Summoned to the Wilds (Villains & Virtues, #2)

by A.K. Caggiano

When he said all that mattered was that she knew he was doing all of this for her.

There were imagined tones of Amma’s voice in his mind, soothing and sweet, because surely she would understand, she would accept things as they were no matter how terrible, because she was soft and compassionate and forgiving and…and she deserved so much more than whatever the fuck he had dragged her into.

He could have sat there all day, the rain pattering against the window, just watching her read.

But home didn’t have him.

Damien rested his head against the door again. “So, I don’t have to kill anyone for biting you?”

There was nothing to be afraid of, she realized, not here and not anywhere. Not when they were together.

“I would just gladly be swallowed by endless darkness upon endless darkness if it meant not hurting you because I have never cared so deeply for another being. I cannot explain or understand how you have broken me in this way, but you have made me feel…things that are maddening.”

without Amma’s presence, there was a hollowness too that no sunshine could fill.

and feeling as though none of it mattered if she didn’t have what she wanted. If she didn’t have him.

T he world was cold and empty and dark, but there was a flicker of warmth, a small source of heat, and Damien reached out to it, pulling it close. It cuddled back into him, and he was, for perhaps the first time in his life, completely content.

It’s only a dream, a voice cooed directly into his ear with a sweet lilt. You’re safe. It’s all right. He couldn’t respond though he tried, but he knew it would protect him, it had promised, and he simply reached out again and held on.

How he could offer her comfort that she suddenly clung onto so tightly and simultaneously be the source of her pain,

“For you, anything,” he said, the words some of his most dangerous, and also some of his most honest, “but for me, you mustn’t cry.”

And he knew then, unequivocally, that losing all of it—losing her—was going to be even more painful than never having Amma to begin with.

Amma was in his arms, she was safe, she was kissing him, and he was complete.