Page 79 of Hunger & Harmony

I stare in silent disbelief.

“What . . . does that mean?”

It’s empty where his hands were. He rocks backward, not outwardly escaping my arms, but not staying, either.

“I know you won’t like this answer.”

“Does that even matter?” I whisper, and he averts his face.

“You are a Dissonant, Cadence.”

My stomach lurches. Dissonant sounds wrong. Bad. Even the way his lips curl around the word is like a curse, a plague on my name.

Is this why he pulls away? Because I’m unworthy of him? Somehow, I can’t fully believe that.

I gasp when a familiar warmth presses into my skin, and I grab the necklace through the nightgown. It’s not painful, but it’s warm. A warning.

His eyes fix on the pendant, and I follow his thoughts. The night he gave it to me feels lifetimes ago. It was the first time we kissed. It was the beginning of the end.

My tongue instinctively runs over my lips. It breaks his concentration, and his eyes find my mouth.

“Dissonants shouldn’t exist,” he continues, tone so far away, like he can’t accept his own words. “You hail from a bloodline of weapons.”

“How could I⁠—”

“Weapons against my lineage. A Dissonant can bond with a pureblood vampire.” His eyes drag up to mine, and his intensity wavers. He can barely whisper. “This bond was made to destroy.”

I swiftly step back.

“No.”

My head shakes, and I curl my arms around myself. The temperature plummets around us, and the cloying perfume of snapdragons sickens my churning stomach. He lets me back away. Suddenly, Selene’s hesitance makes so much sense. Am I a weapon? Am I a threat?

“No, I . . . would never destroy you. What . . .What are you saying?”

“Focus on the thirst, Cadence. Capture the thoughts, feelings, and memories that aren’t yours.”

Even as he says it, it comes into focus. I squeeze my eyes shut, hoping it’ll stay away. Crystallizing behind my eyelids, everything he’s saying expands like a bursting bubble in my mind.

Even as I desperately push it back, the thirst crawls back into my body, taking Niko’s shape and crowding into my bones. I shriek and stumble back into the wall, unable to tell where I begin and Niko ends.

Hunger. It grips me, and I keel over to shield myself. Something so inviting, so irresistible pulls me to it, but I can’t. I can’t.

Niko can’t.

He couldn’t feed. When I first stood before him, nothing else mattered. Hunger became frenzy, and the line between desire and madness blurred. He had to get away, but he couldn’t stay away. Each time blood was forced onto his lips, the need for me grew until the tightrope snapped.

The night I discovered him under moonlight and soft bodies.

The moment I walked away from him and his burdens.

The defiance sparked from decades of silent suffering.

My heart pangs, and I let my thrashing give way to silence. I can feel it. Not quite hear it so much as live these memories like they are my own.

I open my eyes.

The same man stands before me, but I know him so much better. How long he suffered, not just when I walked into his life, but every scar on his heart.