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I raise a brow. “You recall he contacted Bram once before looking for it? Then, lo and behold, those two are suddenly chums again just as you mentally blare to all and sundry that I possess the tome. Make no mistake, if that information reaches Mathias and the Anarki, we will be in for a bloody fucking fight.”
“It was an accident! Okay? I didn’t know. What do you want, an apology in blood?”
“Of course not. You knew not that you were projecting your thoughts. But I will not release you to a stranger, especially one with a murky past, even if he shares your blood. You know naught of his beliefs, his allegiances, or his character.”
“But he’s proven he can ditch these monsters.”
“Is that how you wish to spend your life, running?”
“No, but I’m all about living to see another day.”
She has so little faith in me as a protector that she would rather entrust her safety to a stranger? Fury blazes through me. I try to remember that she waited every one of her tender twenty-three years to meet the varlet she calls father, and she is too trusting to believe he would use her thus. But I know better.
“I want that for you. I want to give that to you.” I take her hands in mine. “But I want a mate who trusts that I can—and will—care for her.”
Olivia shakes off my touch. “Yeah? Well, you’re not the only one who wants a mate they can trust. I’d like one who might have bothered to tell me we were essentially married. It would have been dandy if you also let me decide where I’m safest, since I’m an adult, not a blow-up doll. If I was making a list of the most attractive traits in a man, deceiving and controlling wouldn’t have made the cut.”
“I already explained that. I dared not stun you with the truth when you were recovering.”
She scoffs. “I also told you what I thought of that. Why couldn’t you be bothered to clue me in about our mating today? Did the truth slip your mind?”
“’Tis…complicated.”
“Yeah, I can see it would be hard for you to confess that you’re only with me because you think I’m your ticket to being curse-free.”
“That is not why!” Well, not the only reason.
“Really? Then what exactly made you answer my Mating Call?”
“I assume the same thing that made you issue it: ’Twas impossible to resist. I could hardly believe the strength of our connection myself, much less deny it.”
“Did you know what it meant when I said the words? I sure as hell didn’t.”
I hesitate. But lying will not dim her anger. “Aye.”
Her jaw drops. “You weren’t shocked?”
“I was.”
“But you said nothing? You asked no questions?” She scowls. “Because you thought I was Morgana. You believed you were binding yourself to the woman who cursed you. Despite the fact you were convinced I was your enemy, you answered my Mating Call. I gave you”—she chokes on her tears—“every bit of me. What we did… It mattered. Even after you realized I’m not Morgana, you stayed because, hey…if you can’t have the bitch who hexed you, well, at least you have a Le Fay. Feels great to know I’m nothing to you but the means to an end.”
I haul her against me and press our bodies together. “That is untrue. Hear me well, mate. This bond we share? I feel it, too. Every minute of every day, growing stronger and stronger. And I crave it—and you—more than you comprehend.”
“That’s exactly what I’d say if I was a manipulative asshole,” she mocks as she pushes me away. “The only things you ‘crave’ are a wet, willing hole and mortality. From now on, you can go to hell.”
Olivia stomps past me and marches down the hall. I let her go…for now.
“You will die without my touch,” I remind her. “You need me.”
She whirls on me, eyes narrowed. “I’ll die before I let you use me again.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Olivia
A few hours slip by. I spoke too soon. My need for Marrok wakes me from a dead sleep. My craving doesn’t care that he’s a deceitful bastard. My muscles ache. My skin feels tight. My insides burn. My body throbs for him.
Late October is chilly, so I roll deeper under the covers, closer to a beckoning warmth.
