She blinks, coming back.
I clench my teeth, swallowing the venom of hatred for the name, and the man who dares to call her that.
“It’s time to sleep.”
Her lips part, her eyes welling up with tears again. Her thoughts are starting again, and I know exactly where they’ll take her. So I cut them off with a curt order.
“Don’t think about anything. You need sleep.” I open my arms. “Now come here and let me put you to sleep.”
She hesitates.
“I said come here,” I command, my voice harder now.
She moves into my lap. I enfold her in my arms. A sigh drags itself from the depths of my chest. I have to keep her here, this is the only place I can keep her safe. Even from herself.
I press a kiss to her forehead, stroking her hair. “It’s time to rest, Princess.”
She closes her eyes.
Chapter 36
Elowen
My fingers stop on the keys when someone tilts my head with a gentle grip on my chin. Salvario.
“What’s wrong?” he asks, his brows furrowed.
No words come out.
“Why are you playing the same music on repeat?”
“Do you remember this?” The words come low from my dry throat.
He shakes his head.
“We played it together.”
“I don’t remember it. Something bad must have happened after we played it.”
I turn my head; his hand drops from my face.
“Yes. I kissed you, and you ran away.”
He chuckles. “That sounds like something worth forgetting.”
I stare at the piano, going back to the memories of another black piano and the roses around it.
“I’m not a good man, Princess. And you should stay away from me.”
“I know you’re not a good man. And I want to know what kind of bad man you are.”
Another day.
“I need nothing else at all.”
The memory melts into another.
“Promise me you won’t hate me when I kill your father.”
