Page 147 of House of Crimson Kisses
My mother nods. “There are scars that run too deep between us for one fleeting romance to change it. This is a phase, Cordelia. You will get over it.”
“No,” I breathe.
But Eleanor squeezes my hand, forcing me to look at her. Tears stain her cheeks like paint.
“They’re giving us the choice, Cordelia. Choose to let go, or they’ll hunt us. I can’t let that happen. I can’t let them kill you. I’d rather you live without me, than die because our families forbid our love.”
“E-Eleanor,” I plead, her name cracked between sobs.
But her fingers are already loosening, the iron vice-like grip slipping.
“Please,” she begs this time. “Don’t make me be the one to let go.”
I hold her gaze, and in that moment, time slows to a stop. There is only her and me, and the weight of our love, thick and endless between us. I try to let my eyes tell her all the things I wish I’d said.
That even though I’ve told her a thousand times, I should have said it a thousand more. I want to explain how deeply I love her. That my heart will bleed for eternity.
That I will carry an open wound in my soul for the rest of time.
I want her to understand that the way she looks at me made me feel like a queen, a goddess, wanted. Loved. Owned. Like I was her everything and nothing else mattered.
I want to tell her that there can never be anyone else, that no matter how many lifetimes I have to search, I will always hunt for her.
That even though I’m letting go, I will never stop looking for a way to get her back.
But she’s right. I can’t live in a world where she’s gone because of me.
So my fingers loosen.
I hold her gaze and plead with the gods to let her hear my message. To let her know that no matter how many millennia it takes, I will find my way back to her.
“Cordelia,” she breathes. One precious word, a sound I’ll hold in my heart forever; its echoes carving sharp memories in my mind.
My lips part to say something, anything, but there’s nothing else that can be said or done.
With our mothers standing over us, men tugging and pulling us apart, tears streaking both of our cheeks, I do the one thing I thought I would never do.
I let go.
Chapter43
RED
The Chief kneels at my feet, pulls a sticky, pale red thread of hair back from my face. Her expression is soft. Caring. But I don’t trust her. Not anymore.
“Oh, Red, sweetie. I’m sorry this happened to you.”
“Sorry?” I splutter and blood and spittle spray her chest. I shake my head, my vision blurring as one of my eyelids swells shut.
“You need to drink human blood, it’s the only way,” she says.
My one remaining eye widens. I’m such a fucking idiot. “You planned this,” I say.
“Of course I did. All these trials were planned by Cordelia and I.”
I must lose consciousness because I open my eyes to her stroking my cheek with someone new knelt next to her. A young girl who can’t be more than seventeen.
“No,” I say. “You knew what I was. You wanted me broken so that I would have no choice but to transform. To drain an innocent and become what you and everyone else want.”
