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I was both disappointed and relieved at the same time. “I’ll leave Fang with you. That way, we can keep in touch.”
“I know your father has done terrible things, but he would never hurt you or your brothers.”
“I’d like to believe that as well, but I’m not sure anymore.” I wasn’t sure of anything anymore—except this. There was distance between us, but the thread that kept us together remained unbreakable. A million things could have ripped us apart already, but we always held on.
“I’ll heal those that I can. Gather up the missing villagers. Bring them back to full health. We’ll need all the help we can get to take back the kingdoms from the werewolves.”
I nodded. “I’ll come back for you. But I won’t leave you unless you make me a promise.”
“Alright.”
“If the werewolves return, I want you to take a horse and run.”
Her stare was empty.
“I don’t think they will. But I need to know that you’ll run if they do. We would have lost that last battle without our army, so there’s no way you would be able to handle another assault with nothing but weak and injured soldiers. And it’s not worth dying for.”
She finally gave a nod. “I promise.”
“Then I’ll leave you.” I turned away without saying goodbye, prepared to grab my horse and ride away without looking back.
Her hand grabbed me by the arm.
A flush of joy moved through my chest, relaxed all the muscles in my shoulders.
She tugged me back to her as she rose on her tiptoes, cupping my face so she could kiss me.
The second I felt her mouth on mine, my arm hooked around the small of her back, and I tugged her into me, squeezing her hard armor against mine, not feeling her flesh but her curves.
It was the best kiss we’d ever had, an ache between our lips, a desperation that showed the depth of our love in the midst of turmoil. My aches and pains faded away, some from the battle we’d just fought and some from the battle of our heartbreak. My hand dug into her hair, and I continued the kiss like no one else was there, like it was just the two of us locked in our newlywed bliss.
She pulled away, her forehead against mine. “I love you.”
“I fucking love you.”
23
CLARA
Cobra had been gone for weeks.
I thought of him every day he was gone, longing to see his face, to see that smile as he made some inappropriate comment. His absence was supposed to help ease my decision, but it only swayed me even more.
How could I have fallen for a man so deeply, so quickly?
Did that make it less real?
Or more?
My brethren spent their time making their own decisions about their mortality. Some had become so comfortable with immortality that becoming a nightwalker was their only choice. Others chose to live out the rest of their lives as humans. And others…chose to opt out altogether. Too horrified by the reason they were alive, they chose to take their own lives and pass on the way they should have thousands of years ago.
The Ethereal way of life was over now.
We would divide into two groups, half of us joining the Kingsnake Vampires in their coastal town, while the other humans would remain in this forest or find a new life in the kingdoms. It would never be the same. It already wasn’t the same.
Now that I no longer had a study, I sat at a table near two mighty trunks. Since the Ethereal were about to be disbanded forever, it didn’t seem necessary to have a throne or an office…or anything at all. We’d already become a disorganized people.
Down the path, one of the guards ran, coming straight for me.
