“Charlotte,” he whispered for only me to hear. “You need to calm down. Be still.” His velvet-wrapped words wound their way around me in a snug embrace. The pain eased, though only slightly, my body still on fire.
“I can’t. It hurts,” I sobbed.
He looked down at me, his face hovering just inches from mine. A whirlwind of emotions fled through his eyes. They fled so fast I could barely decipher them, but I caught one. Fear.
“You need to stop,” he snarled at Jameson.
“It will only hurt more as the demon is extracted.”
A look of exasperation crossed his face, as if he considered telling everyone how stupid they were and how very wrong. How vampires were not demons, and this was no demon but an illusion. He looked back to me, seeming to grow desperate. He cursed.
He placed both of his hands at either side of my face. The raging inferno that ate me from the inside started to ease, as if my body dipped into cool waters on a sweltering August afternoon. Relief enveloped me. Every muscle melted. Every nerve quieted. And I kept my eyes on Sebastian’s. They held me within their endless abyss. A portal to another world. The calm continued to wash through me like waves lapping up the shore.
The moment my entire body stilled and my screams ceased, he snatched the silver amulet from my chest and threw it so hard across the room, I’d have to check later to see if it left a dent in the wall.
“It’s done,” he growled.
Gasps erupted throughout the room at the blatant act of sacrilege, but he kept his eyes on mine with his hands still cradlingmy face. His thumbs lightly grazed back and forth beneath my eyes, sweeping away any tear that fell.
My father stammered for a moment. “It’s alright everyone. He’s just protecting his betrothed.”
Hiswhat?
Before I could process that, a wave of exhaustion dragged me under.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
There was indeed a dent in the wall. Though the silver amulet was gone, thank the gods for that. I stared at the chip in the crown molding for a long while, wincing at nearly every breath that moved my aching chest. Elsie had helped me get dressed, despite her protests that I should stay in bed and rest all day. It was an effort to move any part of me, as if I had been tossed down a mountainside and thrown about like a rag doll. Everything hurt.
“I’d never seen you in so much pain.” Elsie’s bright green eyes roamed over me apprehensively as she helped me pack for my trip.
“It gets worse each time.”
“You know there’s no demon in you,” she said it as if she worried I’d started to believe there was.
“Of course not. I know that.” The weight of her gaze pressed into the fragile glass that was my body, and I wondered how bad could it really be to just tell her. I had an awful suspicion that things were only going to get worse. After Thomas’ death and Alaric forcing an exorcism, what I had worked so hard to keep at bay, what could I really protect anymore? Who could I really protect? Everything seemed so far out of my reach. “It may not be a demon, but there is something.” And I left it at that. And though she didn’t believe in anything but what was before her eyes, I could see that she believed me. She believed what she saw last night. I hadn’t even known she was there until she told me this morning.
* * *
“He was probably just being a gentleman. He has no doubt fled last night after leaving this house of horrors.” My mother’s eyes were filled with contempt as they landed on me over her cup of Earl Grey. Sometimes I wondered if she genuinely thought this was all my fault.As if I wanted to be an outcast that everyone looked down upon and no one wanted anything to do with.
I pushed around my eggs, attempting to find the will to eat. My stomach certainly felt empty, but each bite I took settled too heavily. My body too shaken to hold anything more.
“Lillian, they are to be married. He would not back out of a promise. He is an honorable man.” My eyes widened at my father’s words. It wasn’t just my mind playing tricks on me last night.Betrothed.
“I wouldn’t be so sure after what he saw. That would be enough to change anyone’s mind,” she scoffed.
And was anyone going to tell me? I was sitting right here, and no one had bothered to clue me in on my own marriage.
“Married?” My mouth hung open at my father.
“Well, certainly not now,” Mother muttered into her oatmeal.
Father looked at me for a moment before it dawned on him, before he realized he forgot to tell me. “Oh, Charlotte, of course.” By the look on his face, he finally considered me and realized I had no knowledge of this. “Sebastian had asked for your hand. I accepted of course.”
I simply gaped back at him.
“Father,” Olivia chastised. “If she doesn’t know he was probably planning for it to be a surprise, and you’ve ruined it,” she pouted.
