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“I was always supposed to kill you, butterfly.” His dark lashes dipped, his thumb glossing my lower lip. “But now, I will bring you the remains of anyone who tries.”
I could never regret taking her. Knowing her. Making her mine. Even if it meant deceiving her time and again. But I would forever regret all that had befallen her because of my relentless pursuits.
“All these years dedicated to enacting vengeance so as not to miss any minute detail, yet you’ve not an ounce of patience where this wife of yours is concerned.” Truer words had never been spoken.
“How astute you’ve grown, butterfly.” “No.” I flattened my palm over the glass and spread my fingers, ruining the scribbles I’d made. “The stupid was merely beaten out of me until my eyes opened properly.”
“There’s only so much a mere male can orchestrate, Tullia.” Venom coated every word that left his mouth. “And wanting you was never part
my wicked plans, so cease giving me so much credit.” The sharp stall of my heart made my stomach dip. “Your lies might
tempting, but they’re all ...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
“Then are your eyes open at all?” He backed me against the door to the balcony and pressed his hands to the glass on either side of my head. His own tilted, gaze searching mine. “I don’t think they are, wife.”
“If they were, you’d see that I care far more than I ever wanted to.” He laughed, but it held no humor. “You’d see that I feared for you. I’ve tortured and killed for you. I went insane with desperation to get you back, and I couldn’t, Tullia. I couldn’t reach you.” His chest heaved. “Every time I came close to sleep, it was stunted by terror.” He swallowed thickly. “By thoughts of what he might be doing to you, and you…”
That pricked like a thorn. I glowered at him in warning. “Tullia has done nothing to be ashamed of.” “To you, perhaps, but to her…” The steward who’d served my family since my parents had married looked up at the snow-swept sky. “Every decision she’s made led her to receive nothing but humiliation and brutality from the male she was so eager to find.”
I needed her to come back—no matter who she became in the aftermath—which meant I had to loosen my desperate hold. Somehow.
Florian had been the enemy since I’d first discovered why he’d wished to marry me, and Molkan had been the victim I’d needed to reach. Now, there was no such thing as right and wrong. There was only murder and malevolence and monsters at every turn.
“You made it leave, Tullia, when he’d thought he needed Molkan’s annihilation to make that happen.” “Winter?” I asked, studying the frost clinging like crystals to the vines and hedges. He didn’t answer. He rose, his intimidating height blocking the sun, and only said, “You also made it return.”
As realization settled too deep to be ignored any longer.
Orange brown eyes. Wine-red lips. Lord Hummington.
“I don’t think that warrants explanation.” He extended his hand for the dagger. My brow lifted. The heft of the weapon in my hand terrified, yet the leather hilt was comforting and warm. “Then you won’t think this does either.” I turned back to the male losing consciousness. And I woke him up by sinking the blade into the wound in his abdomen and twisting.
When he finally stepped back, I turned and seized his waist. Gazing up at him, I found myself without words. There were none, and there were too many. “Thank you,” was all I could manage to whisper.
He bit my upper lip and said, “Not even the energy rifts can take you from me.”
Rushed words released in a burst of breath. “I don’t want to be treated like a chipped toy that might break.”
And for reasons I was still trying to fathom, he was mine. Despite what he’d done and what he’d failed to do to me, this king was all mine. Acknowledging that, however silently, gave me the courage to give him what he needed from me—to voice exactly what I needed from him.
“My mate.” His eyes held mine as he licked my upper lip. “My wife.”
“My fucking queen.”
He grinned. “Exquisite creature.” He nipped, then kissed my finger. “I don’t want your forgiveness.” Our lips grazed with the edged whisper. “I just need your surrender.”
My breath caught. “Monsters do not dream, Majesty.” “Is that so?”
“Then why is it that when I close my eyes, all I ever seem to see is you?”
Florian set a bowl of berries before me. “Eat five of those, and I’ll tell you.” “You’re bribing me?” “You’ve not been eating nearly enough since you came back to me.”
Though it often thrilled me to see her riled, excited me even, I hadn’t the desire to poke until she unleashed her adorable wrath upon me. Not when the reason behind her anger was not fear but hurt feelings. Feelings always fucked things up.
“I trust you, though I likely shouldn’t yet. I trust you because I want to.” My thumb skimmed her lush lower lip. “Because never have I craved anything in all the ways I crave you.”
“For you, I would do far worse than wage war, and I do hope you’re finally beginning to understand that.”
My curse breaker and affliction used the toe of her boot to nudge a small rock. Teasingly, she said, “I’m looking, Majesty.”
Despite all I’d done, despite all she still refused to give me, it was me she’d materialized to. I was her place of refuge.
“Nothing, not even death, will keep me from being the only one who can see to your greedy needs.”
“That I’m so wretchedly in love with you, it’s both saved and damned me.” With vivid violence, I saw everything.
I saw it all in undeniable color—felt it invade the coldest parts of my heart with warmth.
“Forever my mate.”
accepting that this creature I was now bonded to in every unbreakable way would never change. Accepting that I didn’t want him to.
“I was born with a need that turned into a desire to move, if that answers your question.” “Survival,” I surmised, somewhat shocked he’d answered but unwilling to show it. He hummed. “You have indeed learned a thing or two about that, haven’t you?” “I have indeed,” I said, giving my gaze to the flames. “It changes you,” he said. “But instincts born from darkness are always better.”
I didn’t need to look to know that Florian was still watching. I could feel it. He was always watching, and I no longer minded. Truthfully, I never had. I’d merely loathed how much I enjoyed it, the constant caress of his icy attention.
“My only intent was making sure the mate my friend has found is not merely forgiving his betrayals because she seeks her father’s crown.” His truth struck a bruised nerve.
“You might not forgive him, but you’ve fallen in love with him anyway,”
“And perhaps that is enough to comfort us all.”
“What if I wish to stay in Hellebore?” I struggled to hold his gaze, tentatively adding, “With you.” Florian’s brows lowered. “There is no wishing required, butterfly.” He laughed, incredulous, then glowered and tightened his hold on my chin. “With me is where you will always be.” “Plotting and scheming,” I breathed, my smile trembling. “Plotting and scheming,” he repeated.
“Even hatred makes a home in the soul, butterfly. That is why we seek to eradicate it with indulgence and vengeance.”
It was a furious longing of the soul. A need to keep this forevermore. All I had to do was reach out and take it. Close the final gap and forgive him although there was no longer anything to forgive. It was merely myself I couldn’t forgive.
“Every realm will freeze over before I allow you to believe that I want to do this without you.” Unable to stop myself, I gripped his wrist. “Do what?” “Live,” he said,
I was a grown male. A king. Yet my queen could reduce me to a surly beast with far too much fucking ease.
“You wear it beautifully, darling.” I didn’t need to ask what she was referring to. The traitor brand likely drew many eyes to my exposed back, but I didn’t mind. If anything, I hoped they looked. I hoped they knew that I was no longer afraid or ashamed. That I wore it with pride.
