As I clenched my fists, my thumb brushed across the ring on my finger. I grabbed hold of that tiny shred, that faint spark that ignited within me. I shoved him off. He leaned back on his knees as I scrambled away from him. His lips stained red. Warmth trailed down my neck in a sickening path.
His eyes were alight with something horrifying. As if he already stole the crown. I cursed myself for my stupidity, for ever thinking I could get him to change.
I shot to my feet, swaying slightly on unstable legs from the blood loss. As I ran through the room, a sharp pang shot through my chest. I clutched the doorframe to stay upright, gasping for an even breath.
“Escaping me will only hurt, darling,” he drawled from behind me. And silently, I wasn’t sure he meant for me to hear, he said, “And now you will know how I feel.”
I gritted my teeth as I passed through the threshold. I walked in a daze out the front doors. He let me go. I stumbled down the path between cypresses until it all hit me like an avalanche, bringing me to my hands and knees. I saw it all. I felt it all. What had been locked away within him, it was all before me now. And my eyes burned from the mirror I peered into. A life I had lived, a pain long scarred withinmy own flesh. I gasped through the revelation, from the man on fire I crawled away from.
I feel the need to protect you.
Clarity never hurt so much. He saw himself within me, and I saw myself within him. He was the future that terrified me so much I had desperately tried to conceal it, run from its fruition. The world I was trying to fit into was slowly picking me apart, and he wanted to stop it. Because what came together from the broken pieces was born of the abyss.
I clutched handfuls of gravel as I continued to drag myself away. I couldn’t believe it. I wasnothim. We were not the same. We couldn’t be. Because if we were, what did that mean? He had torn apart all I had known, and I had to keep it together.
I stumbled to my feet, heaving in deep breaths. I didn’t even realize I was before my horse until she snorted, causing me to jump.
The earth rumbled beneath my feet. I looked up, searching through the dark at what approached quickly. His black horse tore through the soupy fog like a hellhound. His anger permeated the cold air, its claws reaching out as he neared closer. And as I saw his face, I nearly stepped back. He was not just a demon but the devil himself.
Sebastian leapt off his horse before it slowed to a stop. He closed the distance between us, taking hold of my jaw, tilting my head to the side as he examined the scarlet trailing down my neck. He guided my face back to center, tilting my chin upwards to meet his gaze. The hood of his black cloak cast his face in shadows. I could barely make out the whites of his eyes. And I thought Alaric was wrath incarnate, but Sebastian was pure malice. The reaper come to collect.
A growl ripped from his throat as he rounded on the gate. I nearly fell over as I latched on to his arm trying to hold him back.
“Sebastian,no! Please. His entire army is in there. Now is not the time.” He dragged me behind him. “Please, just listen to me. Just wait!”
He halted, and as he looked at me slowly over his shoulder, I couldn’t help but shudder. I stood in front of him, cupping the sides of his face in my hands. “We will get him back, but now is not the time. This is what he wants. He wants your anger. He wants you to be sloppy. We need to do this the right way.”
What shrouded his eyes dissipated, but what it revealed nearly knocked me down to my knees.
“He bonded to you?” Intricate threads of pain weaved through his words.
I nodded. A sob caught in my throat as tears burned down my face. An eternal bond that could never be broken. But it could be rejected. I felt it as I pushed at the forced workings of fate, what wanted to fall into place, to be sealed forever. I kept the edges far apart. Though the pain remained, an emptiness nestled right next to a sempiternal flame. Alaric’s bond could never be like Sebastian’s. And for some strange reason, there was a breathtaking sadness at that.
“Why did you come alone? Why didn’t you tell me?”
My heart fractured as he said each word.
“I didn’t know what he would do if I didn’t listen to him. I didn’t know who he would go after next.” A strangled sob constricted my throat. I heaved in a breath.
He placed his hands on either side of my face, pressing his forehead against mine before pulling me into him, wrapping his arms tightly around me. I fell apart as he held me together.
* * *
We rode back to the manor in silence. Sebastian followed me back to my room. I had a feeling he would not leave my side anytime soon.As I opened my door, I halted at the sound of rustling blankets. Pari shot up in my bed. Bits of hair escaped her thick braid, and her eyes were heavy with sleep.
“Charlotte, I finally got word that you’re back. I came to check on y—” Her eyes narrowed, landing right on my neck. On the blood that was still there, then on Sebastian behind me, who went entirely rigid. My head was clouded with such a thick haze, I didn’t even think to clean up before entering the manor.
“Charlotte,” she whispered.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Pari was lost in all the possible explanations. A cavernous distance sat cold between us, and it made my skin itch. The thought of losing her a gaping maw above my head threatening to descend at any moment.
Sebastian stepped forward, into me, with his firm chest flush against my back. He wrapped his arm around my waist, an obvious stake of claim. It dawned on me then. He thought she would attack me. It was the law after all. Any discovered vampire must be executed. And if she didn’t think I myself was a vampire, to be fed on was just as bad.
But she was frozen. A riot of emotions fled across her face. She fought with the worst ones. The worst possibilities. She didn’t want to believe it.
I turned to Sebastian. “Give us a moment, please.”
