Page 66 of Bitten & Burned
“I thought it was just going to be Vael,” I continued. “Then… it wasn’t. And I can’t fix it, I can’t undo it, I just… made a mistake. A huge, irreparable, unforgivable mistake.”
“Nothing’s irreparable,” Dmitri murmured. “I’ve beenaround for nearly two hundred years, and I’ve yet to see something happen that was actually irreparable.”
“Nearly two hundred years, huh?” I asked. “I didn’t know that.”
“One hundred eighty-six, if you’re counting.”
“Are you?” I asked, laughing.
“I try not to, but then again, it’s difficultnotto.”
I was silent for a long moment before shaking my head. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“You don’t have to know,” he said. “You just have to want something real.”
I blinked at him. “And you’re real?”
His mouth quirked—not quite a smile. “Very.”
I let out a shaky breath and rested my head against his shoulder. He pressed a kiss to the crown of my hair and said nothing more.
He didn’t need to.
And for the first time in days, I felt something settle in my chest.
Not peace.
But maybe the beginning of it.
A fragile, flickering thing, but mine all the same.
Ten
DEVOURED
Kravenspire, Sol, Verdune
16 Ebry, Year 810
The manor felt…eerily quiet when I awoke. Dmitri was gone again, but that was to be expected. It was early afternoon, judging by the golden light flowing in through all the windows.
I stretched out on the settee, my toes pointing and my fingers wriggling above my head. One of those, good long stretches that feel necessary.
Fig was playing nearby, jumping around and batting a piece of fluff on the floor. I wasn’t certain where the fluff came from, but, then again, I was never certain where Fig found the things he played with, so I brushed it off.
As I rose, I felt the weight in my pocket. I reached inside and found it. The rabbit Quil had left me. I brought it up to my nose, inhaling the scent of soap and forest andQuil.
I could have sworn he hated me after the bond. I wasn’t surprised; given what had happened, he reacted precisely the way Ithought he would. It was Vael who had surprised me. In a bad way.
I pressed my lips together and shook my head.
Nope. Not now. I wasn’t going to think about him yet. Any thought I gave to his scowl, to his honey eyes going dark, any thought at all made me feel queasy. So I didn’t think about it.
What I’d done? It had been inadvertent.
What he’d done? That had been a choice.
I swallowed thickly. I wished I couldfeelas much conviction with that as Ithought.
