Linked (Gilded Blood #3)

by Rachel Rener

“Because if you do not get your shit together and stop acting like a suicidal martyr, we are over. This,” he gestured between us, “will have never happened. On my mother’s grave, I will end it. Because I would rather spend every waking moment of the rest of my miserable fucking existence missing you than watch you kill yourself.”

“I didn’t fall in love with your body, Zayn,” I said softly. “I fell in love with your heart. With your mind. And I’ll wait as long as I have to, until we find a cure. Because it has to exist. It has to.” His hands fell away from his face, dropping to his side. “And if it doesn’t?” “Then we’ll be the horniest, most pent-up roommates that ever existed.”

But Talia”—his eyes flashed—“if this doesn’t work – if you’re in pain, or if the ink doesn’t hold – that’s it. I won’t risk your life, not even for love. And,” he added, before I could interject, “if you ever keep something like this from me again, I mean it…we’re done.” His Adam’s apple bobbed forcefully. “Not because I don’t love you. But because I love you too much to allow you to hurt yourself on my behalf.

He kissed me fiercely, stealing the breath from my lungs. “I am not unraveled by you. I am ruined by you.”

“No matter what happens,” he whispered against my lips, “whether in this realm or the hereafter, we’ll find one another – I promise you that.”

“In elven culture, marriage is a lifetime bond, of both body and soul.”