Page 111 of Illusory

The hope was back in his eyes with a vengeance then andI knew that I fucked up once again. That I’d led him on yet again.

“Dominic will heal me.” I turned away from Trace as a sheet of ice slipped into my heart. “We’re already bonded anyway.” Granted, the bloodbond had been weakened over the last few months on account of us trying to override it, but it was always still there, lying in wait.

“Jemma—”

“I said no!”

At that, Trace shot up to his feet and punched the bars, making the ground beneath me shake from the impact before he stormed out of the basement.

I hated that I’d hurt him, but the alternative was even worse. I wasn’t going to hide the truth or let him hang on to the idea that bloodbonding himself to me was ever going to be in the cards. That was never going to happen as long as I had a say in his life and my mind still intact.

Tears burned the corners of my eyes as I looked up at Gabriel, unable to speak the pleas of my heart.

“I’ll take care of it,” he said with a knowing nod and then took off after Trace.

I watched as Gabriel dashed up the stairs and then propped my head back, feeling the sting of unfallen tears as the basement returned to silence.

“You did that on purpose,” said Dominic, his voice low and knowing.

“Did what?”

“Hurt him.”

I didn’t bother denying it as I grabbed the bars behind me and pulled myself back up to my feet. Dominic straightened along with me, his sharp eyes still latched onto mine.

“He needs to realize it’s over,” I said, doing my best to keep the emotion from my voice.

“It didn’t look over from where I was standing.”

“That was the bite, and you know it,” I defended and then tried to walk away, but the sparklers were back around my eyes again, making me wobble before coming to an abrupt stop.

Dominic clasped my arm to steady me as I leaned back against the bars to wait them out. “A Revenant’s bite doesn’t plantfeelingswhere they don’t exist. It only intensifies what is already there. You know that perfectly well, angel,” he said, his words a hushed secret we’d carried with us since the beginning.

Because Ididknow. I’d always known.

He’d never said it out loud, never once threw it in my face because that wasn’t the kind of man Dominic was. He knew I couldn’t handle my own truth then. That it was easier for me to blame the bloodbond for making me fall in love with him. It was easier to agree with Trace when he’d said it was all a trick of the mind.

But deep down, I’d always known I’d been falling for Dominic since the moment I first laid eyes on him at All Saints and every day since then. The bloodbond had only ever been my excuse to be able to have the things I wanted. To have him. That was my cold, ugly truth, and I wasn’t afraid of it anymore.

“It doesn’t matter what I feel. This isn’t about me,” I said, shaking my head. “He needs to see the truth about me, Dominic. That I’m not worth the pain I’m causing him. He needs to get over me and let me go!”

“That isn’t possible. He’s in love with you.”

“So what? So were you and you were able to do it just fine,” I shot back and then crossed my arms.

He narrowed his eyes for a beat, a confused look flashing across his expression. “You think I’moveryou?”

I swallowed against the painful knot in my throat as I tried to keep my voice from shaking. “Whether you are or aren’t doesn’t matter. You let me go, didn’t you? You’ve been pushing me away for weeks, Dominic. I’m not saying you’re wrong for it,” I quickly defended so he wouldn’t get the wrong idea. “I’m just saying itispossible.”

“It’snot.” He shifted his weight and suddenly, he was standing dangerously close to me.Too close.

I tried to walk away again, but he reached out like a snake striking out and grabbed the bar beside me, stopping me from leaving that way. I tried to go around him the other way, but he did the same thing with his other hand and caged me in. “Dominic, don’t—”

“There has never been a single moment of a single day where any part of me has not been irrevocably in love with you,” he said slowly and with perfect inflection. “I would walk into the sun and burn until there was nothing left of me but ash if you told me that was the way it was supposed to be. I would carve my heart out of my chest and give it to you if I thought it would make yours beat for even a second longer so that there would never be a moment in this life where I would have to live knowing you do not. There is no enemy I wouldn’t disembowel, no friend I wouldn’t turn on, no end of the earth I wouldn’t walk to to make you happy. Everything I do is for you.Everything.”

My chest heaved as a hundred different storms passed through me at once, wind and rain and hail and warmth and sand, making me feel as though I might topple over from the rush of it all.

“I’ve always known you wouldn’t choose me, angel. I’ve always known that youcouldn’t. But what I feel for you? That will never change no matter if you are mine, his, or no one’s.”