Page 79 of Claim the Twilight
The world outside the carriage bleeds into rainbow colors as we ride the thread to our destination.
Harald releases me abruptly, and my ass hits the carriage floor.
I haul myself onto my seat, shooting him a glare, which he studiously ignores. I turn to Aster to find her watching me. “How long now?”
“A few minutes. The threads are strong outside the Belt.”
“I would have thought they’d be stronger inside your city.”
She shrugs. “So tell me about yourself. Do you have a lover in this life?”
Edwin’s smiling face fills my mind, and I swallow the lump in my throat. “I have someone I love, but he…He left to try and find a cure for my condition. He knew there was a chance he might not return, but he…He knew that if he didn’t go, then I’d turn mullo, something that I’ve been fighting for months.”
“He must love you very much,” Aster says.
I blink against the heat gathering behind my eyes. “Yeah, but by the time I realized it, by the time I knew how I felt it was too late. Edwin was gone.”
“I’m sorry,” Aster says, her tone thick with sincerity. “I’m sure he’ll return to you.”
“And where did he go?” Harald demands. “Your paragon of virtue?”
I ignore his scathing tone. “I’m not sure. They call it the vault. It’s a library somewhere in time and space.”
Aster sighs. “Not many return from that journey, and not many are permitted entry. He must be a special man.”
“Man?” Harald snorts. “I hardly think any incarnation of Moringa would favor a mere man. What is he? Vampire? Shifter? Fae?”
I look him dead in the eye. “Human. In fact, you saved his life once.” He goes still, the only indication that I’ve got him off guard, so I press. “That was you, wasn’t it, at the junk yard? You stopped Edwin being crushed?”
“I heard your distress and acted to alleviate it. An old habit. One I have yet to shake.”
“What happened between you and Moringa? Earlier you intimated that the Lantana family was holding you hostage.”
Aster chuckles dryly. “Go on. Tell her how we kept you prisoner.”
He fixes her with a cold, hard look. “I do not deny that you saved me. Nurtured me back to health, but instead of allowing me to leave once I was whole, you stole from my well of power. You stole from me for centuries, growing in strength.”
“We were at war.”
“Maybe, but no one considered that I may have willingly helped you.”
“I cannot change the past,” Aster said. “I was a different person then.”
“As was Moringa, and yet she deigned to free me.”
I arched a brow. “She did?”
His smile is soft as if reflecting on that time long ago. “She saw me. Cared for me. Valued me as more than a source of power, and I loved her for it. Unashamedly, unabashedly.” He shoots Aster a hard look. “She freed me, and I stayed, did I not?”
“And look where it got you.” Aster shakes her head. “You poor delusional thing.”
“Delusional?”
She sighs. “It hardly matters now.”
“It matters to me.”
“Fine, Moringa wasn’t as altruistic as she led you to believe. She had plans for you and your power. She had you wrapped around her finger, ready to do her bidding and no one else’s.”
