Page 77 of Mate of a Monster

Shit. I swing up, waiting for the guilt to swallow me whole and spit me out. Instead, every fucking step away from her only spreads the void in my chest.

Before either of them can say shit, I slam the door and jump from the platform, landing on the grass with a thud.

Right at the feet of Arabella.

Fuck.

Chapter Seventeen

Legend

Valeryth rises ahead of us in pale marble veined with silver so pure it seems to gleam. Bells ring somewhere high in the towers when we pass through wired gates.

It’s so…pretty.

I hate it instantly.

Even the skies are wrong: blue without depth, the sunlight pouring down over the grounds like it’s all fucking rainbows and flowers. I prefer the sight of the rings of Saturn burning overhead. The angry stars flickering before they die.

Darkness.

This place has none. Or at least not on the surface.

No, the evil that lives here—and evil lives everywhere—is slicker than that. They hide behind sweet smiles and porcelain faces, and wear fucking flower crowns on top of their heads as if they have a royal bone in their lithe little bodies.

They don’t.

My muscles twitch and I glance at Arabella.

Guess that is about to change, though. A Royal, born of the purest of Stygian blood, fated to an Argent.

That’s never happened before. If someone would have asked me before if it would ever be possible, I’d have laughed in their fucking face.

Yet here we are.

If I didn’t feel it, I wouldn’t believe it.

Arabella walks beside me in white silk, fingers looped lightly through the bend of my arm.

If she didn’t just find me leaving Haide, I might wonder if she was being arrogant with the way she clings to me, chin held high and nose tipped in superiority all because she bagged herself a king.

That should make me proud, make my chest puff out and cock ache to be buried inside her.

But this is more than that. She hasn’t stopped touching me since I dropped out of that fucking tree.

“We will be brief,” she murmurs, her voice taking on a soft, fawning sort of tone as her fingers glide across my skin. “I promise.”

A ripple rolls through me when she speaks, in a way her touch did not.

The second Arabella falls silent again, the pressure returns, subtle but undeniable.

Fuck is this? Guilt?

She found out her parents were dead. And what did I do? I fucking left her in my castle to go find the girl who screwed me over.

The least I can do now is be here for her while she faces whatever shit she needs to deal with.

I don’t even know if she liked her parents or not. Most gifted don’t. But then again, she is Argent, so who the fuck knows?