Page 101 of Her Dark Promise

He left a few moments later and I soaked in the tub, watching the bleak sunrise.

Chapter eighteen

“You need to talk to him, your grace.”

“Pardon?”

I leaned back in my chair, held up, and stared at the beautifully crafted design of my cup, as Callum was standing next to my chair at the dining table. He looked just as tired as I felt. They all did.

Days had turned into weeks, and at this rate, none of us would survive another moment in this chaos. Of Bastian’s chaos.

“It has been this way for the past month and I don’t know what else to do. I have tried helping him. I have tried listening to him ranting about his hatred for you. I have tried beating him senseless because he seems to love fighting. But nothing, and I meannothinghas worked. If anything, everything I have tried has just kept pushing him over the edge of the cliff and soon he is going to fall off,” Callum finished as he ran a hand through his hair.

“You think I don’t know that?” I snapped, draining the full glass of wine in one go.

“I would never insinuate that I know more than you. I am merely stating that you won’t have a pet to play with any longer if he continues down this path.”

No, I wouldn’t, but it took me over three hundred years to get a grip on my reality. If I was being honest with myself, it had only gotten ‘better’ when Emilia arrived because I was terrified that I would harm her. I looked away and thrummed my fingers against the table, contemplating what to do. How to get him to fall in line and stop drinking?

“Ah, my elder brother, the drunk.” Soren lowered his eyes, and I could see that he was just as worried. Shit. I needed to do something. “I’ll be honest; I am at a complete loss.”

I stood suddenly and asked both of them, “Where is he?”

They both looked over to the entrance of the kitchen and right at that moment, we all heard the clanging of pots and incoherent shouting.

I walked to the door and called over my shoulder, “Leave us. I don’t want anyone interrupting.”

I continued without waiting for a response and followed the steps down to the lower level. If I didn’t know my way around, then I could have just followed Bastian’s grunts and words of profanity. I stalled at the entryway, not wanting him to see me just yet. He was bent over the sink and threw the piece of cloth he was holding as hard as he could into it, splashing water everywhere. His body was so tense that veins were popping up along his arms and neck. His curly black hair was damp from the sweat and tangled from running his hands through it.

He slammed a fist onto the counter and cursed, “Why God! Why would you do this to us! Have I not done everything that was asked of me? I was the perfect son—I—”

I rolled my eyes and made myself known.

“Do you really think that your god listens to your pleas? Or do you think that you are already in Hell with the Devil herself?”

He turned around so swiftly that he lost his footing and nearly fell over, but caught himself just in time. He narrowed his eyes at me, watching my every move as I leaned against the doorframe.

“Must you constantly glare at me?”

“Then you do not wish for me to gaze upon you at all.”

I scoffed and pushed off the doorframe, walking around the kitchen, casually looking at the ingredients laid out on the table in the middle of the room.

“Your brother is worried about you. Callum, as well. All that time alone must have softened him up. I was asked to come and check on you and plead to your higher sensibilities. Though I’m not entirely sure you have much going on up here,” I said, pointing to my head.

He flipped the knife casually, catching it by the hilt.

“Nothing going on?” He scoffed. “I think I have enough brains to know that I want to kill every last cell of it so I can enjoy the rest of my life. Here. Withyou.”

As if to add insult to injury, he reached over to grab a bottle of something and took a swig, keeping his eyes on me the whole time.

“You can’t continue drinking.”

“You drink all the time and no one stops you.”

“I’m immortal. Drinking is all I have.”

“And now it’s all I have.”

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