Page 42 of House of Malice
Finally, Blaze lifted Alecto off him and then out of the tub. He grabbed the towel and dried her before wrapping it around his waist.
Once they settled into her bed, weighted with two big duvets and a mountain of pillows, Alecto immediately felt sleepy. She sighed and wrapped her arms tighter around Blaze, resting her head on his shoulder.
He caressed her hair with soft and lazy strokes. It dawned on her in that moment that she felt…safe.
Not only physically, but also emotionally. It was a feeling so foreign, Alecto was overwhelmed for a moment.
She wondered if Blaze felt the same. He had already shared something nobody knew about him with her, about his father’s abuse. That was a sign of trust; it had to be. Alecto had the urge to share something with him. Something nobody else knew.
If they were other people, they’d have something better, more beautiful to share. But they weren’t other people. So they’d have to share whatever scraps they had.
“You remember when you told me you followed me and Alatar to his study?” Alecto asked, her voice low.
“Mm-hmm.” The low rumble of his voice under her sent a shiver down her back, and goose bumps skittered all over her skin. Blaze didn’t seem to notice. His fingers were still mindlessly paying with her wet hair.
Alecto braced herself. Her stomach somersaulted, and for a moment, she thought she might throw up. It was hard to swallow, as if there were a lump stuck in her throat.
Finally, she managed to open her mouth, and words spilled out. “He doesn’t beat me, Blaze. He had never once lifted his hand against me. Not like that.”
“Oh,” Blaze said. “I just thought—you looked so tense. Whenever he’s around, whenever he lays his hands on you…”
Surely, things pieced together in his mind. Alecto waited, not even daring to breathe. She wasn’t sure she could articulate the words if she needed to spell things out for him. The only hope was for him to get there on his own.
When his hand stilled over her head and his chest stopped rising and falling with steady breaths, Alecto knew Blaze understood.
“How long?” Blaze’s voice was strained, rough when he finally broke the silence.
For a moment, Alecto didn’t reply. She brushed her hand over her white linen sheets, fingering the soft material as she looked for words.
“Since before my mother took her life.” A pause. “So long enough.”
Right then, Blaze inhaled a sharp breath, his chest rising together with Alecto. “I’m going to kill him,” Blaze growled as he exhaled heavily.
And the thing was, in that moment, Alecto believed him. A smile tugged on the corners of her mouth, the view of her fingers tangled in the sheets getting blurry all of a sudden.
But there was no way in Hel Alecto would let anyone see her tears. Not even Blaze. So, with a series of rapid blinks, she willed the tears to go away and then turned her head to the side.
There was a whole storm raging in Blaze’s gaze when their eyes met. And he had never looked as beautiful to her as he did right now.
“Hopefully one day,” she said with a smirk. “But I am not telling you this because of that. I just—I wanted to share something with you that I have never dared to share with anyone else. In a way… I give you a piece of me that nobody has, like you gave me a piece of yourself nobody else has when you shared about Galliermo.”
Blaze kissed her forehead, his lips lingering. “It means the world to me.”
It meant the world to Alecto as well. To finally be able to share the burden she had been carrying all by herself for years.
By no means did it make it easier or made what happened to her better. But it made her feel just a tiny bit less alone.
18
Blaze was glad Alatar was out of town and couldn’t attend the party at the Leveaus’. He didn’t think he’d be able to pretend that he didn’t know how despicable that man truly was.
Worse than Galliermo.
Blaze never knew he’d be able to say that, but apparently, there were warlocks out there worse than his father.
The dinner portion of the party was over, and Blaze was relieved. The guests were in the lounge room, enjoying cocktails, coffees, and desserts.
Because spring had arrived in Avalon Hills, the large glass doors leading outside were wide open, letting the cool yet refreshing breeze in.
