AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Gone.
I let out a long exhale, and eyes closed once more, I turned back toward the mirror. “You survived literal hell. You can survive this,” I murmured.
When I opened my eyes that time, I was greeted by a sight that clenched my stomach.
Aside from the slight pink scar which extended from my cheek down to my jaw, my face was flawless. A healthy shade without the dark circles and lines of worry. With a trembling hand, I reached up to touch it, struck by how smooth it felt against my fingertips. A slight glow in my eyes enhanced the speckles of color there, giving them a brighter shine than before. It almost felt like a caricature version of myself, after so many months of looking like death. I looked youthful.
Revived.
“Beautiful.”
At the sound of Jericho’s voice, I turned to see him looking in on me from the doorway.
“What happened? Why do I look this way?”
“The witch infused some of my vitaeilem into the elixir she gave you.”
I snapped my attention back to the mirror, studying the soft glow to my skin. As I palpated its smoothness, my finger landed on the scar again.
A flash of memory showed a monster with tentacles looming over me, slicing a blade across my face. Panic gurgled in my chest, as I scrambled to lift the hem of my nightgown and, beneath, found the scar of the words he’d craved there.
“I would kill him again, if I could. Over and over. When I heard your screams …” He shook his head, rubbing the back of his neck, torment and pain darkening his gaze. ““There is no corner of Hell I wouldn’t cross for you. No severity of pain I wouldn’t suffer. But when he hurt you …” His brow flickered, jaw clenched with anger. “I realized just how weak and vulnerable I could be.”
Vulnerable. The word didn’t belong to a man like Jericho. It didn’t fit with a man so implausibly magnificent. Powerful. “You were the one who gave me strength in that moment.” A wobbly shield of tears blurred his form. “You are my safe place. My home.”
He stepped into the room, closer to me, his proximity setting off a jittering surge through my muscles.
It didn’t make sense. I wanted to push him away and clutch him at the same time. My body felt in chaos, my heart clamoring as if for escape inside my chest. I closed my eyes, breathing through my nose.
Fingertips drew a soft trail over my arm. When I opened my eyes again, I saw black tentacles and red eyes, and that wickedly disturbing grin.
“No!” On a heaving exhale, I jumped backward. “No, no, no.”
“Farryn.” Jericho’s deep voice tugged me out of that dark space, and like an invisible curtain falling before my eyes, the monster fizzled away to his beautiful face, with the patched eye and scar on his lip. Brows furrowed in the telling lines of concern, he stared back at me.
Not Claudius.
Not the monster.
Jericho.
My protector. My love.
I rushed toward him, wrapping trembling arms around him, feeling his embrace tighten around me. Safe in his arms. “I saw him. I heard him in my dreams.”
“He’s gone, Farryn. He can’t hurt you anymore.”
“He can, though. I can’t get him out of my head. He was my nightmare because of Lustina’s memories, and he’ll continue to haunt me.”
A gentle hand smoothed down my hair, and with a grip of my jaw, Jericho urged my head back. “I will kill him again and again for you. Every time he hurts you. Every minute he haunts you. I will bring you back to me.”
“How?”
He curled his fingers into mine. “Stre vera’tu. When you feel lost, you say those words, and I will bring you home again.”
A tear slipped down my cheek, and I rested my face against his warm and solid chest. Jericho lifted me into his arms, carrying me like a child, as he made his way back to the bed. After laying me down gently, he climbed in beside me and pulled me into him. For a moment, I just breathed, taking in his calming scent and warmth. “Tell me he suffered for what he did. To me. Lustina.”
“I gave him an incredibly painful death, and still, it wasn’t enough. I would have punished him for eternity, had we not been trapped in that place.” He was quiet for a moment, his fingers tracing featherlight circles over my shoulder. “I’ve never felt a violence so fierce as seeing him hurt you. I’ve known pain, and I’ve seen atrocities in my life, but that moment has seared itself into my mind for eternity. It fucking broke me.”
