Page 97 of Sent To A Fantasy World and Now All the Men Want Me 7

“That’s when I believed I could resist you.” He gathered me in his arms and dropped his face to my hair. “Now I see the fool I’ve been. I once said I’d burn myself into your soul, yet here you are burning yourself in mine.”

The air stirred from behind me as my men approached. Maddox and Callum first, then the others, their scents wrapping around me. The nudge to my ankle let me know Oreo had walked over as well.

“Come with us, sweetheart,” Maddox gently said, the heat of his body causing mine to tingle as his palm slid against mine.

“But I’m not ready to leave.” Holding Maddox with one hand, I used the other to grab the front of Onyx’s robe. Tears surged forward. “We need to sit back down and figure this out. Come up with a game plan. I don’t accept that—”

“The truth remains the same whether you accept it or not.” Onyx draped his hand over mine before slowly pushing it away from him. He’d become emotionless once again. To Maddox, he added, “You were right when you said the danger to Evan is greater within my realm. Now more than ever. Should the day come when I fall victim to this curse, I expect you to do what needs to be done. Stop me by any means necessary.”

Maddox’s eyes widened slightly before he responded with a curt nod. An acceptance.

Wait.

“You can’t seriously be asking him to kill you,” I said, heartbreak and frustration twisting together in my chest.

“I’m not asking,” Onyx said, his attention unwavering on Maddox.

“Lord Onyx?” Rowan pushed from the wall, unsteadily. “Is this why you asked me to keep watch from the shadows, even when Evan was with you? Just in case you… if you—”

“Turned into a blood-crazed beast and tried to rip him apart?” Onyx interjected, putting more space between us. “Precisely.”

My heart broke. But not because I worried about myself. I was sad for Onyx. Angry for him too. Because of Saint Vera, he’d spent so many years isolated from the world. The only warmth he’d known was in the occasional fuck he allowed himself and never with anyone he saw himself ever caring for.

“And now?” Rowan asked him.

“I expect you to continue watching over him, just as you’ve done long before you ever stepped foot here,” Onyx responded. “Only now, I hope to give you the knowledge to protect him even more. That is, if you still wish to train with me.”

“I do.” Rowan’s topaz eyes seemed sadder than I’d ever seen them. Like a kid who’d just witnessed his favorite superhero get beaten down. “I take it you won’t be meeting with our little treasure anymore though?”

Onyx shifted his gaze to the floor. Said nothing.

But the answer was all too clear. He and I weren’t to be left alone together anymore. No more playful teasing, lustful bites, or any of those musical laughs that danced over my heartstrings. Those strings were too fragile now.

“Run off to bed now, little bird.” Onyx reached for my face but withdrew his hand before making contact. Reminding me so much of those earlier days when he’d fought so hard to push me away. “May only the sweetest dreams find you.”

I stared at him, a place inside me breaking.

“Come on, love.” Briar took hold of my other hand.

As my men guided me from the room, I glanced back at Onyx. He had turned to face the balcony with a rigid set to his shoulders. One hand was balled into a fist while the other rested on the part of his robe I’d held moments earlier.

It wasn’t fair. So much was stacked against us, threatening to stifle the glowing ember that’d only just begun to brighten. A curse that kept us from getting any closer than we already were. Not without one, or both, of us meeting a grisly end.

No one spoke for a long while after we reached the room. Not that I knew what to say even if I did. Their expressions hinted at the same, their thoughts spinning just as fast as mine.

I sat on the edge of the bed, my legs dangling but not long enough for my feet to touch the floor. “Onyx was right. Fate really is cruel.”

“It’ll be all right, Ev,” Callum murmured into my hair as he wrapped an arm around my waist and brought me against him. The soft rasp of his voice was like a balm for the sharp ache in my chest. “We won’t let anything happen to you.”

“I’m more worried about Onyx,” I admitted, the burning in my throat traveling up to rest behind my eyes. “He’s shut himself off from the world for centuries. All so he could avoid the very thing I brought right to his doorstep.”

“There you go again…” Callum blew out a shaky breath. “More concerned about others than you are for yourself. You’re the one in danger here, Ev.”

“Not if Onyx doesn’t fall in love with me,” I reminded him.

“I reckon it’s too late for that,” Rowan said, propped against the wall in the corner of the room, his topaz eyes a faint glow within the swirling darkness. “He’s well on his way. Only a matter of time. He knows it too. It’s why he told us about the curse.”

Lake came to sit on my other side, his mouth drawn down. “Rowan’s right. The battle was lost the moment we came here. I can sense the stirring in Lord Onyx’s soul. The same yearning we all feel for you. There’s no fighting it. Not for much longer.”