Page 94 of Unseen

“If she insults you one more time, I will not be held responsible for my actions,” Azriel growled, his eyes still fixed on the wide-eyed woman before him. “She has precisely two minutes to leave this house.”

I straightened my back, linking my arm through Azriel’s, and looked down my nose at my aunt, who appeared to me now so simpering and pathetic. “My husband has requested that you leave us.”

“B-but Evangeline!” She staggered to her feet, her bonnet askew. “This cannot continue! It simply cannot be!”

“If you and your family wish to have a roof over your heads this Christmastide, I would advise you to shut your damned mouth, woman.” Azriel exhaled through gritted teeth. “I am not above tossing you all out onto the street and setting fire to that disintegrating chateau while the old man fucking watches.”

Adelaide gasped, her face blanching as she stumbled across the room. “You are the devil, Azriel Caine!”

“Aye, I am the devil, and come here again, I will set hellfire on all of you!” He shouted after her retreating figure, his shoulders heaving with rage. The door slammed shut behindAunt Adelaide, her wails and protests fading as she fled Linmere for the safety of her carriage.

“That was rather something, wasn’t it?” I breathed, before my legs gave out underneath me and the room began to spin.

“Evie? Oh my god, Evie?” Azriel scooped me up in his arms, depositing me gently on the sofa, his face the picture of concern as I gazed at him through the black spots that danced in my vision. “Beloved, are you well?”

I sucked in three shaky breaths, and nodded. “I am, I just… I was… I was sure…” I clasped his hand to my chest as tears bit at my eyes. “For one awful moment there, I was sure you were going to cast me off.”

Azriel’s jaw ticked, and he shook his head. “You are a little fool, Evie.”

“I just… I suppose…. I could almost understand it.” I gulped back a sob. “I could see why you would prefer a wife like Marguerite. It…. It made sense to me, just for a moment.”

“There is no universe where such a decision would make any sense to me,” Azriel said with such assuredness that my heart stopped aching, just a little. “I thought I had made that rather clear.”

“You have, I just…” I trailed off, trying desperately to find the words to describe exactly what I had been feeling. “This morning, when I began to bleed, I was so… frightened. In a way I never had been before.”

“Yes, I know.” Azriel crooked an eyebrow. “But I told you then, that I care not if you bear me a child. One child, ten children, no children, it makes no difference to me.”

“But Azriel, what if-”

“Evie, you have no duty to me to fulfil.” He frowned, taking my hand in both of his. “Do you hear me? No duty. Nothing. You owe me nothing. Not after the way I have treated you. After the things I did, because heaven help me Iwas a wretched beast, I expect nothing from you. Do you understand me?”

“But I want to give things to you.”

“And you do. You will.” He kissed my forehead, and I sighed. “You give me everything I could have dreamed of, and more besides. And unlike your awful family, I do not see you in terms of what you may give me, but rather what I can spend a lifetime giving you.”

My vision cleared, and I smiled at him, my handsome husband. “And what do you intend on giving me?”

“Pleasure,” he said with a grin. “The world. I shall take you to every country you desire, beloved.”

“Really?”

He nodded, and stroked my cheek. “Whatever your heart longs for, I shall give it to you.”

“And my family?”

His gaze darkened again. “Only for the love I bear you, shall I show them mercy. But my patience has its limits. If they try something of the sort again, there shall be trouble.”

“I do not think Adelaide shall test you again after you hurled the crystal at her.”

Azriel laughed. “The old bag certainly was a mess on the floor.”

I laughed too, and took his face in my hands. “You are the only person who has ever fought for me, do you know that?”

“And I am honoured to do so.” He turned his head to clutch my hand to his mouth, and kissed my palm. “I would kill for you, Evie. Again and again, if I needed to.”

I could not have known then what weight those words would carry.

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