She squeezed her eyes shut, pressing her forehead to the cold metal basin.
“Don’t touch me.” Her voice was hoarse, raw. She wiped the corners of her mouth, refusing to face him.
Deyric let go immediately, stepping back, leaving only emptiness in his wake.
“I’m going to kill him.”
The words weren’t spoken. They were promised with a low, guttural growl that vibrated through the air like a predator scenting blood.
When Emmaline finally turned, she saw how his muscles were tight, his breath coming in sharp, controlled pulls, and his hands flexing like he was already imagining them around Caelith’s throat.The emerald in his eyes had darkened as something deep and dangerous coiled behind them.
This wasn’t just anger. This was something far worse.
“I don’t care that he’s a Lord or that he funds my sister’s education.” Deyric’s voice simmered with rage. “I should have killed him years ago.”
“Deyric.” She tried to calm her beating heart. She couldn’t let him do this. He was a servant and not even a full-blooded Ellyllon. If he laid a hand on Caelith, he’d be executed.
He barely heard her, shaking his head, muttering to himself.
“But she begged me not to.” The muscles in his jaw twitched. “Said she hadn’t tried hard enough to stop him. That it was worth getting into the school of her dreams, and it wasn’t my place to punish him.”
He lifted his gaze, and Goddess above, his eyes were wild, burning.
“But if I had—” His breath hitched. “If I had killed him back then, he wouldn’t have hurt you.” He choked. “I could have protected you.”
“No,” she whispered.What do I do? How do I save him from this?
“I won’t make that same mistake twice.”
He turned toward the door, but she threw herself in front of him before he could take another step.
“You can’t do anything!” She couldn’t let him get himself killed overher. The Greymanes were too powerful, too deeply embedded in the Vale’s elite… andshewasn’t worth it. “Deyric, listen to me—”
“You are my mate, Emmaline.”
The words stopped her cold, and his hands landed on her shoulders, firm but gentle as he shifted her aside.
“It is my responsibility to protect you. To keep you safe.” His voice was unshaken, resolute. “I failed.”
His fist lashed out, slamming into the kitchen countertop with brutal force, causing the wood to fracture and splinter beneath his knuckles.
Emmaline recoiled, but he didn’t even seem to register the pain.
“I will see justice done at the very least,” he vowed. “Neither his family nor his money will protect him this time.”
Mate.The word reverberated through her body, settling deep in her bones like an undeniable truth.How had she missed it?
Deyric was already at the door.
“Stop! You’ve got it wrong!” Emmaline scrambled after him, her limbs still sluggish and unsteady. She had to stop him. “You aren’t my mate. You don’t need to do this.”
The moment the words left her lips, something snapped inside her, and a lance of white-hot agony drove through her chest. At the same time, Deyric doubled over in the doorway, his body folding in on itself as if he’d just taken a blade between the ribs.
“Emmaline.” His knuckles went white against the wall, gripping it like a man clinging to the edge of a cliff.
She had to stop him. She had to protect him.
“You aren’t my mate.” She forced the words out again, and her legs buckled as a frigid weight crushed her chest, spreading outward, sinking deep as ice threaded through her veins.
