Page 113 of Imprisoned with the Vampire King

"I'll deal with him," Dante said.

I'd never heard anything more romantic in my life.

twenty-three

OPHELIA

As soon as Callum and Kat were gone, Jazz cleared her throat.

"I know you don't want to hear this, and you don't want me to say anything," she looked at me, then River, before refocusing on me. "But River has hardly slept since we made it out of the prison. Since you nearly fucking died down there, he's spent literally all of his time trying to come up with a way to recreate your prison's magic himself, so you can be free of it."

There was a moment of tense silence before she continued.

"I get that your past was horrific, Ophelia, but it wasn't River's fault. He didn't know. Your dad had been lying to him, claiming that you were mentally unstable, for years before you told him what was going on. He knows he should've looked into it sooner. It's been killing him for the past century. You were both fucked over by the person who raised you; please try to find a way to forgive him enough that it doesn't destroy our family too." She gestured between us.

Not just between me and River, or her and Dante, but between all four of us.

By some fucked up twist of fate, we were all a family in ways I never would've expected.

I kind of wanted to throw up at the idea of letting River back into my life, but I was surviving a mate bond with Dante. Another conversation about the prison was a neutral way to start.

"I can try," I said quietly.

The way River's eyes lit up made my chest ache.

We had been close, at one point. It was a long time ago, but I still cared about him. He had been the only family member I had who even treated me kindly.

Dante released my hand, draping an arm over my shoulders like he'd done in the last restaurant.

I leaned into him, and tried not to think about the past while River explained his ideas.

They were good ideas.

Really good ideas.

But the complexity meant they were going to take time, and time wasn't something we currently had an unlimited supply of.

I was exhausted when Dante finally drove us back to our house. All four of us had ended up staying in the restaurant through dinner, with diagrams sketched over multiple fabric napkins. The napkins were burning a hole on my thigh, where they currently rested in a messy stack.

"How are you feeling?" Dante asked me, on the way.

He could probably tell that I was in a dark place.

The planning session and conversation with River hadn't been uncomfortable or painful for me in any way, but it had been completely and utterly exhausting.

There was too much to do for me to let mysef be tired, but I already felt like I needed another break.

"Wrecked," I admitted. "It's going to be a long night."

"It can wait until the morning."

I set a hand lightly on Dante's thigh. Touching him freely was different, but it felt right. "I appreciate the suggestion, but it can't. Callum seemed scared of Reaper, and you know as well as I do that the fae don't fear anyone. If he gets through the elevator's magic before we have a place to put him, we're fucked."

"Waiting twelve hours wouldn't be the end of the world."

"It won't be twelve hours. I'm never going to want to deal with this. The whole situation is just incredibly stressful.

Dante nodded.