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Well, we blew her and a warehouse full of Jedidiah’s followers to kingdom come.
Same end result.
Crispy witches.
Thalia isn’t like that, despite Drystan’s reservations. She’s innocent in all this. Naïve to the point that it makes me sick. Her father told her nothing about her heritage or where she came from. We aren’t the biggest fans of the Clan Petrea but they are not our enemies, even if their actions resulted in the death of one of their most powerful witches. Albeit indirectly. They pushed Thalia’s mother from the coven after she warned us about Melissa’s plan. She turned on her own sister to save us.
A betrayal the coven couldn’t live with, even if Melissa was batshit crazy.
Sighing, I turn toward a familiar, delicious scent.
Lavender and sea salt.
It’s a heady mix, refreshing and soft, just like her. I see Thalia making her way out to the back terrace, where Miriam has breakfast awaiting her. There’s a sad glimmer on her face, and her eyes are red and slightly puffy.
She’s been crying.
The beast inside me roars with fury at the thought and fights against me as I struggle to rein him in. For nearly a century, I relied on agrodolce to settle my beast back into the shadows. In low doses, it eases a vampire’s mind and keeps the urges at bay. I’ve had him under control for over a hundred and fifty years, but ever since Thalia walked into our lives, he’s been chomping at the bit to claim her.
I want to go to her, make her smile and laugh, but I can’t. Not now that I’m so close to losing control. She lifts her eyes from the table, catching my gaze. Her lips tilt in a small smile, but I don’t reciprocate. I can’t. Instead, I turn away, giving her my back. It takes everything I have not to go to her.
If I do, I’ll end up buried deep inside her sweet pussy. I’ll take her like an animal, mark her with my scent, my cum in every hole. The thought makes my dick hard, and I have to shift my legs to hide the growing bulge beneath my sweatpants.
There will be a time for me to take her, but it isn’t now.
Drystan is set on sacrificing her. Neither Weylen nor I can interfere. We’re brothers bound in blood. He’s the leader of our clan, our triad, and to go against him would go against everything we hold dear.
We will use her body, her mind, and her power until we have no use for it.
Then she will be nothing to us.
Thalia Sinclair will no longer be of use, and we don’t keep things that are no longer useful to us.
At least, that’s what I keep telling myself.
The problem is that what’s left of my cold, black heart hasn’t caught up with my brain. Like my beast, it wants to keep her.
If only we could.
If only the circumstances were different.
But they aren’t, and they never will be.
Duty before all else.
Chapter 26
Thalia
This morning, I cave into Miriam’s prodding and decide to eat breakfast on the terrace. The stubborn bitch inside me is pouting in a corner, demanding that I take myself back inside and silently protest, but honestly—I don’t want to right now. I want to bask in the sun and hear the waves crashing along the shore. The sound is so much richer when it isn’t being heard through the confines of my prison tower.
The moment I walk on the patio, Drystan turns and goes inside, his hushed conversation not meant for my lowly ears. I spent the better part of the early morning crying my eyes out when the feeling of emptiness washed over me like a fog settling over the water. From the concerned look in Miriam’s gaze as she led me from the tower, I didn’t hide the traces of my weakness as well as I thought.
Still, she doesn’t ask me if anything is wrong.
She knows, and even though she may feel sympathy for my situation, she’s too loyal to the Kings to do anything to help me. Sitting down in the ornate wrought-iron chair that has a soft blue cushion for me to sit on, I spot Asher in the distance, with a few other vampires who look to be training. The other night, in Drystan’s office, they mentioned something about a fight.
Elysium, I think.
