Page 91 of Fated to the Demon Lord

Somehow that caused me to feel worse instead of better. Every day for the rest of his life he’d be reminded of the horrible sacrifice he’d made for me. How could he ever forgive me for this?

His mate. The revelation should mean everything, and yet, it only tied Vaelor tighter to me and his pain.

He was bound to me, but didn’t want to be.

I might have discovered a torture worse than being abandoned.

But that was it, wasn’t it? I was cursed just as badly as Vaelor. Every bond I formed, I found myself ruining—with my horrible father, my mother who had to kill him and leave to protect me, my brother whom I was unable to protect. And now Vaelor, who gave his all for me and will forever remember everything he lost when he saw his reflection. Being with me, being near me, was a curse.

I was the curse.

The next day, I woke up and found berries and cooked fish waiting for me. During the day I read through the hedge witch book, searching for spells that could break Vaelor’s curse, but it was hard to concentrate with my mind always wandering to the woods, wondering where Vaelor might be and how he might be feeling.

On the second day, I chewed the last of the plant the healer had given me. My leg felt good, so I unwrapped it and bent it. A soreness moved through my joint, but other than that, it was healed. Gods, demon remedies were far and away better than human medicine.

Vaelor staggered out of the woods. I searched his body, but there were no fresh signs of wounds. Only an emotional devastation that went so deep it nearly broke me in two.

This was what I had done to the once proud and determined demon lord.

He fell to his knees.

I rose, forcing my healing leg beneath me, and rushed forward, slowly sinking to my knees in front of him. He leaned forward, burying his head in my hair, and I wrapped my arms around his body, holding him against me.

“I’m sorry,” I murmured. “I’m so sorry, Vaelor. All of this is because of me. You gave up so much and I—I wish you hadn’t.”

He jerked back to look at me, an anger sparking in his eyes. “What do you mean? You wish I had let you die? Are you that ungrateful?”

“No!” I ducked my face into his shoulder to hide my shame. “The sacrifice you made for me… I—your brother—I’m not worth such a heavy price.”

He drew a nail under my chin, tilting my face up to his. “You listen to me. Don’t you dare think there is something wrong with you or that you aren’t worthy. After I lost my mother, my wife, my child, my sister, I was nothing. I was dead inside—the only thing keeping me going was my people—my people who I know now were already dead. But you, Denara, have brought me to life. You may have killed my body, but you’ve brought my soul back from the dead. You’re worth every sacrifice, every scar, every cut.”

Tears stung my cheeks. His words struck me to my core, my heart lifting in a manner it never had before. If there was a way to break a curse, it was in the how Vaelor was looking at me. “Do I mean that much?”

His cool fingers moved against my cheek, brushing away my tears. “If I had to do it again, I’d do it and more to make sure you lived one more minute of life. I’d sacrifice every life, go through any pain just to watch you draw one more breath.”

“But why?”

“Don’t you know what you are to me? Don’t you know what we are? You’re my spark of life. I thought if I sent you away you’d be safe from me. But it’s too late. No matter where you go or what you do, my heart will be forever lost to you. I surrender myself to you, Denara.”

I pulled his face to me and kissed him. Our lips moved together. I expected it to feel different somehow, but it didn’t. His hands roved over my body. Gods, this male. This demon male I had once believed was a monster like other demons… was so much more.

He drew back, dropping his forehead to my own. “Is this all right? My body—it’s not what you’re used to.”

I touched his jaw. “I don’t have any qualms about you touching me.” I looked into his eyes and saw Vaelor. My demon. “I see who you are.”

He kissed me again, hard, and I melted into his grasp. “You are mine. We were always meant to be,” he said in a low voice. “It was my fault to send you away. You and I, Denara, are written in the stars.”

“You mean like destiny?”

“Erlinen didn’t hear the exact wording. There is more to the curse. More you don’t know.”

I sat up straight. “Tell me.”

“The specific phrasing was this:

All whom you love shall fade from your grasp,

claimed by fate’s cold and unyielding hand;