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“Please don’t hurt yourself,” he protested so softly I whimpered.

Fuck me for being so weak!

“Get out of here!” I roared. “Do right by your people and not by me. Forget this love shit. There’s no future for us. There’s nothing left.”

What an absolute dickhead I was. Sitting here rocking, knowing full well that this torture would not end until I drove that dagger into that big fucking ruby on his chest. This wasn’t helping anyone and this wouldn’t help me.

An idea hit me. What if I ran? What if I pushed past him and just ran? Aidan wouldn’t let me get far. Pfft. Let him have me. Let him do whatever he wanted to me. I wouldn’t die until the dagger went into the vampire king.

Aidan appeared before me in a cloud of magic with a knife in his hand.

A shimmer of moonlight came from Silv’s direction.

“I’ve lost count of how many times we’ve tried this,” he said. “It won’t work, but let’s try again, just to be sure. For fun.”

Ugh. Him and his idea of fun.

He stabbed at me, aiming right for my heart.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Silvanus

Moonlight bathed my vision, almost smothering Paris. But not quite.

“Save him!” Selene chimed in my skull. “Save Paris so he can save the world!”

“I—”

“Knock him out and take him to the Hinterlands!” she practically roared. “Lies strangle everything. Lies spun from deities, all muddled together and confusing. Take him to the River Celestia on the southern border. Drop him in. Awaken that which is buried deep.”

I didn’t have time to question her properly, but her panicked statement almost winded me. “What about the sunlight?” I questioned. “The curse⁠—”

Something appeared around my neck, a cool chain of white-gold. A jagged chunk of warm, iridescent gray rock hung from it.

“This will keep you safe in the daytime,” she informed me. “Even though the curse remains, as does your protection, I want you to be doubly safe. And it will keep the threat of the sun away from scaring the vampires.”

“Thank you.”

“It must bathe in the moonlight to become effective again, so make sure you do that at sunset. I didn’t want to give this to you yet. I have…” A crackle of white noise swallowed her voice. “…vulnerable.”

“Pardon?”

“We will talk tonight when the pendant recharges.”

All I could say was, “Thank you.”

Drop Paris in a river?

“I have to go, darling king. Do as I say. Now. I have sensed something incredible about the elf. He truly is the savior of this world. And maybe even ours. Do not fear dropping him in the river.”

The moonlight receded as Aidan appeared, shock kept at bay from his attack on Paris.

My instincts triggered and I shot forward, slamming into him before he could drive his knife into my elf. He hit the wall face first, dropping his weapon, spewing many a curse word I ignored. Because Paris attacked me again.

I dodged his moves, my vampires in a terrible state of panic. Yet the words of my deity spurred me to slam my fist into Paris’s skull.

He immediately went limp. I caught him, lifting him up.