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DOMINIC
Ispent the rest of the drive trying to school my emotions because we had to face the priestess with the weight of something I never wanted Vin to find out. There was no reason for the heartache. We’d both decided, and I’d been living with every single decision I’d made.
He didn’t need that weight.
“I’m not mad at you,” he said, his voice so low I could barely hear it. Hardly even a whisper.
“I know.” It was so much more complicated than that. For both of us.
I’d been hiding it. I’d been hiding the reality of what I’d been carrying for years. And I expected him to have emotions about it, but now wasn’t the time.
“Then why wouldn’t you tell me?”
“When? When we were deciding if this would work? When we were discussing me claiming you and all of what that brought on? Maybe when people were dying every other day? How about while you’ve had your nose buried in books and barely come to bed. When exactly would you have liked me to bring up a priestess’ advice to not seek you out in this life? I’ve brought all this down on my head. Don’t you see? Everything I’ve done relates back to me choosing you, and you’re already carrying enough, knowing this life might be all we have. Why would I add to it?”
The hurt in his eyes was clear, but he didn’t argue with me, which I was grateful for. I didn’t have it in me to fight about the secrets we’d both kept throughout all of this. We both had them. I felt the weight of them when I probed the bond too hard, and there was no doubt in my mind he felt mine, too.
Who knew if we’d ever get to all of them? I tried to live in the here and now. I didn’t want to waste any more time on anger.
“I think it’s relevant to all of this. To the weight you carry.” He reached out as I pulled to a stop where the road dead-ended.
I avoided his touch and pressed my eyes closed. “I’m sure it is all connected, but I chose it. I made the best decisions I could then. I wasn’t going to give you more reasons to walk away.” I shoved the door open and turned toward the dirt path that led to her homestead, sliding my hands behind my neck.
He came up behind me. “Dominic.” His voice carried the weight ofmychoices, and I hated it.
“This isn’t your burden.”
“It’s notmyburden; it’sourburden, and you don’t get to keep it from me anymore.” He collected me in his arms, holding my back to his chest. He pulled my hands away from my neck and pressed his lips there. “You agreed to do this with me, which means we are doing it together.”
“But it’s more than you ever agreed to.”
“Do you think that matters? Do you think I didn’t understand how complicated all of this would be when I came to you?”
“This is different.”
He snarled against my skin. “We aren’t doing this like normal people. We are in it for good and bad. You marked me. Let me carry some of the weight now.”
“It feels like too much. I’m in too deep. Maybe you should run while you can.”
“While I can?” He spun me in his arms, all his teeth exposed, grabbing me by the throat. “Do you think I could stand to be away from you for a goddamn second? How well did that work out for us before the mark? And how well do you think it will work now?”
Hurt hit me in waves, and I would have drowned without his hands around my neck. Without his face in mine. If I couldn’t feel the intensity of his feelings in our bond, I would have lost it. It was all too much.
“I wouldn’t survive it,” I admitted, forcing my breath past the palm pressing into my Adam’s apple.
“Me either.”
“But you didn’t choose any of this.”
“I chose you. That’s enough.” He released his grip on me. “I hope it’s enough for you.”
I clutched at him before he could step out of my space and get away, fingers digging into his biceps. “I’m sorry.”
“Trust me?”
“I do.”
“We have to be a team.”
