Page 149 of Dissection of Immortal Hearts
He poured her some wine.
“Cheers!” Amelia clinked her glass with his and took a sip. The tart aroma filled her senses, and her chest warmed. Instead of following her lead in the toast, Mikhail raised his eyebrows, not understanding. “Finally, you have a clear lead on the disrupted regeneration,” she explained.
He shook his head. “Kathrine said there’s nothing in Kamchatka.”
“I’m sure you”—she pointed at him with her glass—“will find something.”
He frowned.
“What?” Amelia kept her eyes on him. “Could it be that saving the species no longer matters?”
“Of course, it matters.”
“Or maybe… it never did?”
His golden irises flashed. “Where are you going with this, Oracle?”
She took another sip of her wine, savouring the aromas. After the first gulp, the sharp tang mellowed, revealing an unexpected sweetness beneath. “When I first met you and found out who you were – learned your past, what you’d been through…” He clenched his jaw, but Amelia continued, “I was impressed. No! Stunned!”
“If that’s true, then you must have been very naïve.”
“Really… The first disappointment came after you blamed me for things that happened to you years before I was born.” He moved as if about to say something, but she stopped him by placing a finger on his lips. “You quickly corrected your mistake. At the time, I believed it was because of your feelings for me. Now, I realise it was because of that ring. Many things seem to have happened because of that ring.”
His nostrils flared.
“You never cared about saving lives, did you?” she said. “The Hospital was always just a way to soothe your guilty conscience.”
The liquid from her glass spilt onto her fingers when Mikhail squeezed her thighs and dragged her across the table, positioning her in front of him. His voice dropped to a sharp threat. “You might think that while we were rolling in bed, you got to know me, but you know nothing about me.”
Amelia stared at him without blinking. She recognised his face from her childhood dreams. Beautifully defined features with an accentuated masculinity and aristocratic air. And yet, he wasn’t the man from her dreams.
“On the contrary. Wanna hear a truth about yourself? Now that you’re not in the Hospital, you have an excuse to indulge in what you’ve always wanted to do,” she said.
He curled his lips. “And what is that, according to you?”
“To take revenge. To feed your anger. To surrender to the hatred of your past.”
Mikhail’s eyebrows shot up. “For someone who destroyed dozens of creatures today, you’re rather critical. I also noticed how readily you jumped into battle. As if you’d been waiting for an opportunity to destroy something.”
She shrugged. Was there any point in denying it? Who was she trying to fool? “You’re right. I’ve been angry for a while, and I took advantage to take it out.”
Her confession seemed to satisfy him. “Did it pay off?” She nodded. “Don’t worry. It doesn’t last long. Anger always resurfaces.”
Amelia hoped he was mistaken. She lowered her gaze to her glass and started swirling it, watching the liquid within.
After a while, Mikhail spoke. “My true motives behind the creation of the Hospital aren’t as pure as they seem, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care.”
“You don’t owe me any explanations.”
“And yet, I got the impression I’ve disappointed you.”
She shook her head. “Not anymore.”
His lips curled into a sour smile. “So, you’ve finally realised you were never in love with me – only with the idea of me.”
Amelia fell silent. He was right. The romantic nuance she’d attributed to him because of her childhood dreams was nothing more than her own creation.
They continued staring at each other, the spilt wine drying on her hand, releasing an intrusive scent to her nose.
