Page 130 of Her Dark Promise

“Why would I do that?” He stretched and laid on his back with a hand resting behind his head. “This is more comfortable than that blasted couch.”

“Then go back to your chambers.”

Bastian continued to lie there. I looked up to find Callum’s arm wrapped around his waist, his elbow resting atop the arm, and his fingers pinching the bridge of his nose. He was clearly exasperated by this entire conversation.

“Callum,” I whined. Ifuckingwhined.

He looked at me, clearly distraught. He didn’t want to disobey me, but knew that Bastian wasn’t going to leave. There was nothing he could do.

“Come on, Cal, get in,” He said without opening his eyes.

He gave me a small shrug and got under the covers on the other side of me. “Sorry your grace, but I am not leaving either,and,” he looked at me sheepishly, “your bed is a lot comfier than the chaise.”

“Then bring in another bed.” I was trying everything to get them away from me.

“Why would we do that when there is plenty of space in this one?” Bastian questioned flippantly.

I turned my head toward him as much as my weak body allowed. “So what? I won’t allow you back inside of me, so the next best thing is to get blue balls by sleeping next to me?”

He opened one eye, turned his head just enough to look at me, and shrugged. “I’ll take what I can get.” Then, he closed his eyes.

Fine. Two can play his game.

I turned my back to him and sidled up next to Callum.

He was shocked when I lifted the covers to intertwine my legs around his, my stomach attached to his side, and an arm snuggly wrapped around his middle. He lifted his arm so I could get even closer to him, my head resting perfectly in the crook of his shoulder.

“Enjoy your night, hunter, all alone over there.”

He scoffed but didn’t say anything after that.

I smiled and snuggled into Callum’s side, my head lifting each time he breathed, lulling me into a deep sleep.

I was roused from sleep when I felt a pinch and then hissed as the pain radiated down the length of my arm. I looked up to see Bastian kneeling next to me, my arm in his rough hand, the knife in the other. Callum was snoring lightly next to me.

He took a cloth, wrapped it around my arm, and pressed down to stop the bleeding. The wound was never deep, and the bleeding always stopped within a few minutes.

He bent his head and whispered, “It hurts me every time I have to do this.”

“Then stop.”

He looked back at me. “The moment I stop, you will cease to exist.”

“Is that the worst thing that could happen?”

Bastian looked toward a sleeping Callum and sighed. “To Callum? Yes. He would follow you into the afterlife the moment your heart stopped beating. To Soren? Yes. He would not stop talking about the woman in the woods as kids. If you die, he would never forgive himself for what happened to you. Emilia might be angry with you…look at you like she hates you, but it's the opposite. She would go to the ends of the earth for you.”

I stared at him as he was still bent over me, my arm still wrapped in the cloth. The look that crossed his features had me lifting myself up, my good arm supporting my weight. I sighed. “I am tired, Bastian.”

His gaze went back and forth between my eyes and lips as he grappled with what to say.

He begged, “Please, say it again. I need my name on your lips.”

I didn’t give him what he wanted and instead said, “I am tired of the lies.”

“If you died,” he reached up and gently stroked the side of my face before laying his palm against my cheek, brushing his thumb up and down as he swallowed hard, “I would fear for the world for what I would become without you.”

I couldn’t move—too shocked by the admission.

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