To Break a Demon Curse (King and Coven, #2)

by Madeleine Eliot

“Gods, Red, don’t you see what this means for us?” he asked. “There’s a reason we found each other. A reason we share this power. A reason I’m so fucking drawn to you that I can barely think around you.”

His eyes widened a tiny bit, as if he sensed the feeling, and he stepped closer. I stepped back, finding myself once again backed up against a damn wall. There were too many walls in this cursed place.

“Remember this, Red,” he rumbled between kisses as I panted and moaned for release. “Remember how well we fit together when I finally share all of my truth with you. Promise me.”

“Find your what?” I pressed. “Your mate of course,” Brigid said, popping the pastry into her mouth. “My…” I turned to Cerridwen, a dawning realization creeping through me. Cerridwen put her face in her hands. “Oh, he’s so going to kill me,” she said.

oh shit

“Of course, Elara,” Brigid said apologetically, glancing at the black stone around my neck. “Lady Cerridwen?” “I’m no lady, and we may as well drop the honorifics since we are both about to be soundly murdered by my dear brother,”

“I’m sorry, Elara. For the lies. For everything. For having to act the monster to appease my court, and for destroying the chance to build real trust between us. But if you’ll let me, I will gladly grovel in the same manner as tonight for a few hundred years until you have thoroughly accepted my apology.”

He stroked my hair gently, running his fingers over my scalp in soothing lines as I contemplated the truth: that I was fine. Better than fine in his arms. That I felt whole. And that terrified me.

“If I told you I love you, Elara,” he said quietly, still holding me fast against him, “would you run?”

“I probably deserve your silence,” he said. “But I do love you. And I’ll wait however long you need to hear you say it back.”

“And I think even if you hadn’t been my mate, I would have loved you anyway.”

“Stay with me, Elara,” Carnon breathed, looking at me with an intensity I now saw carried all of his feelings, his love. “Build a life with me here. Help me rule and protect my people, our people. Stay.”