AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My chest was full and warm as his words found me and sank in. “I’ve been waiting a long time for someone to say that to me, but I never knew it would feel like this.”
“I should’ve told you so much sooner, but it scared me, how much I loved you. And I…didn’t think it was possible you could love me back.”
I smiled gently. “Well, I do. I love you so much, I can’t see where it ends. I don’t think it does.”
“But…how?” he asked brokenly. “I betrayed you. I brought those demons into your world…”
“And now you’re prepared to suffer for an eternity for it. Fuck that. There has to be another way. What Eisheth said—”
“No.”
“What the hell else am I supposed to do?”
“You stay here and live your life.”
“And what kind of life is it going to be knowing you’re suffering?Forever? I can’t give you up to them. I won’t.”
“You can’t come with me, Cole. I forbid it.”
“I hate to break it to you, Ambrosius, but you’re in no position to forbid anything.”
“You’re just saying that because I can’t move.”
I laughed through the tears, and then there were only tears. “How can I say goodbye to you? I can’t do it, Ambri. They’re going to hurt you…”
“Likely, but you can’t sacrifice your soul to pay for my misdeeds. You have to protect yourself, protect this life that you have. It’s precious. Don’t make the same mistake I did. Don’t throw it away.”
I shook my head. “I have to protectyou. Save you, somehow…”
“You already have.” Ambri smiled. Through blood and tears and pain, he smiled. “You showed me how beautiful life is. At the Eye, the museum, just being with you. The pain makes the joy even more precious,” he whispered. “Live it, Cole. Live fully and that’s how you will save me. Not by following me into the dark.”
Love for Ambri, so profound, washed over me and through me. In the most dark and lonely nights, I’d dreamed of what it must feel like to love and be loved so completely. But my imagination—that people paid millions for a piece of—couldn’t come close to creating this feeling. Becausehewas so much more than I’d imagined. The depth and beauty of Ambri was boundless…and about to be consigned to eternity in some hell. Lost forever.
“No. No, I can’t.” I got up off the bed and gripped the poker tighter. “I’m not letting them take you. I’ll stay awake as long as I can and then when you’re better, we’ll leave. We’ll get out of here—”
“There’s nowhere we can go that they can’t find me,” Ambri said. “Put down the bloody stick and lie with me. I have a few more demands to make, and in my current state, you can’t deny me anything.”
I looked to him helplessly. “Ambri…” I whispered. “I’ll fall asleep.”
“I know, love.”
The finality in his words fell over me like a shroud. I lay down beside him, as close as I could, our foreheads nearly touching. Grimacing in pain, he slowly brought his arm up, bent at the elbow, and I clutched his hand in mine.
“To set the record straight,” he said, “I never touched anyone else. Not since the first night I brought you here.”
“I know you didn’t. And I think Lucy was right, that you didn’t write that letter either.”
“What letter?”
“It’s not important.”
“Armand,” Ambri said after a moment. “The ‘master’ forger. Whatever you read came from him. But I did try to break your heart, and for that I’m so very sorry.”
“It’s breaking now,” I whispered.
“Stay on topic, please. We’re talking aboutme.”
I smiled weakly. “My bad. Please continue.”
