Page 81 of War of Her Heart

“I broke through the ward in your mind. Do you really think a simple sound ward could keep me out?”

“When did you break the sound ward?” I asked without turning to face him. Did he do it as soon as he found out about me and Calum? Had he heard me and Calum being intimate?

“I asked first. Why didn’t you tell Calum?”

“I will tell him when we are back home. He has enough to deal with right now.”

“So you’re still going back to the Mountain Realm?” he asked as he transferred to where he was standing in front of me. “After he’s been fucking Nathara and everything his mother did to you? And you know he isn’t getting out of the marriage.”

“What other choice do I have, Sebastian?” I asked, throwing my hands in the air. I had nothing to my name and nowhere to go.

“Stay here,” he said, grabbing the side of my face and bringing it closer to his.

“What?”

“Stay in the Night Realm.”

31

Chapter 31

Violet

Stay in the Night Realm.Those words were the only thing I could focus on for the rest of the day and then they kept me up all night.

Sebastian said I could stay here, be able to do whatever I want and live however I want free of the strict rules of the Mountain Realm.

I knew I needed to tell Calum what his mother did. I wanted to know how he would handle it. I’d been so lost with our relationship and now I didn’t even feel like the same Violet. There was so much darkness in my heart.

Darkness his mother created.

I wasn’t going to tell him until we returned home, but Sebastian’s offer changed everything.

How Calum chose to punish his mother was going to give me my answer as to whether I stayed in the Night Realm.

But I wasn’t ready to tell him yet. Not until I knew for sure about Astrid.

I asked Sebastian to give me some space unless he got word about Astrid. I needed time alone to process everything.

In the matter of a day, Calum and Nathara had sex in front of me, Sebastian and I kissed, and I found out I had endured weeks of torture after which a witch tampered with my mind to cover it up. A week ago, just one of those things, let alone all three, would’ve had me hiding out in my room.

I had already pushed Calum away and if I continued to spend more time with Sebastian, the tension between us might become more than I could bear. I couldn’t risk complicating things more than they already were.

Sebastian seemed like he understood so I didn’t worry about him showing up wherever I went, like he previously seemed to enjoy doing, so I decided to go to the library and find a few books to take to my room.

As I was walking down the hall, I heard Bronwen yelling at someone from a room I hadn’t been in before. “What is this? I said silver finishes not bronze! Where do you think we are? The Forest Realm? Please! We have more class than that!”

I pushed the door open a few inches to see what she was doing and there were several fae running around at her instruction. Some were taking off drawer knobs on the giant dark oak desk that sat in the middle of the room while others were packing up trinkets from the shelves that covered the walls.

“Violet, come here, I need your opinion,” Bronwen said as she faced the other way.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have been spying but fae in the Forest Realm could probably hear your yelling,” I said as I walked in.

“I wouldn’t have to yell if anyone here had a brain,” she said while pointing at a bronze knob the fae removing them must have missed.

I couldn’t help but let out a small laugh when a fae walking past me gave Bronwen the dirtiest look.

“Anyways,” she began as she walked over to the chair sitting in the corner of the room. She leaned over and picked up two small pieces of fabric. “Which one for the window drapes?”

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