Breaking free of his iron-grip, she stepped back a few feet. Her chest hurt as the pit inside of her widened at the knowledge she could never have a life with him. Because Blaéz’s very existence depended on her.
“It means I can freely give—”
“I don’t fucking want it.”
“Why?” Týr demanded. “It would break your damn tie to that asshole—”
“No,” Blaéz cut him off. His gaze pinned on her, narrowed dangerously.
With little choice, she did the only thing left. She let her love flow into her smile and told him the truth. The partial truth. “Blaéz. I’m merely its keeper.”
“Are you now?” His tone dropped to a worrying sub-zero, his expression hardened.
“Yes.”
“Then tell me what happens to you once you release it?”
Damn. The man was worse than a cross-examining lawyer. “Nothing. My lineage has protected your soul since the beginning. I guess my bloodline is strong enough to house a god’s soul.”
He closed the small distance between them, grasped her by her upper arms and hauled her close, his nose almost touching hers. “Never lie to me, Darci. The Morrigan is as selfish as the rest of them in the pantheons; she cares only about easing her own guilt. I’m not fool enough to believe that bull about a mortal housing two souls.”
“It’s the only way out and you know it,” Darci said with a stubborn tilt of her chin. “I refuse to let you destroy yourself.”
“And you think that’s so fucking important to me? That I would accept it, then watch while you take your last breath?”
She froze. His cold smile cut like a razor.
Darci straightened her spine. “It is my right, my will to do as I want.”
“Indeed. Well, I have to accept it, don’t I?” He let her go and turned to Michael, dismissing her. “I need to know what happens now. Do you take this to Gaia or what?”
“Dammit, Blaéz!” Darci grabbed his arm dried with blood, but that was like trying to turn a deeply rooted tree stump. She wheeled in front of him. “My soul may not be as strong as yours, but I ammortal.”
His lips tightened. The rigid lines of his face morphing into anguish at her unsaid words; she would eventually die anyway. And Darci knew there was no way he’d freely accept his soul. It had to be why The Morrigan had given her the disc.
Blaéz looked past her to Michael. “What’s next?”
