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I folded my arms. “Is that really how this curse works?”

He took a few beats to answer. “I’m not sure.”

“You’re not sure there’s a get-out clause?”

He shook his head.

“Then why are you going to all this trouble?”

Slowly, he turned his head to face me. “Because I can.” His expression darkened. “If only you’d admit that you love him. Out loud. It must be out loud. Did I tell you that?”

My steel cracked a little. “Fuck you.”

“Did I tell you the curse also keeps Silvanus safe?”

I swallowed, rubbing at the base of my throat. “It does?”

“Unfortunately.” His lips quirked into a smirk. “Admit your true feelings. It would make life so much easier. There wouldn’t need to be this messiness here in the city. All you have to do is admit that you love him, kill him with the Knife of Fractured Rapture, and then it’s over.”

I puffed up my chest, face red-hot with anger. “I can’t just say I love someone. I have to mean it.”

He was still smirking, thinking he was the wolf who got the steak. “But I think you do mean it, deep down. It’s buried, languishing in the dark, but it’s there. A bright spark of feeling waiting to be set free.”

Damn him for hitting me in the heart, making my knees almost buckle. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

No response.

It felt like there were fissures in my steel wall, dizziness in my skull. “So shut your mouth.”

“I’ve seen how you are with him,” he said. “I know how much you love to taste him.”

I went on the defensive, embarrassment burning across my epidermis. “Being horny and in love are two different things.”

The shame of it, being horny for a vamp.

No shame.

It’s…it’s lovely.

It’s the best kind of sweetcream.

“Fuck!” I bellowed, running a hand over my face. “We’re not doing this. You’re not getting to me.”

“I’m simply stating facts,” he countered. “Remember, this curse is about true love, so you can’t deny a thing. If you didn’t love him, the curse wouldn’t work.”

Dammit. Dammit.

Damn. It.

“I can tuck you in somewhere and tell you the full story of its origins if you like?” Once again, he found himself hilarious. “No? Fine. Some other time. Like never.”

In all seriousness, it would be useful to know the full story. Maybe I could glean something from it that Aidan couldn’t. Maybe there was a get-out clause that spared Silvanus and helped me shove the deity’s head on a spike.

Another explosion, a cry of pain in the distance.

Aidan wiped the werewolf’s blood on his jeans and stood up again.

“So, shall we?” he said.