Page 96 of A Tempest of Shadows

She’d also worry about how it would all end, and she already had enough to worry about. I couldn’t heap this onto her already overflowing plate.

Plus, I wasn’t ready to share us with the world. I loved our bubble and wanted to remain tucked within it.

Ryker had asked multiple times for me to spend the night with him at the castle, but I couldn’t leave my mother alone in the manor at night. I was too scared I’d return in the morning to discover someone had taken her while I was gone.

It didn’t make Ryker happy, but he understood why I couldn’t join him, even though I longed to spend the night in his embrace again. Sometimes, I yearned to return to the tree house where everything was simpler, and we could be together without any thought about all the things that could tear us apart.

Despite my growing love for Ryker, I knew our lives could never be anything more than this. However, I was determined to see this train wreck through to its fiery, brokenhearted, and possibly bloody end.

Today, while we’d started out hunting in the woods, things had quickly changed when Ryker placed his hand on my back. I kept expecting my hunger for him to dwindle with time, but if anything, it was becoming more intense.

We’d been exploring a rocky section of the forest, heavily populated by ghosts who spent far too much time watching for my liking. Because of that, Ryker brought me to his rooms in the castle.

When we finally untangled, I fell back on the bed and curled against his side as he wrapped his arms around me. Closing my eyes, I savored his warmth and scent while snuggling closer. There was nowhere, in all the realms, I’d rather be than with him.

His bed was large, inviting, and the most comfortable one I’d ever lain in as I burrowed beneath the thick, red blanket. The comforter was the only inviting thing about his rooms.

Everything else in his apartment was stark from its barren rock walls to the wood furniture with all its sharp angles. Even the two bathrooms were austere, as were the sitting room, den, private meeting area, game room, and kitchen, where he kept a small supply of drinks and food.

All the furniture in the other rooms was dark and dreary; nothing hung on the walls, and no pictures sat on the tables. There wasn’t a single plant in the place.

The sprawling apartment took up almost an entire castle floor and was about the size of my manor, but nothing about these rooms spoke of Ryker. The only thing of him in here was his scent and clothes.

The floor-to-ceiling windows let in plenty of light, and from where I lay, I could see the sun glinting off the lake nestled in the valley of the mountains behind the castle. It was a beautiful view, but it didn’t ease the feeling of coldness these rooms created.

Rolling onto my back, I stared at the ceiling as he rested his hand on my belly and kissed my shoulder. After our first night together, I started taking valovay root from the woods for birth control, but when his hand landed on my belly, I couldn’t help pondering what it would be like to have Ryker’s child growing inside me.

Get that out of your head. It cannot happen.

It was true, but sometimes, I couldn’t stop myself from dreaming about a future for us. It was a good way to ensure the heartbreak to come would be worse.

“Why don’t you decorate this place and make it more yours?” I asked.

“Because I hate it here, and it will never be mine.”

“But if something ever happened to your father, it would be yours.”

“If that ever happened, I’d demolish this place, piss on its ashes, and rebuild somewhere else. And the whole time I was doing it, I’d hope he could see me from his place in Hell.”

It was clear they didn’t like each other, but the venom in Ryker’s voice revealed the true depth of his loathing for his father. I shouldn’t press him on it; whenever I brought up his father, he changed the subject or kissed me.

However, I wanted to know more about him and help him… if I could. Though, I didn’t know what I could do to help other than listen.

“Why do you hate your father so much?” I asked.

CHAPTER EIGHTY-TWO

Ellery

Ryker sighed and rolled onto his back. When he draped his arm over his forehead while staring at the ceiling, I was sure he was going to say we should return to hunting, get something to eat, or any number of things that meant he wouldn’t have to talk about this.

Propping myself on my elbow, I gazed at the vein throbbing in his temple. This was the longest he’d gone without providing a distraction after our conversation turned to his father. While mentally prepared for him to say it was time to go and I’d have to crawl out from under the warm blanket, I was also hoping for an answer.

“My mother died when I was six,” he said.

Sorrow for him clenched at my heart as I rested my hand on his chest. It devastated me when I lost my father. I would have given anything for more years with him, but at least I was grown when it happened. I couldn’t imagine losing my mother so young.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.