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“You are killing me, Ember,” I growl back even as the words break my heart.
“I don’t understand. How? What is happening?”
“How do you not understand?” I demand as the blood continues oozing from my arm. It shifts in color, transforming from near-black to a dark red. “I couldn’t have been clearer.”
She stiffens.
“I’ve told you that being with you would destroy what is left of my honor, and yet you tempt me every time I turn around.” The words are toxic but necessary. Saving her does not have to come at the cost of losing her future. We can still break the bond with Taranus, find a way to heal her from the disease plaguing her human form, and return her home where she could, in fact, have a family. A life away from this world. Away from me.
“You told me that you were starting to not care what it cost. That you wanted me for however long we have left.” A tear slips down her cheek and I want to run myself through as penalty for ever putting it there.
“Spoken in a moment of weakness,” I reply. “I cannot help but believe you were put here, not as a second chance but as a means of torment for what’s left of the good in my soul.”
Ember lets out a sob and covers her mouth with one hand. “Then you should have left me to die!” she screams. “You could have left me alone, and then none of this would matter! Taranus would be dead. You would be free of me, and I would no longer be suffering!” Face red, she jabs a finger into my arm.
Yet I barely feel it even as the contact made between us sets my body ablaze.
“You are the one who came and got me. You are the one who couldn’t just leave me be!”
“Because Conary had you!” I bellow. “Or would you rather have had me allow him to rape you?”
She stiffens.
I open my mouth to speak, but she shakes her head. “You are not the one who saved me from Conary, Rafferty. In case you’ve forgotten, you showed up late. Leaving me to die in that bed would have been the best thing for both of us, the best thing for Faerie, but you were too selfish to do that, weren’t you? Letting me die means losing the oath you swore when you said you’d protect me.”
And there it is. Selfishness. At least, she sees it, too.
I am selfish.
“You don’t want to be with me, Ember. You simply enjoy the idea of being wanted. Any man can give you that.” My stomach rolls. “I will break the bond you and Taranus share. I will find a way to heal you from your illness. And I will send you home.”
“No,” she shoots back. “I don’t want to be healed. I want you to take me home and let me die.”
“Not until the bond is broken with Taranus.”
Ember throws her hands up in the air. “Why! Why can you not just let me die!”
Because I love you.“Because I’ve no doubt Taranus has spies awaiting you over there, and the last thing I need is for him to finish the mating bond with you. And if the prophecy is true, if you are indeed what will make the next king, I cannot allow that to happen.”
“Leave me to die,” she chokes out.
“As you wish.” Turning on my heel, I stomp out of the tent, anger, anguish, and disgust churning inside of me.I could kill her now. Put her out of her misery. Take the life from her body—I shake my head violently, attempting to clear the thoughts from my mind.
As soon as they are gone, though, the image of her tear-streaked face comes forward.
I hurt her.
Deeply.
But if there’s any way to save her, then that pain might be what grants her a second chance. And if that’s the case—then so be it.
