Page 18 of A Castle of Broken Memories

“Because you left!” she shouted, surging forward and shoving her palms against my chest. I landed hard on my ass, too surprised to react properly, and Mariana stood over me, all five feet three inches of her shaking with fury. “After all that talk about us being destined for each other, fucking mates”—her mouth twisted in disgust—“you couldn’t even be bothered to call it off in person. You arrogant, selfish coward.”

Irritation flickered beneath the shock of Mariana’s actions, the anger behind her confusing words finally registering. “Look. I understand why you’d be upset⁠—”

“Ha!”

Mariana’s outburst was punctuated by the flashing of claws when her hands began to shift forms. I kept a wary eye on the razor-sharp appendages while I continued, determined not to be caught unaware again. “I shouldn’t have come up without telling you, especially not the night before our bonding ceremony, but I’d been drinking and Noah was so excited, I just…” I shrugged, the consequences of that night’s rash decisions making me slump forward. It all seemed so ridiculously stupid now. “I wanted to surprise you with a treasure from the legendary Sky Castle. The ultimate bonding gift. Instead, I ended up getting trapped in this gods-forsaken place and missing our ceremony altogether.”

Shame burned the back of my neck, regret curdling in my gut. If only I hadn’t acted so rashly. If I’d only waited and talked to her first. Made a fucking plan instead of running off half-cocked under the drunken influence of stag night. “You’re right. I was arrogant and selfish, and nothing I could say makes up for what I put you through.” Looking up, I forced myself to meet her gaze and accept whatever form of punishment her anger chose to mete out. I would take it with a smile on my face if it meant there was any hope of holding her once the fire burned out.

Only, to my surprise, it already had.

Mariana’s eyes glinted with a sheen of tears that she hastily blinked away, the claws retracting from her fingertips as she lifted her hand to her mouth. “I don’t… I don’t understand,” she whispered, shaking her head. “Are you saying you’ve been up here this entire time? For… for ten years?”

“Ten years, two months, and fifteen days,” I corrected, “but who’s counting?”

Her face paled. “Fucking hell…”

She swayed to the side, and I reached to steady her, but her eyes widened and she pressed herself into her slim companion’s side. The rejection stung, but not nearly as much as the sight of her tucked beneath his arm while he pulled her close. The urge to rip the appendage off his pathetically skinny body entirely had me clenching my hands into fists while my fangs bit into my lower lip.

The werewolf hovering just behind the pair let out a low warning growl.

Mariana, on the other hand, was seemingly oblivious to the effect her and the dark-haired stranger’s proximity was having on my sanity. “But there was a note, in your room,” she said, staring at me as if I were some kind of puzzle she couldn’t solve. “You said we were making a mistake. That there was too much world to explore outside the barrier, we were too young…” She swallowed. “You… you said you were leaving me.”

The hell?

“Leave you?” I huffed an incredulous laugh. “Mariana, I don’t know anything about this… this note you’re talking about, or what strange miracle brought you up here after all these years, but I assure you, not a day has gone by since I found myself trapped up here that I haven’t dreamed of seeing you again. Being with you is all I’ve ever wanted. You are all I’ve ever wanted."

11

Jack’s voice, the impossible words his lips were forming, all of it rang with a sincerity I couldn’t wrap my brain around. While I was crying and cursing him by turns for abandoning me, he’d been trapped up here? Alone? For ten years? My stomach twisted painfully, my legs trembling. I hadn’t known. I hadn’t⁠—

His hand lifted tentatively, once again seeking mine, but I jerked away out of habit. Tenebris’s hold tightened while I shrank into his steady warmth. It was too much. Too sudden. I needed… gods, I didn’t even know what I needed other than to breathe. Something that’d never felt quite so difficult before now.

“Mariana.” My name was a plea, wrapping around my heart and squeezing tight. “I’m so sorry,” Jack whispered. “I was a reckless idiot. I wanted to give you something amazing on our bonding day, and it cost me everything. I know it’s been a long time—trust me, I know—but you’re here. And I…” His voice cracked, and I felt the jagged shards pierce my chest, slicing it into painful ribbons of regret. “I’ve missed you so much.”

Too much.

It was all just too much.

“But there was a note,” I insisted, clawing desperately at some shred of reason. “In your handwriting. I saw it. I…” I’d sobbed over it. Soaked it with my tears before ripping it into a thousand tiny pieces.

Jack’s jaw tightened and his eyes grew dark. “If there was, it was a fake. Someone must have forged my signature.”

“But who—” I stilled, ice creeping through my veins at the memory of Noah’s parting words, dripping with regret. I’m sorry. I fumbled with my rucksack, jerking it open with trembling hands. There, resting atop a bundle of rolled-up clothes, was Jack’s dagger. The one he’d “lent” to Noah. I held it out, gaze darting upward to see the thundercloud forming behind Jack’s expression. “Noah gave me this,” I whispered. “Right before we came up.”

“I let him borrow it before we entered the castle,” he said, voice low and flat while he took the proffered blade. “He was nervous, and I was carrying a spare. He still had it on him when he fled…”

“That asshole left you here? And didn’t tell anyone?”

Calum’s voice snapped Jack from his narrow-eyed trance, and he swore, knuckles whitening around the dagger’s crimson hilt as he paced off through the grass. “He didn’t tell anyone,” he muttered, the words barely coherent. “He didn’t… fucking hell, he… he lied to them.” He stopped in his tracks and threw the dagger across the lawn with a roaring, “Fuck!” The blade embedded itself in the cabin’s outer wall.

My chest ached as if it’d struck me, instead. I knew something had been off about Noah’s final words. I just hadn’t imagined it was something so completely unforgivable. So…

Devastating.

“Noah wrote the note, and pretended it was from you.” I shook my head, trying to make sense out of the improbable statement. He’d been our friend. How could he betray us like that? He’d seen what Jack’s supposed abandonment did to me. Hell, he’d brought me those damned wildflowers every day. He’d held my hand, made me tea, read freaking poetry while I stared blankly into the fire. He’d been there for me in every possible way.

My stomach turned, the memory of my last day in Mondue rising to the surface. The way Noah had pulled me into his arms, brushing kisses over my hair while he begged me to look at him. I’d thought he’d simply been worried about me, but now… now I wondered if it was merely friendship that brought him to my doorstep every day.