AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I caressed her face as I held her gaze. “I love you, Macy.”
She gasped. “Do you mean that?”
“Yes, I mean that. Of course I mean that,” I assured. “And I’ll mean it for the rest of my life…”
Chapter 23 - Macy
One Week Later
I sat at the lake’s edge with my feet buried beneath the surface of the water. Cool temperatures always had a way of calming me down in the wake of anxiety. It was something I used to like doing back when I’d been held captive by Percy.
The wind brought the scent of azaleas. I smiled as I faced the breeze, closing my eyes as my love drew closer. I heard him sit beside me and untie his boots. Within a few minutes, he had dunked his feet into the water with mine.
My smile widened. “Thanks for coming out here.”
“How can I deny any of your requests?”
I laughed. “You’re always welcome to say no.”
“That’s good to know, little wolf. But I don’t ever want to do it.”
“Why are you like this?”
Since I’d woken up from that coma, I wasn’t as worried about Juriah leaving me. A man who was as powerful as he was, who had chosen to sit by my side while I was useless, wouldn’t dare abandon me. I knew that now.
Yet I still wondered why he was being kind to me. “Sorry.”
“No, don’t be sorry. I understand.”
“I don’t think you do.”
Some agitation sprouted in his expression. He took my hand and traced my knuckles with his thumb. “Explain it to me, then.”
I took a deep breath. And then another. And then a bigger one. I couldn’t stop my fingers from shaking, but that didn’t matter because Juriah was hanging on to me. He wasn’t letting go.
At the very least, that assured me I wouldn’t drift away once the memories started taking hold. “You told me about what happened in Estaria.”
“I did.”
“Do you still feel guilty?”
He glanced at the water, ripples echoing from our conjoined feet. “Yes.”
“I still feel guilty about a lot of things. Like…” I faded for a second as I blinked away a sudden onset of tears. “Like there was this girl once who was forced to live with me for maybe a week. She was sold after being broken in by Percy.”
“That sounds awful, but that’s not your fault, Macy.”
I took a shaky breath. “I know. But I still felt responsible for her, you know? Because I held her when she cried at night.” I shivered. “There were so many girls. There were so many things I had to watch those assholes do. I can’t believe I was ever faithful to them.”
“Did you love Rick?”
I stared at him for a second, the randomness of the question taking me off guard. “Why would you ask me that?”
“While you were unconscious at the cabin, Percy said you loved Rick.You tell her how you made me kill her lover.”
I shuddered. “Goddess, I knew Rick was dead, but I didn’t know Percy had killed him.”
“Galanthia injured him gravely. He was bleeding from many wounds.”
