Page 35 of War of Her Heart

Violet

“So what did you do while I was gone?” Calum asked as I lay in his arms. He returned two days after the incident at the bar and woke me up in the middle of the night. Apparently, that was the first chance he was able to get away from Nathara.

“I stayed in my room most of the time.” Which was true. The next morning after the night at the bar—when I thought more about what happened and what I felt—I refused to leave my room. I didn’t want to take the chance of running into Sebastian and allowing any feelings to come back up.

I shouldn’t have let myself be in a position like that in the first place. I shouldn’t have drunk so much and let my guard down. Sebastian just did something to me that I couldn’t explain, but I knew it was wrong. I loved Calum. I wantedto spend eternity with him, and I couldn’t let a moment of weakness and bad judgment do anything to jeopardize that.

I’d spent the last two days reminding myself how evil Sebastian was, picturing him standing there with that fae’s heart in his hand. He could’ve just made the fae leave. He was his Sovereign, and he would’ve listened to him.

But that fae was going to hurt me. He was going to do the unthinkable. Anyone who could do something like that deserved to die.

So no matter how hard I tried to make myself believe that Sebastian was evil, I ended up contradicting myself. Because he saved me.

Yara had come by both nights asking to escort me to dinner. I guess Bronwen didn’t hesitate to plan dinners as soon as she got the OK from Sebastian, but I told her that I wasn’t feeling well both times and asked her to bring food to my room.

I was surprised Bronwen didn’t try to make me attend the dinners, but she must’ve been trying to give me some space. She was silent the entire carriage ride from the bar, which I think must have been the first time in her life. I didn’t know if it was because of what Sebastian did or if something else was bothering her.

“Most of the time? So what else did you do?” Calum asked.

“Bronwen took me to a bar in the city,” I said nonchalantly. Maybe if I acted like it wasn’t a big deal, he wouldn’t ask any more questions. I couldn’t tell him everything that happened.

“A bar? Please tell me Adar went also.” I could hear the concern in his voice.

“He did.”

“Thank the gods.” I knew the relief in his voice wasn’t going to last long.

“Sebastian was there too,” I said quietly. I didn’t want to chance him finding out from someone else. That would be worse than him hearing it from me.

“Sebastian?” I could feel his head move to where he was looking down at me, but I didn’t want to look at him.

I nodded.

“I don’t want you around him,” he said.

“I don’t want to be around him either. I didn’t know he would be there,” I mumbled.

“He’s evil, Violet.”

Was he though? If he was so evil, why would he kill someone that was trying to hurt me? Someone truly evil would allow something like that to happen.

See, all I did was contradict myself.

“I know.”

I hated this. I hated keeping things from him. But what I’d done and how I’d felt was wrong. He didn’t deserve this.

“I know you say you know, but I don’t think you realize how evil he really is. Nathara has told me some things that have happened over the years.”

I pushed myself off of him and sat up to look at him. Did he really just bring Nathara into this conversation? “Oh, Nathara told you some things, did she?”

“I am with her constantly. What did you think we did? Sit and stare at each other?” He looked at me like he thought I was being ridiculous.

“Well, I have tried to not picture you two together, but now I am. Just sitting around, talking about your lives, finding things that you have in common. How nice,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“Violet, it’s just talking. It’s not like I’m fucking her.”

“What did you tell her you like to do in your free time? Because the only hobby I know of you having is fucking your Commander’s daughter.”

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