AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Let’s go see the others.”
“Yeah.”
It was three nights later that Ansel came to her, appearing at her bedroom window like a ghost, rapping softly with two fingers. She opened the window on her balcony and welcomed him in with a kind of sad relief.
“Saber,” he said, and looked at her. His eyes were cool and detached, and he didn’t smile.
“Ansel,” she said, and had to stop before she said anything else, anything like ‘I don’t care what you’ve done or who you’ve killed, I want to be with you.’ She thought of Lozen and knew she wouldn’t. She smiled at him, a weak, sad smile.
The corner of his mouth twitched.
“I’m going to another one of my houses until you finish school in four months. Then, I’ve secured a spot for you at a summer painting intensive in Florence. Is that something that would interest you?”
“What?” Saber laughed ruefully. “I thought you were sending me to California, but now it’sItaly?”
“California is… too close. And your dad. You were right. I shouldn’t send him away if he wants to stay.”
Saber felt cold.
“Too close forwhat? I thought we were safe from Ysidra.”
“Too close tome, Saber.”
Saber stared at him, not knowing what to say.
“You need me that far away from you?”
He nodded.
“Why?”
Ansel looked at her.
“Because you’ve disrupted my life. Because I don’t think I can work if I know you’re close. Because Iknowyou’re not safe for me, and I’m not safe for you. I don’t want to hurt you, Saber. That’s what caring looks like for me. Staying away.”
She wanted to argue, to insist that they could figure it out, but now that she’d seen him kill, knew what he was capable of,she knew she couldn’t. It had all been a romantic game for her before. She had been stupid, naive. Now she knew that he was telling the truth when he said his love could be fatal.
Could itpossiblybe worth the risk?
Of course not.
But, still.
“So you get to decide what to do with me? Put me on a plane and send me away to some painting program I’ve never even fucking heard of?”
“I’m not trying to be controlling.”
“You don’t have totry, you just are. Send my dad away from a house he built, send me to Europe, send Lozen to USC. Because you’re avampireyou can just decide people’s fates.”
“It’s not because I’m a vampire, it’s because I’mrich. And anyway, your dad doesn’t have to leave now.”
“What if I say no? What if I refuse to let you send me away?”
Ansel blinked slowly at her.
“We could… tell your father the truth.”
“And what’s the truth?”
