Page 92 of To Vanquish Darkness

“Because of the wards?”

His eyes snapped to hers. “How do you know about that?”

“Ren. I told you, he?—”

“I came to tell you I’m leaving,” Theo snapped. “I need to find him. He wasn’t supposed to be at the castle.”

Amalie’s breathing quickened. “He was in Servon. He may have followed me, I don’t know.”

“I’ll find him.” Theo turned, but the idea of him walking out of the study and leaving the house made her feel as if a hand was clenched around her windpipe.

“Wait.”

Theo glanced back, and Amalie shoved her hand into her pocket and pulled out the ring she’d found in her mother’s box. She placed it on the desk.

His eyes locked onto the circle of silver, and he moved like a shadow in front of the desk. Theo picked it up and inspected it. “It’s not mine. Where did you get this?”

Amalie opened her uncle’s desk drawer and pulled out the ring she’d taken from him the night she’d stabbed him in the heart. “I know it’s not yours.” She placed his ring on the desk, and Theo snatched it up.

“Where did you get this?” he asked again.

“It was hers. She left me a box, and that ring was in it. I only just discovered it.” She scrutinized his face, searching for any flicker of . . . something. Recognition? Guilt? Theo’s face was a mask of stone. “She had been meeting a vampire, Theo, and then this ring?—”

Theo slid his own ring back on the ring finger of his left hand. Had she noticed that was where he’d worn it when she’d taken it from him?

As he straightened, Amalie felt the same chill from the hallway. When they’d found Penelope broken, crumpled on the stone. “Theo?—”

“This ring belongs to a member of my coven. I will find him.” Shadows seemed to press in around him, soaking into him like water on dry soil. The shadows around his eyes grew deeper, his eyes dark pools of midnight.

“Let me help you.” Amalie’s breath hitched. The idea of Theo leaving the house made the knot in her middle cinch so tight, she thought she might snap in two.

“Amalie, you can’t?—”

“You need to feed. I know. I can see it.” She thought of him with the knife in his hands. Ramon’s fingers against the blade. “You can—we can take care of it the way we did last time. Quickly.”

Theo seemed to groan under an invisible weight on his shoulders. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“You need to feed.”

“I’m well aware,” he growled.

“Then let me help.” Amalie rounded the desk and reached for him.

Theo caught her wrist, and she gasped as he pulled so fast and hard, her feet flew out from under her. Theo caught her waist, righting her. “It’s too dangerous.”

She shook her head. “You didn’t hurt me last time.”

“That’s not what I meant.You don’t understand.”

“Thenlet me.” She snatched her hand back, her eyes flashing. “I will not let you leave like this. You’ll kill someone.”

“If I stay, I’ll—” A strangled sound escaped his throat, and something tugged hard in her middle.

Amalie reached out and touched him. She’d never done it before, not like this. Not because she wanted to.

Theo froze, besides the rapid rise and fall of his chest, every part of him so still, it was as if he’d been cast in stone.

“You won’t hurt me,” she whispered. “I know you won’t.” Amalie ran her hands over his chest, feeling the beat of his heart through her fingertips. He was darkness. Deadly. And her body ached for him.

---