Page 19 of To Sway a Demon Heart

“He believed that pain and fear were the only ways to win obedience,” Tyr continued, voice steady despite the difficulty he must have in explaining. “And he made sure that the marks were a permanent reminder. He would salt the wounds, or grind glass into them to keep them from healing.”

“I hate him,” I seethed, feeling pure fury writhe through me in response to this story. I looked up to meet his eyes, which were soft despite the pain. “How did he not twist you into a monster?”

Tyr scoffed, but there was little humor in the sound. He looked away toward the ceiling above us. “Many would say he did, Brigid.”

“Many are wrong,” I asserted, lifting a hand to turn his face back to mine. “You aregood, Tyr. You are not like your father.”

Tyr swallowed, looking both pained and relieved. “My mother sheltered me from him as much as she could,” he went on, his voice weaving melancholy into his tale as surely as the howling wind outside. “They were mates, but I think she hated him in the end, for what he did to me.”

Tyr sighed, and I stroked my hand over his chest again. “You don’t have to tell me any more,” I said gently, realizing that the scars on his body were likely far more superficial than the ones I was asking him to bare in his soul.

He shook his head, kissing the top of mine. “I will tell you anything, mate. Everything.” Hearing him call me mate, claim our bond for what it was, soothed a ragged edge in me I hadn’t realized was still there.

“She had an affair,” Tyr continued. “With a mortal man. He found out and he killed her. He ripped out her throat in front of me. I was eight.”

“Goddess above,” I said, remembering that he didn’t want pity. “However your father died, it wasn’t slow or painful enough.”

“Believe me, it was,” Tyr said darkly, something cold sliding into his tone that chilled me a little. There was a darkness in my mate, one I had sensed throughout the Court of Blood, and one that I hoped my own brightness would be able to someday banish. “Anyway, he killed the man my mother had taken up with as well. I felt responsible for the man’s family. For years I snuck them food or money, anything I thought might help. One of his children and I became…close.”

Tyr’s words from the dinner in Oneiros came back to me again.

He killed her. He said she was just a mortal. That I could dally with another. That they were all the same.

“Your father killed her too,” I said gently, laying my palm flat on his scarred chest.

Tyr nodded, and I heard him swallow as if the memory were too difficult for him to verbalize. “That was when I knew that I would kill him,” Tyr said. “It was years later that I finally did it, when he suggested killing another child.”

“Carnon,” I said, remembering his truth.

He nodded. “I knew then that he couldn’t be redeemed. That he had lived too long and lost too much of his soul to continue existing. I was a coward for waiting so long to end him.”

“No,” I argued, sitting up and gazing down at him. The sight of his bare flesh ignited another fire in me, and I willed it to cool until later. We would have plenty of time for all of that. “It’s not cowardice to hope that someone can change. To want to wait until you have no other choice.”

“There were other victims,” Tyr argued. “People I could have saved if I had only done what was needed sooner.”

“You can’t know that,” I argued, putting a hand on his cheek. “You can’t carry the weight of all the world’s fate on your shoulders. You are not your father. His crimes are not yours to pay for.” Tyr looked away, and I leaned down, pressing my lips to his as I snuggled back into his warmth. “Is this why you pushed me away?”

Tyr barked a laugh, looking at me incredulously. “This, and about a thousand other reasons. The Lady of Sun deserved better than someone with so much blood on his hands.”

“The Lady of Sun doesn’twantanyone else,” I reminded him, dropping a kiss on his straight nose. “Shedeservesto be with her mate. As do you.”

“It is an honor I am not worthy of,” Tyr said gruffly, his voice still choked with emotion.

“You’ll just have to take my word that you are,” I said lightly, kissing him again and trying to pour my love for him into the kiss.

That’s what this was, I realized, the notion crashing into my head mid-kiss. Love. I tried to ignore the bubble of panic that rose in me as I realized that neither of us had said it, and I had no idea how to bring it up. Mates fell in love. It was totally natural. But perhaps I would wait for him to say it first.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, sensing my momentary distraction. He cupped my cheek, looking at me like he couldn’t quite believe I was there.

That I was his.

“Nothing,” I said with a small sigh as I looked down at him. I leaned down to kiss a spot beneath his jaw, enjoying the scent of him that was spicy and male and now altogether mine. “What made you change your mind?”

“It wasn’t a matter of changing my mind, Brigid,” Tyr said, smoothing a strong hand over my back and sending goosebumps over my flesh. “I never wanted to push you away.”

“Then what made you stop running?” I asked, flicking his pointed ear. He chuckled, capturing my hand and pressing kisses to the knuckles. “Did my inexpert kiss before the second trial finally sway you?”

“I honestly don’t know,” Tyr said, raising a brow at me. “Part of it was probably that.” I smirked and he flicked my nose, which I scrunched at him in protest. “Part of it was seeing Draven be so brazen with his interest.”