Page 740 of Coal Hearts

My horror over what Victor would do gave me just enough strength to look up and catch Henri’s stare.

He looked away immediately.

Cutting me off.

Refusing to see me.

And I couldn’t do it.

I knew he did it to protect me. To prevent Victor from whipping me again.

But it hurt.

Fuck, it hurt.

Hurt so much to be denied.

Refused.

Avoided all because he loved me.

I was the one person who had the power to make Henri’s life so much better than it was, and instead...I’d become the worst thing to ever happen to him.

Forgive me.

God...please, please forgive me.

I sat there sobbing as Victor gently unbuckled Henri’s ball gag and waited as Henri winced and moaned, working his jaw from its stiffness from being spread all night. “Your voice belongs to me now,” Victor murmured, massaging Henri’s cheeks with sick kindness. “You don’t speak unless it’s to me, do you understand?” Pressing a kiss to Henri’s sweat-drenched cheek, he murmured, “Your every sense is mine now. Test me if you must, but Ilyana will pay the price.”

Sucking in a tattered breath, Henri hung in his binds.

Peter gave him a heartbreaking look.

I held my bleeding soul in my hands.

And Henri delivered himself straight to the devil, sacrificing himself for me, for Paavak, for love.

“I understand.”

“Understand what?”

“That my senses belong to you.”

“Belong to me...what?”

Henri gulped. “Belong to you...Sir V.”

“Good boy.” Victor smiled as if Henri had agreed to a lazy afternoon of poker. “Think about what you’ve learned this morning. I’ll be back this afternoon with your next lesson.”

He left just like he had last night.

The ballroom doors closed.

Leaving the three of us bound and dying.

None of us spoke.

Not one of us looked at the other.