“Oh my God.” Charley rose from her chair. “And you and your brothers had no say? No idea he’d made the deal?”
“My father was never one for consultation, particularly among his children. My mother was also kept in the dark.”
“What happened when he finally told you?”
Dorian’s chin dropped to his chest, and again, Charley wanted to go to him, to take him into her arms, to save him from the darkness before he drowned in it.
But she didn’t dare.
Instead, she returned to her chair and took a deep breath, trying to keep calm, knowing the story was only going to get worse from here. It didn’t help that the confession locked inside her was banging on the walls of her heart, desperate to break free. But how could she bring that up now? Her bullshit schemes, her struggles with Rudy, her father’s death… In the shadow of Dorian’s terrible past, her own bleak personal history felt like a fairytale.
“I suppose you never got the official tour,” he continued, “but Ravenswood is a precise replica of our estate in West Sussex. My father worked for years coordinating the transport of our furnishings. The table, the sideboard, the chairs, the art, all of it. Back then, there were only ships. Can you imagine?”
“Really?” It was all she could manage, the apparent shift in topics giving her whiplash.
“This room is a mirror image of the dining room we shared in England. It’s where we held our engagement dinner—an intimate gathering, just the family and Aiden. My mother sat where you’re sitting now, as proud and happy as I’d ever seen her, the fire crackling behind her. Colin, Gabriel, Malcolm—all of us toasted with fine wine and a decadent meal, revisiting family stories from our childhood, sharing our hopes for the future. The twins were there too—William and Fiona, the youngest Redthorne siblings, sixteen years of age. They’d always been enamored of Evie. And though she was in one of her low moods that night, I was still so happy, Charlotte. I truly thought it would be a turning point for us. For all of us.” He glanced up at her again, pain swimming in his eyes. “And it was.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, unsure what else to say. The torment in his eyes made her ache, her own eyes burning with fresh tears.
“Toward the end of the evening, when the staff had served the cake and we’d just opened the brandy I’d been saving for the occasion, there came a knock at the door. Father answered, promising us we were in for a rare surprise. The moment he ushered in the new guests, Evie bolted from the table in terror.”
“Her father?” Charley guessed.
“Along with his three sons. They’d come to honor the agreement—four royal vampires promising to sire the noble Redthornes, swiftly and thoroughly. It was a slaughter, Charlotte. A brutal, horrifying slaughter that forever altered the course of our lives. Yet for House Kendrick and its king, it was no more than a business transaction, over and done in a matter of minutes.”
Tears spilled unbidden down Charley’s cheeks, splashing onto her jeans. “What about Evie? She didn’t try to… to stop it, or change her father’s mind, or… anything?”
A dark look crossed Dorian’s face, and again his head dipped low. “In her father’s eyes, Evie’s desire for a normal life was an insult to her family and a dereliction of her royal duties. For the crime of falling in love with a mortal man, he ordered his eldest son to behead her. She turned to ash before her head even hit the floor.”
Charley gasped in horror.
“My mother and the twins did not survive. William succumbed to his wounds almost immediately. Fiona held on a bit longer. Long enough for me to go to her. Her last words, as she lay dying in my arms, her blood spilling through my fingers like bathwater… Those words haunt me still.Why didn’t you help us, Dori?”
Charley couldn’t sit there another minute. She rose and crossed the room, joining Dorian at the glass doors and reaching for his hand.
He stiffened at her touch, but she laced their fingers together anyway, holding tight. Eventually, he relaxed and leaned in close, his cheek brushing the top of her head, his body trembling with sorrow and rage and a bitterness that had been festering for two-and-a-half centuries.
God, she broke for him. Her heart and mind were shattered, his story hollowing her out inside. How had he lived for so long with so much pain? So much anguish? How had he not succumbed?
“Idespisethis room,” he said softly, his breath warm in her hair. “Before today, I can’t even recall the last time I set foot in here. Many times, I thought to burn it down, but I knew my father would only rebuild it. He always said it was a monument. To me, it’s nothing but a tomb.”
He pulled away from her touch and met her eyes.
“You absolutelyenchantme, Charlotte,” he whispered, cupping her cheek. “You have from the very start. Even now, it’s all I can do not to strip you bare, bend you over the table, and fuck you until it breaks beneath us.”
“Dorian…” She swallowed hard and closed her eyes, tears still streaking her face. Despite the darkness hanging in the wake of his confession, her body warmed at his sudden closeness, his seductive words slipping beneath her skin.
“Evie’s deception destroyed me,” he said. “Destroyed my family. And though she died in the slaughter alongside my mother and siblings, hers is a betrayal I willneverforgive.”
Charley opened her eyes and searched his gaze for a lifeline, a faint glimmer of hope, but all she saw was pain. Oceans and oceans of it, slowly pulling him under.
“Do you know why I’ve brought you here?” He slid his hand around the back of her neck, his voice taking on an eerie tone. “Why I’ve brought you to the one room in myentiremanor that turns my heart to stone?”
Charley’s stomach bottomed out, her own secrets and lies clawing their way up her throat. She had to tell him. No matter how foolish and childish, no matter how ridiculous her bullshit seemed by comparison, she couldnotkeep lying to him—not with words, not with omissions, not even with the stolen, breathless kisses that had started it all.
“Dorian, I—”
“I’ve brought you here, Charlotte, because in the face of yourintoxicatingpower over me, I need to remember the past. The mistakes. The utterlydireconsequences that come from entrusting one’s heart to a beautiful woman.” He tightened his grip and lowered his mouth to hers, his hot whisper a warning against her lips. “And you, my little prowler, need to learn that betraying the vampire king carries itsownconsequences. Deadly ones.”
