Page 91 of The Soulbond and Her Beloved

Free, she bolted. Scrambling across the bed so quickly she lost her footing and tumbled off the edge with a thud. But even as she hit the ground, she did not stop.

She kept crawling, scrambling backward on hands and knees until her back met the far wall. She pressed herself into the corner as though she could disappear into the stone.

“I'm sorry, I'm sorry!” She cried as her knees came up to her chest and she wrapped her arms around them in a tight grip. "Please stop hurting me, I’m really sorry...! So sorry, so sorry…"

Those words came in a repeat like a broken litany as she rocked herself back and forth, trembling like a leaf.

Chapter twenty

THE LANTERN FESTIVAL

Somethingjustdiedinsideof me.

Daemonikai was a frozen statue as his female ran from him in the worst way one could run from another.

Watching her rock back and forth, press herselffurtheragainst the wall to get away from him, he could notbreathe. Chest as heavy as stone.

That terrible morning, he had stood before her bed, gazed at her wounds and saw the damage he caused. Never did he think not having the memory took anything away, but now he saw it did.

Those bruises, which had covered every part of her body, detailed only a fraction of her suffering... and even those had faded. But the ones inside were concealed.The scar on her soul.

Her soft heart forgave him. During the heat, her body forgave him. But the deepest part of her mind, which had finally trusted him as her protector—the part he battered the night he became an abuser—did not. Perhaps it never would. Perhaps it nevercould.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," she whispered, even in her deep fear that he would ignore her "no" and pounce on her.

Devastatedwas too small a word to describe how he felt. He wasdyinginside.

Daemonikai pulled up his pants, slid to the bed's edge and buried his face in his hands.

Time stretched. He had no idea how long he sat there, swallowed by the storm that had pulled him under. How does one drown on dry land? Yet he had sunk. Deeply submerged. The way he struggled to draw breath proved it.

A hesitant hand touched him.

Tentative fingers threaded softly through his hair.

Daemonikai lifted his head.

Emeriel stood before him, reddened eyes pumped with remorse. "What have I done?The seven gods...Please forgive me, my king."

"What haveyoudone? Forgiveyou? Emeriel Galilea Evenstone, how is any of this your fault?" he growled, self-reproachfully.

"I pushed for us to try, then—"

He encircled her waist, drawing her closer, pressing his face against her belly. "I am the one who will forever beg for your forgiveness. Perhaps I should relinquish my throne, head for the Dark Woods, and join the ferals there. Pretending to be alright when one is anything but, is—"

"You will not do such a thing," she whispered. "If I am not permitted to feel wretched, neither are you, my king."

"Riel..."

"We will overcome this… together." Her fingers ran through his hair in a soothing caress. "We will emerge victorious on the other side."

He breathed shakily. "To this day, I still know not what went wrong. It has been three years. Three years, and not once did I see any sign of feral. Why now?"

"I have given it much thought,” she confessed.

"I have too. Gone over it again and again in my mind, but there is nothing. One moment, I was instructing the new recruits, and the next, I felt strange. And then… blankness."

"It is unnatural…" her words were starting to slur. "Perhaps dark magic?"

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