“Donte,” I said, reaching out to him.
When he didn’t return my gesture the tears that I’d been holding back finally released.
“Tilly, please don’t cry. It pains my soul to have caused you such pain. You don’t see it now, but in time you’ll understand that everything I’ve done has been for the binding.”
I stared at Donte like an animal caught in headlights. The words spilling from his lips might as well have been foreign. I couldn’t make sense of any of them. I reached unconsciously for the rose clasp I wore in my hair as a badge of my feelings for Donte. For a moment I was tempted to rip it from my hair and hurl it at him.
“Donte...if I weren’t here standing in front of you, I’d almost think this was a dream, but I’m looking at you close enough to touch, yet so far away. Please tell me what’s going on. What are you talking about? What greater good? After everything that’s happened, this is all you have to say to me?”
The world tilted. My knees threatening to buckle.
Donte watched me with haunted eyes.
“Youcan’teven speak to me? You have no idea how muchI’vemissed you. I deserve answers. Not silence!”
He took a deep breath as though steeling himself for what he was about to say.
“Idescendedhere today to give you answers, Tilly, but seeing you is making it very difficult for me to do so.”
I didn’t move or blink. I stood like a glass doll on the edge of a shelf.
“What do you want to tell me?”
His gaze faltered, as though the words themselves were poison on his tongue.
“I shouldn’t be here, Tilly. I never wanted this meeting, and yet here I stand, about to wound you with words I can’t take back.”
“What words Donte, say them”
“I was never meant to stand at your side. Fate wrote me elsewhere, and for that.... I’m truly sorry”
Ididn’tknow whether to laugh or cry. The ache in my chest was too tangled for either.
“Did you rehearse those words?” I asked, thinking of Cillian and his brothers.How easily they spoke in riddles and half-truths. “I’ve heard them before.”
Anger surged through me.Was this truly Donte speaking, or had Seraphina’s spellripped out his souland left only a puppet behind?
He shook his head slowly. “No one told me, Tilly. No one had to. The truth has lived inmy bloodall along, andit burns like a dying starto finally speak it.”
I stared at him, stunned, “I don’t believe you,” I said trembling with anger. “This isn’t you. They’ve gotten to you somehow, twisted your heart into words you’d never choose for me.”
“Tilly,” he said, voice barely above a whisper, “my brothers haven’t poisoned my mind. This is the Varethym law a decree that must be upheld to break the curse before the Blood Moon rises in my world.”
“VarethymLaw.” I repeated the words, but they felt like venom in my mouth. “What do you mean by that? What law couldpossibly markmy life?”
“A dark law, Tilly,one that feeds on our blood to keep ourrealmfrom falling.”
“This will be difficult to understand right now. I was the only one who could get close enough to you without losing control of my emotions. If it had been any of my other brothers...”
His words trailed into silence. The ground tilted beneath me. This couldn’t be real. Seraphina’s spell had to be twisting what I heard. I shook my head in disbelief.
“My God.” The words barely left my lips. “What are you saying?” I took a step back, as if distance might soften the blow. “You’re telling me Cillian and the others, they’re your brothers?”
“This will be difficult to understand right now. In our bloodline, proximity to the Marked is a trial of the spirit. I was the only one who could get close enough to you without losingcontrol of my instincts. If it had been any of my other brothers, their hunger to bind would have consumed you too soon.”
His words trailed into silence. The ground tilted beneath me. My God. I stumbled back further, as if distance might soften the blow.
“I need you to let me explain,” he said finally. He looked at me and something in his gazeshimmered. Was itremorse?
