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He rolled his shoulders back, then scoffed. “Do you think I don’t care about you?” His eyebrows gathered together. “Because if that’s true, then I’ve done a poor job of showing you.”
My stomach fluttered, despite the dismal situation. “So you do?”
“Of course I do.”
My heart palpitated, mostly because I wanted to ask him what that meant, but at the same time, I didn’t want to sound like a child asking how he liked me because he could just mean as a friend, in the same way he felt about Erianna.
My stomach dipped when her name echoed in my mind. “What will they do to Erianna and Zach?”
He grimaced. “I don’t know.”
“We can help them.” I inhaled sharply, readying myself for the inevitable. I’d never wanted to be a vampire, but the more I tried to hide from my fate, the more it kept catching up to me. “Once you turn me.”
“You don’t want that.”
“It was our plan all along. You knew this was going to happen. This is what you wanted.”
Covering his wrist with one hand, he inhaled sharply. “Things got”—he blew out a tense breath, his eyes climbing to the ceiling—“complicated.”
My eyebrows pinched together. “What does that mean?”
His shoulders hunched as he stared above, refusing to answer.
“Give me your blood,” I demanded when he refused to answer me. “It doesn’t matter about the poison if I’m going to die anyway. Just suck me dry and gather your strength.”
“Then what?” he snapped, moving his intrusive gaze to meet mine. “We break through the door and fight our way through a small army of aniccipere and escape a heavily guarded castle?”
“My mom got away once.”
“She was in a better position than us.” He lifted his hands, chinking the chains. Somewhere in the distance, a pipe dripped water, and a rat scurried, squeaking into the darkness.
“It’s the only choice we have.”
“No, it’s not.” He struggled with his words, shaking his head. “You can tell them who you are. Sargon will forgive your sins and you can live.”
“He’ll turn me anyway, so who cares?”
He rubbed his temples, his tone sharpening. I’d never seen him so torn, as frustration burned behind his eyes. “With him, you can get away. Gain his trust, like you tried to do with us at first.”
Heat pinkened my cheeks, creeping through my body. “How did you know?”
“You went from hot to cold, then hot again ten times a day trying to play nice. It was amusing to watch.”
I licked my lips. “Then you know, I’m not good at it.”
A ghost of a smile crossed his mouth. “It’s that sharp tongue of yours, but I know you can do it. You need to survive this.”
“I thought you wanted me to be queen.”
“I thought so too.”
The silence was deafening. Slowly, I slumped farther down the wall. “I don’t want him to know who I am, and I will not leave you or Erianna and Zach to your fates. She’s been nothing but amazing to me, and honestly, you have too.” I let out a long exhale. “If I give up on you, then I’m just as bad as Astor.”
“Don’t say that.”
“It’s true. If I can’t forgive him for saving himself and betraying his friends, then how could I forgive myself for doing the same?”
“This is nothing like that!” His fists balled as he captured my stare from across the dungeon. “Don’t let some screwed-up sense of right and wrong get in the way of your survival. Do you want to die? Because they will take you outside and cut your head off along with mine, and all of this would have been for nothing.”
