A heart that belonged to Victor.
My mom had mentioned I smelled a touch more floral after the surgery, but I hadn’t considered it could be her scent mingling with mine.
The longer I stared at her photo, the more it made sense. The more Victor’s obsession and cruelty towards me became logical, and the fact that I had never felt nearly as much towards him. I had part of what he wanted, but I wasn’t her, and he must have realized it somewhere deep down.
But he was too far gone to admit it, because the effects of the mate bond were there. At least, for him they were.
The feelings and benefits weren’t mutual, though. Did that mean it was it possible to break his claim so we could finally be free of each other?
Had there ever been a broken mate bond before?
It was almost four a.m., which meant I needed to hide the phone and get back to my spot on the couch so there wouldn’t be any weird inconsistencies when the security footage stopped looping.
But as I sat back down, opening the book back up, the loop in my mind refused to stop.
He’s not my mate.
He’s not my mate.
He’s not my mate.
He’s not…
* * *
Victor didn’t come back that morning, and fear clawed at my chest as I worried he had discovered what Accalia had done for me.
I knocked on the door. “Giorgi? Is that you out there?”
“Yes, ma’am,” came a muffled reply.
“Where’s Victor?”
“There was an emergency, and he might be gone for a few days. Someone will be by later to, um, collect your blood.”
My eyes darted towards the TV console, where the phone was hidden. I would have to wait almost twenty-two hours to see what this so-called emergency was.
“O-oh, okay. Thanks, Giorgi.”
I slowly marched back towards the bedroom, scooping up Ember on the way. I had to trust that something else had called him away, and that Accalia was still safe. Besides, while it was easy enough for him to punish me, Accalia was a public figure.If she showed up somewhere with bruises, or, Hecara forbid, broken bones, people would talk. There was only so much a glamour could cover.
And Victor would do anything to protect his image.
Sleeping alone was a welcome reprieve, even if my body did crave the touch, pleasure, and intimacy Victor provided. But I was too worried for exhaustion to claim me, and after tossing and turning for a couple of minutes, I got up and walked back into the living room. I opened the large, heavy curtains, and curled up next to the window.
The sun crept up slowly behind the skyline, pale and distant, its light diffused by low clouds and the fine haze of falling snow. It was the first time I’d looked outside in months.
Glass towers caught the glow of dawn, washing the world in muted gold before the day fully arrived. Below, Noctis lay hushed beneath its white-covered streets, the traffic thinning rather than building as the morning claimed its place.
In the windows across the way, lights flickered off one by one and curtains were drawn, families tucking into bed. The vampire city-state exhaled while the sun climbed higher, unwelcome but unavoidable.
But as the light bathed my skin, I felt renewed. Maybe I’d never be free of Victor completely—not if he needed my blood to survive. But if I could send it to him from some other location where no one knew our connection, would he finally agree to let me go?
I needed to figure out how to lay the groundwork first. If I just blurted out loud that Liora was likely his mate and not me, he’d know that I’d looked her up, and would figure out how I’d accomplished that.
Maybe I could sow a seed of doubt—find an opportunity to bring up the transplant organically in conversation. Not that we had many that weren’t him asking me how I liked his cock. Butperhaps in that soft space after sex, when he’d hold me and breathe me in.
A half dozen different segues lined up in my mind as the sun rose higher, my eyes watering and squinting in the bright light.
