Page 268 of Black Reign

“You probably own a first edition.”

“I do.”

I look at him.

“And you kept this?”

His expression suggests the answer should be obvious.

“You gave it to me.”

My chest aches.

“It was a clue.”

“It was mine.”

No.

That is worse.

I lower myself onto the sofa with the book in my lap.

Xavier sits beside me.

His thigh touches mine.

I open automatically to the marked passage.

There it is.

The line I underlined.

My only love sprung from my only hate.

Xavier reads it over my shoulder.

“You could have chosen something less dramatic.”

“It was accurate.”

His eyes shift to me.

“All of it?”

I know exactly which word he's asking about.

I close the book.

“At the time, I didn’t know.”

“Know what?”

“How much I hated you.”

His mouth twitches.

“Comforting.”