Page 131 of Queen of the Crimson Throne

“If you think I’m going to remain here so you can insult me?—”

“I’ll stop, let me ask you what I wanted to in the first place.” Fuck my temper, getting in the way.

She crossed her arms as her figure reformed. “You have two minutes.”

“There are people out there trying to cure vampirism, whynot tell them if they find a cure, it will erase all vampires from existence?”

“You saw those pages. Everything I used to create the spell is on those pages. If that were to get into the wrong hands—it’s a free pass to figuring out how to reverse the spell.”

“But I destroyed your notes about the spell.” I had used my own flames to burn the pages I had stolen to ashes, ensuring no one ever found the information hidden within.

“You might have destroyed the easy route to recreating the spell, but if you read the journal close enough, one could figure out everything I did to create the spell. It would take much longer, but the information is there.”

Fuck.I should have taken my time, read through the journal more carefully before leaving it behind.

I paced back and forth in the cave. “I still don’t understand, why not tell them so they stop searching for a cure? Tell them the consequences?”

“Because what you don’t understand is the group who are leading this charge doesn’t care about vampires. Why do you think they want to reverse vampirism? It’s not because they no longer want to crave blood. They want the race gone altogether. To them, losing all current vampires would be a small price to pay for them to be eradicated from this continent.”

My stomach hollowed. “Are you sure they would take that risk?”

The Goddess’ shoulders sank. “To them, it’s not a risk. I have no doubt they would see it as a reward for their persistence.”

“I should have destroyed it.”Fuck, if the journal got into the wrong hands…

“You should have.”

I bit my tongue. “I’ll write to them. Tell them why it needs to be destroyed. They might do it.”

“I doubt it, that family loves the journal.”

“Maybe they can bring it to the wedding and we can do it together.”

“Speaking of your wedding, when are you going to give in to the prince? I’m getting tired of waiting.”

“My relationship with Luka is none of your concern.”

“I beg to differ.” The Goddess smirked. “Isn’t that the other reason you are here, to ask me about him?”

I opened my mouth, but she stopped me. “Before you ask, I can’t say why. But I can say this. You need to stop getting in your own way, Lennox Adair. You try so hard to place blame on everyone and everything around you when you’re the biggest obstacle in your way. You’re trying so hard to fight what has been set out for you that you’ve failed to realize what is in front of you, might be what you want. You are too upset about how you got here to realize it.”

“I—”

“I’m not done yet.” She held up a star-flecked hand. “Don’t make the same mistakes I did. When Elesebetta left me I was hurt, similar to the hurt I’m sure you felt when you found out the Prince had been keeping things from you.” I stiffened. “But I knew deep down she loved me and there was a chance she would come back to me if she could because we loved each other. But I was so terrified by the small possibility she might not want me that I didn’t leave it up to chance. I made it so she could never come back to me. I acted out of hurt and anger and made a choice that prevented my one true love from ever being able to come back to me.”

“What does that have to do with me?”

She raised an eyebrow. “It has everything to do with you.” She moved, her stars moving with her as she took my hands in her own. “Don’t let your own cowardice prevent you from the life you deserve, Lennox Adair. From the life you have earned.” She squeezed my hands.

“I see everything. I see the way you and the vampire prince look at one another. And I can tell you with confidence the lookisrare. You have to trust he will come back to you, even when you are at fault.”

I swallowed, looking away to avoid her gaze.

“How long do you expect him to wait? One day he might get tired of waiting and move on. Don’t lose your chance.”

“But, I—”I’m scared.My hands trembled in hers.

“Love is the most terrifying thing I’ve ever experienced.” I almost thought I could see tears in the Goddess’ eyes. “Something that has the ability to bring you more joy than you could ever imagine and more pain than you could ever endure should terrify you. But I’ve never thought of you as someone who balked in the face of fear, Lennox Adair.”

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