“When you danced, you stood there and looked right through me as if I were nothing.”
Something ugly flashed in his caramel eyes, the speckles of green darkening with rage. He was jealous and furious with me. It didn't feel like it belonged on him, not when he carried himself like a king in his own court. It made him look almost human.
Worse still, his hand slid higher up my arm, not gently, but more possessively, as if warning me what would happen if I pulled away.
“You think I didn't notice?” he murmured.
“You think I didn't see the way he held you? The way you let him in?”
Now he wanted to justify it all because I had danced with Fionn.
“I didn’t let—” I tried to retort.
“Don’t insult me.” His voice sharpened, cutting me off. “And now you want to look at me like I'm a monster.”
He leaned in, close enough that I could feel his breath on my skin. He was twisting everything in his mind, changing reality and turning the concept of sacrificing me into one of salvation.
On the one hand he wanted to be my protector, yet he was willing to let me die. That kind of manipulation tactic made my blood run cold. Underneath his charm and anger, I detected darkness. I could see he might loosen his grip at any moment, leaving me vulnerable to Vareth and his world.
His thumb pressed against my pulse point. Did he realize how tightly he was holding my wrist?
“I could have kept you alive,” he said.
He was losing control. I could see it and feel it.
“Is this you talking,” I whispered, “or is it your God, Vareth?”
His eyes flickered for a second, confusion flashing across his face. “You must decide what you are to me. If you choose me like you said when you were behind the bars, we still have time to bind together.”
I shot him an angry look. After everything that's happened, he still dared to believe our marks would bind us.Before I could stop myself, I stepped closer to him, driven by the need to make my feelings unmistakably clear. He doesn’t get to manipulate me again.
A whisper curled through my mind.
“Manipulate him.
” Get out of my head.”
“Tell him you love him. It will buy youtime.”
“Stop. Now”.
“Fool him the way he fooled you… and the rest of us.”
That’s when I realised it wasn’t just one voice...
I was done playing games. I refused to become a manipulator like him or anyone else. I needed him to understand exactly how I felt, without lies, without masks. “You decided what I was to you when the madness flared in you and sacrificed me to your God. So, understand this:
“Mark my body,
“Cage my soul,”
I lifted my chin, letting the truth cut clean between us.
“I will never love you. I will never be an offering to you or your Varethym God.”
He looked stunned. Seizing the moment, I summoned all the strength I had, kneeing him hard where it would hurt most, and pulled my hand free from his grip. I ran. I had to get out of here alive.
“We’ll die before we allow them to take you,” Cillian said, buckled over, still watching me.
