AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m not asking to go out on my own. Couldn’t you keep me safe?”
“In this world, there is no guarantee of safety.”
“Not even in the Keep?” I say sardonically.
He runs his fingers through his hair and my eyes glue to his bicep, because as angry as I am, his very presence is magnetizing.
“It’s the safest place you could be,” he says.
“Seriously? You think the safest place is locked in a bunker with the deranged man that raised the dead? He’s like…a necromancer.”
Gabe snickers. “Never thought of it like that.”
“A part of me wants to hate you, but I know that you think you’re doing what’s best for me, and that’s more than my father and Frank ever did.”
His hands tighten into fists. “I think it’s best you never utter that name again.”
“I’ll give you that, but you can’t have everything your way.”
He lets out a humorless laugh. “Don’t be so dramatic. I think you’ve been getting plenty your way.” His eyes travel down the length of my body as if to emphasize his point.
I frown. “Sorry to put you out so badly.”
“Some things are easier to accommodate than others.” He winks at me, and I feel my cheeks tint pink.
And then I see him. The boy under Gabriel’s tough exterior.
He’s not a monster. Or he wasn’t born one. Any other man would take obscene liberties with my body. Gabe is holding back, not to punish me, but because he thinks I deserve better.
He’s the purest soul in this filthy world, and it’s me who’s corrupting him.
God help me, I live for it.
But that will have to come later.
“Would it be so hard to take me outside?”
“In a word: yes.”
“I need to see what all is out there. What those things are like. How hard they are to kill.”
“Then ask.”
“If you don’t take me out, I’ll resent you until the day I die.”
“I’ve already come to terms with that.”
“You don’t get it, do you?”
“No, I don’t, but that’s because I know what’s out there and how fucking terrible it is.”
“Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve been told what to do and how to think. I’ve never been allowed any form of autonomy. And then you come along, claiming to rescue me, but you’re just the same as everyone else.”
He stares back at me as though I’ve wounded him. He’s just as caged as I am, though he’s not given a shield of victimhood to hide behind.
Instead, the world dubs him ‘villain’. Or at least the old world would have. His people use the word Keeper.
“You can bring me to the Keep kicking and screaming.” I fold my arms over my chest. “Or you can bring me willingly. It’s your choice.”
