Page 106 of A Study of Blood and Ichor

I stepped toward Ava quietly, fearful that I might catch her flinch at the sound of my approach.

Would she be too afraid to look me in the eyes? Would she even want to?

I made peace with the fact that she might wish to have nothing to do with me ever again should she choose. But I would not allow her to grieve alone.

My fingers twitched when I reached out and laid my hand against the back of her neck. I fully expected her to draw away or to run from me now that she understood what I was. But nothing prepared me for the feeling of her sinking back into my touch, as if she wanted it to envelop every part of her, whether she realized it or not. That simple, unspoken answer was enough for me.

And so we stared down at Rory together, sharing no words—nothing but the touch between us and the insurmountable grief that had burrowed itself into both of our hearts.

THIRTY-ONE

Ava

It felt like a hollow chasm had split my chest wide open. My entire body was numb.

I knelt beside Rory, my fists clawed into the fabric of his shirt. His skin was still warm.

When I looked down, the binding marks that had once been woven around our wrists were gone, and my hands were coated with his blood.

There was so much blood.

His arms were slick with it, and it had stained the stone patio beneath him crimson.

The echoes of my screams and Rory’s pulsed in my eardrums, and I couldn’t shake the image of Vain being ripped out of him, leaving Rory lifeless on the ground. My heart clenched when I pictured the look on his face, somehow knowing that it had been Rory’s choice—that he’d sacrificed himself to give Vain a chance to save us. It was a chance I didn’t feel deserving of, and that’s what hurt most of all.

I had caused this. I had led Ghen straight to us. Because of me, Rory was dead. I’d been just as powerless to save him as I had been unable to save my sister.

I don’t know how long I sat there like that, limbs heavy, just…staring at him, my heart shattered into millions of pieces. Everything around me felt distant, nothing more than muffled sounds ringing in my ears. The warmth that had been curled around my neck pulled away, leaving my skin cold. It was jarring enough to pull me from my daze.

Turning to stare up at Vain, I watched as Alastair approached him, melancholy, and handed Vain a thin charcoal-colored robe. Vain was completely unclothed, not a mark on his pale skin to be seen on his sculpted figure. He shrugged the robe over his broad shoulders, tying it loosely at the waist where I could still see the smooth, muscled planes of his chest and torso.

It was impossible to tear my gaze from him. Vain dragged a hand through his short icy blond hair and swept the longer strands in front to one side as he stared at me with dark eyes. The color of his irises appeared black, but in the right light they swam with color like an ever-shifting aurora against a midnight sky. There was something darkly ethereal about him, and though I could feel a cursed essence looming underneath his surface that made my skin buzz with an instinctive warning, I did not cower before him.

He was too beautiful to be mistaken for a human. He may have been the most breathtaking demon I’d ever seen.

“Is this a glamour you’re making me see? Or are you real?”

“I am very real. No tricks, no glamours.” Vain’s voice was so deep it was almost unnerving. He still had that same velvety smoothness as when he had possessed Rory. But it wasn’t Rory’s voice anymore. It would never be his voice again.

Towering over me, Vain’s gaze softened as he reached down and offered his hand to help me off the blood-stained ground. “Come with me, mellilla.”

I was reluctant to leave Rory’s side, but Vain insisted gently, so I took his hand. Even at my full height, I only came up to his chest in his new form. He had to be at least a full head taller than Rory.

With a wave of Vain’s hand over me, Rory’s blood vanished from my skin and clothes. The crystal-like shards scattered across every surface rose and reformed until each pane of glass appeared brand new. Every act felt as if Vain were wiping away the stain that Ghen had left behind, but even after all traces of him were gone, there was still one scar that remained that couldn’t be ignored.

Vain knelt and lifted Rory’s body, limp and lifeless, into his arms. Wordlessly, we walked through the penthouse together and brought him to one of the spare rooms. Vain set him down on the bed, and for a moment, I could have fooled myself into thinking that Rory was merely asleep—that his eyes might open at any moment, and he would look back at me and smile.

We left him there in that room and shut the door behind us.

Nesera and Alastair broke off into one of the other rooms, and Vain led me down the hall to his bedroom in more silence.

A large black stain greeted us on the rug when we entered, and I wasn’t prepared for the swell of emotions that barreled through me and the memories that came with it. The remnant taste of ichor lingered at the tip of my tongue and stopped me dead in my tracks, but Vain gently laced his fingers through mine and led me across the room toward his bed.

It was odd how Vain should have felt like a stranger to me, but he didn’t. I knew his heart as he knew mine. The demon was the same as he’d always been, even though his appearance had changed.

I sat myself on the edge of his bed and Vain knelt in front of me. My limbs buzzed, the tingling numbness spreading higher and higher until I felt it tighten around my lungs. Everything felt light and sharp.

“You need to breathe, Ava,” he said, stroking a hand down one side of my face. “Breathe for me.”

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