Page 99 of Radiant Shadows

“I don’t want to hear it,” she interrupted with a slow but forceful inflection.

“I know, but you need to,” I said, surprising myself with my own level of calm. “And I’m not leaving until you do.”

“Not even if I go full ursa on your ass?” she growled menacingly.

My thoughts flashed to the destruction of the greenhouse, the wrath she was capable of. I lifted my chin. “If that’s what it takes, so be it.”

She glared at me for a long moment, but I didn’t balk at the rage and hatred I saw in her cerulean eyes.

Finally, she turned away from me, casting her icy stare at the wall beside her. “Fine. Say what you came to say, then leave me the hell alone.”

I let out a slow breath of silent relief as I came closer and sat on the edge of her bed, making sure not to invade her personal space more than I had to. As it turned out, respecting her wasn’t as difficult as I used to think.

I told her everything, all the way from when my father first told me about her. I explained about my family’s curse, and how that had been the foundation I’d lived on my whole life, that it had been the reason I’d tried so hard to seal off my heart. I explained how I realized I’d imprinted on her and how I’d tried to sever thebond to protect us both. I explained every decision I’d made up to this point and how much I regretted most of them.

“But I don’t regret this imprint, or the fact that I fell in love with you,” I said. “You are the most incredible woman this world has ever seen, and I’m honored to have been fated to serve you. And even if the curse means you will never love me, I need you to know that I am never going to stop protecting you. I made you a promise, and I meant it. I’m not going anywhere. You’d have to kill me.”

She didn’t meet my gaze the entire time I spoke, only stared at the wall like I wasn’t there, but the small twitches in her jaw now and then told me she’d listened to every word.

My soul felt so much lighter now that I’d gotten all of that off my chest, and though my senses sang with gratitude at being in her presence, my stomach twisted with the apprehension of not knowing how she’d received any of it.

“Do you know what your father had me do during training today?” she asked in that same low, hostile tone, finally breaking the long silence that followed my confession.

I swallowed, my heart tripping with concern at the mention of Arthur. I knew first-hand how cruel he could be in his training, and I never wanted that for her. I almost didn’t want to know what horrors he had put her through because I hadn’t been there to protect her from them.

I shook my head and she must have seen it through her peripheral vision.

“He strapped me to a chair with silver wire and forced me to use my siren voice to compel a captive vampire to kill herself.” She said this like she was describing a mundane action of a normal day, but I could feel the raw emotions behind her words.

Her radiating anger, helplessness, grief, and guilt seeped into me, fueling my own to the point I was shaking with the desire for vengeance on her behalf. I knew my father was a sadistic bastard, but he had truly outdone himself this time. And withmymate.

“And you know what? It showed me just how powerful my siren abilities really are,” she mused, tilting her head. “They can compel someone to do the one thing that goes against the most fundamental drive of all living things, and if they can do that…”

She finally turned her head in my direction and looked at me, but where I should have felt relief, I found only trepidation. She leaned forward, angling her head awkwardly to look at my ear.

“Good, you’re not wearing an earpiece,” she said. “That will make this a lot easier.”

“Arya?” I asked cautiously, unknown panic rising in my hammering pulse.

“You tried so hard to sever your imprint, and I think such effort should be rewarded, don’t you?” Her eyes narrowed, and her lips slowly spread into a vindictive sneer.

Understanding slammed into me, and I shot off the bed, backing away from her with my hands raised in defense. “Arya, you don’t know what you’re doing.”

She extended her legs and scooted down the bed. “I know exactly what I’m doing. I’m going to give you the one thing you’ve wanted since we met.”

I stumbled further backward, crashing my back against the door. “You don’t even know if that will work.”

She stood and shrugged. “Only one way to find out.”

“Arya, please, don’t do this,” I begged, every cell in my body and soul rioting in protest.

She opened her mouth, and I shoved my fingertips into my ears, pressing the openings closed with so much force that the sides of my head screamed in pain.

But it was no use. The melodic voice chimed clear as a bell in my mind.

“You are not imprinted to Arya Walker. Your bond is now and forever broken.”

The sharpest agony pierced my skull, similar to when Petra had tried her naga hypnosis but infinitely worse. My ears rang with such intensity that I couldn’t even hear my own screaming as I buckled and collapsed to the floor, rolling and clenching to escape the indescribable torment. A static charge coursed through me, exploding my nerve endings like a power surge popping every lightbulb on an electrical grid. It felt like my very essence was being shredded and fried.

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