What was it that Ariel had told him last night? He was supposed to kill himself?
Was that Belial’s plan? Harm her? And in doing so think that he was so weak he’d harm himself in response?
Nay. He was prone to homicide, not suicide.
Scrambling to his feet, Valteri glanced about the stable. Though the horses were a bit unsettled, he had little trouble locating the one that was missing.
“Dammit!” he snarled. Had Ariel really left the safety of the hall on her own?
Why would she do something so stupid?
Because you’re too repugnant for her to bother with. Valteri flinched at the involuntary doubts that were never far from his mind.
But he quickly squelched his own stupidity. She didn’t see that part of him. It was why he loved her.
Love…
That single word made him flinch. Damn his heart for the weakness. For the betrayal.
If he could, he’d rip it out of his chest and stab it himself.
How dare it make him care for someone who could only bring him pain. He knew that as surely as he breathed air.
People were treacherous and disloyal. They plotted and they schemed. He knew that better than anyone.
Yet in spite of it all, he loved her, and for that he would be damned.
I’m the greatest fool ever born.
But more than that, he was Ariel’s fool.
“We must find her!” Belial insisted.
Valteri curled his lip at the demon, wanting to put him through the wall of the stable. He didn’t dare pursue her with that bastard on his heels. He needed to get rid of him first.
“Why should we seek her if, as you say, she left of her own accord?”
Belial’s jaw went slack. “But what if her mind has fled her again? Even now she could be lying in that storm, close to death.”
Now it was his turn to gape. “Storm, what storm?”
Belial threw open the stable door.
Oh dear God!Valteri swallowed at the swirling snowflakes that cascaded so thickly around that the air outside appeared as a solid white wall. Howling winds whipped the large snowflakes into a brutal dance until he could scarce see three inches before him.
What in the name of God and all his saints had she been thinking?
Ariel would never be able to survive such a storm. She wasn’t used to this world or its harshness. He had to find her.
Before they did.
Or before she died.
CHAPTER19
While Valteri saddled his horse, Belial gathered food and supplies. “I’ll wake the others.”
“I’ll wait for you,” he lied to the oaf. “Get Wace and your brothers. Have them meet me here while I saddle their horses.”
