Page 67 of The Duke’s Bloody Bargain

I trailed my fingers over her cheek, jaw, and neck. “Think about something else.”

I loved her soft and rosy skin, the happiness of holding her, and the way she cared about others. I loved how patient she was with me, how caring. I loved how strong she was. I loved her.

“I love you, Irene.”

She flung her eyes open. Our bond pulsated faster, pulling us closer.

“This is hardly the most romantic moment to tell you.” I laughed nervously. “But it’s true. I’d wanted to tell you for a while, and like a fool, I searched for the perfect moment to tell you. But there’s no perfect moment. There’s only the perfect woman. I would do anything to make you happy. I’m so ashamed of what I’ve done. You’ve forgiven me so many times. I have no right to beg for your forgiveness one more time. But I am.”

“Alex.” She leant into my palm, and the only sensation I felt was the softness of her cheek and the immense love for her.

Our bond spread light between us.

“I don’t want to lose you. Tell me what I can do to make you stay.”

She tentatively cupped my cheek, and I trembled hard, but I refused to give in. She deserved all my strength and focus. The snake pointing at me started to grow larger, but then it shrank, and its movements became less fluid.

“I don’t want to leave you,” she said. “Never.”

I dipped my head and captured her mouth in a long, lingering kiss. She hugged me fiercely, pressing her body against mine. I waited, expecting a new tremor to course through me, but what came was a little quiver that did nothing to take me away from her.

The snake coiling around us dissolved and became nothing but a smoky trail, and the weight in my chest lifted.

I laughed, a happy, bubbling laugh, right when a ray of sunlight shone through the fog for a moment. I enjoyed its warmth and the way it made her hair flicker with gold.

Irene rested her cheek on my chest and wrapped her arms around me.

I kissed the top of her head. “I would love to stay here⁠—”

“In the fog?”

“As long as you’re with me, even the fog is perfect, but we’ve lost our mage, Cara is who-knows-where, and the house is full of snakes.”

“That’s not an incentive for me to go inside.”

“I agree but consider this.” I kissed her again, more fiercely. “We know how to defeat the snakes.”

25

POWERLESS

Alex

Irene and I could walk faster after we’d faced our fears. The tiredness was gone. The snakes lurked around but didn’t attack us. They slogged through the fog as if disappointed. We both exhaled when we stepped into the entrance hall where the fog was less dense.

“Darius?” Holding Irene’s hand, I led her up the stairs.

My voice didn’t echo in the high-vaulted ceiling as it usually did. The fog muffled the noises.

“Darius?” we called together.

“Alex!” Darius came running down the stairs. “I thought I had lost you. I couldn’t find you. And I had all these visions of me killing you accidentally or of Irene dying, of Myrtha dying… It was a nightmare.”

“It was the same for us,” I said.

He ran a hand through his messy hair. “The snakes are feeding on⁠—”

“Fear,” Irene and I said together.