“Can we do anything?” I tilt my head back on his shoulder. “We can’t let people get hurt because one person was an idiot.”
“Unfortunately, this world is no longer in our hands, my love. We are forbidden to meddle in the lives of mortals. Also, that,” he nods towards the dull outline of the house in the distance, “isn’t real. This entire place isn’t. I can’t leave Chthonia. This is only a mirror reflection of the events.”
The curse,I realize.
“It’s all true,” he presses, mistaking my silence for anger. “Everything I showed you is accurate. I would not lie to you.”
I brush a kiss to his chin. “I know. I should have realized. It’s my fault you had to do all this.”
His fingers catch my jaw before I can turn away. He looks on the verge of speaking but seems to change his mind.
“Let’s go home,” he says instead.
“Can we go by the house?” I ask. “I know it’s not real, but...”
Searon redirects his body towards the light without being told. He moves with graceful motion along the path I took to get there. With the parting of the trees, Aunt Laura’s house comes into view. The stoic Victorian with the blank windows andendless walls of night. I can’t have been gone more than an hour, yet it feels like years since seeing its pale façade.
I note that my car isn’t in the driveway as Searon stops on the lawn. There are no tracks in the snow. The mound over the front steps hasn’t been distributed.
“It looks so normal from the outside,” I explain, eyeing a glowing second story window. “But nothing in there was right.”
“Humans don’t realize the stain they leave behind when they meddle with things they don’t understand,” he explains slowly. “It’s a human flaw.”
“Will she stay like that forever?”
“Echoes are a parasite. Even when the pockets close at sunrise, they will stay in their version of hell. They can’t be removed once they latch onto a place, except if that object of their attachment is burned.”
“So, the house?”
Vaelith shrugs. “Whatever she’s bound her soul to, I suppose. As long as it exists, any mortal who comes in contact with it will be absorbed into her madness. She will consume them and bind herself to their soul until they become a part of her.”
“If they let her in,” I murmur.
He nods slowly. “She would need them to accept her willingly. To invite her into their space and give her sanctuary in their blessing. It becomes a guest shielded from the heavens by your acceptance. Once it gets that invitation, you are no longer permitted through the holy gates. Your soul becomes null and void. You are tainted by association. It’s never wise to listen to a malicuri’s promises. They always lie.”
“Will you do that?” I tilt my face to search his. “If I let you in, will you consume and destroy me?”
He blinks like the idea had never even occurred to him. His dark eyes stare into mine, focused beneath the sharp furrow of his brows.
“My possession isn’t to only claim your soul, Rina.” His free hand captures my jaw, tips my face further to his. To the mouth he brushes over mine with every word. “I want your heart and your body. I want your days and your nights. I want to wake up with you in my arms and the smell of you to never leave my skin.” He nips lightly on my bottom lip. “I want your chair next to mine, your hand in mine, your name said with mine. I want my wife, Rina. And, yes, to own and destroy, and break, but only with your submission in our bed.”
My heart stutters in my chest at the sweet growl of his voice. The primal urgency in his eyes. I’m drowning in his heat, in the spicy musk of his scent.
“Why didn’t I release you when we were together?”
“It would bind you to me. I didn’t know what that would do when you left and your memory was erased. If there was even a chance it could hurt you, I wasn’t going to take it.” He sweeps back a lock of my hair. “I would rather remain a prisoner, Rina. I will live here in my isolation until man and beast are no more than dust before I let anything hurt you.”
We don’t speak as Searon maneuvers us away from the house. He takes the path back. I watch the trees, the glimmer of tiny, fluttering lights drifting through the branches. They hum and pulse every time the lights brush against the bark.
From the darkness, a majestic creature rises through the mist. Long, spindly legs stir the fog as it bows its massive head and tears the leaves off the top of the trees. Its sweeping antlers arch through the starry night, ivory curves similar to Vaelith’s.
The chomp and snap of glass shattering beneath a powerful jaw echoes through the forest, growing louder the closer we amble. Shards rain from above in a shimmering dust.
Vaelith pulls his cloak up over my head, shielding me as we pass.
“This place is amazing,” I murmur when I can see again. I lean back against the chest holding me and peer up through the branches at the shiny pieces of glass cut into leaf shapes. “Some parts of it.”
His lips touch my hair. “You will find your favorite places again.”
