Page 156 of Curse of Darkness
My expression crumples. “She hurt me. She hurt meeveryday of my life. I spent my entire youth wondering what I’d done wrong, trying to make amends for some imagined slight, trying to preemptively fix all my mannerisms, my words, my actions… just so I wouldn’t set her off. I thought I lost my memories, my voice, my… my sister. But she took them from me.” I can’t breathe through the thumping of my heart. “She took it all. And she did it deliberately.”
It was her.
It was always her.
None of my actions would have ever made a difference. I could only keep the storm from spilling over for so long, because she doesn’t have it in herself to change, or to apologize, or to even understand that her own actions are the cause.
Thiago opens his arms, and I walk into them.
The squeeze of his body settles me, deep inside. I press my ear against his chest as he soothes my hair, listening to his heartbeat. It’s calm and steady; it always is. He brings such stillness into my life.
Home.
This is home.
This is safety.
And I’ve just brought ruin down upon us.
Drawing back, I dash the wet heat from my eyes. “Are you angry with me?”
“Angry?” A frown furrows his brow, his mouth opening and shutting, and then he shakes his head. “Vi, of course I’m not angry.”
“I just challenged my mother to a duel.” The tremor lights through me. After all this dancing around, it’s coming at me faster than I’d ever have imagined. “This was supposed to be… planned. I just ruined everything.”
“You ruined nothing. Do you remember the first time we met?”
I dash the tears from my eyes with a wry smile. “Of course.”
Thiago rubs my upper arms. “The moment I saw you, I knew it was you—the love of my life that Maia had promised me all those years ago. You were perfect. But you were an ideal. You weren’t real to me. Not at first. You were just a promise made flesh; a dream woven to life right before me. I didn’t even know you.”
Every inch of me goes still.
“Do you know the first moment that I realized I could love you?”
I shake my head.
“You rescued Finn from your mother’s torture. You risked everything for an enemy, and I realized you were brave and courageous, and… there was this light in your eyes, as though you would fight the entire world just to defy her. For me. For Finn. You saw his pain, and you couldn’t bear it, and so you rescued him.
“You are rash, Vi. It’s the one thing that puts my heart in my throat, because I can never predict what you’ll do when you get that gleam in your eye.” He cups my face, his thumbs caressing my cheeks. “It scares me, because you take dangerous risks in those moments. You struggle to fight for yourself—and I know where that comes from, I do know—but when you see someone else suffering, you become… a warrior. You were magnificent today. You owned your power and you stared her down, and everyone in that room saw Adaia back down. She knows it too.
“So no, I’m not angry with you, because that’s the woman I fell in love with. The one who will risk everything for a little girl who has never known love. A stranger.”
I can’t help whispering, “She doesn’t feel like a stranger.”
“We’ll rescue her, Vi.” He kisses me softly, lips brushing against mine as he cups his face. “We’ll set her free.”
The tremors fade away, replaced by a different sort of shiver as his mouth opens over mine. He’s kissed me a thousand different ways, and this is his protective kiss. The one that wants to shield me from anything that might break my heart. It’s a little rough. A little demanding. But also filled with gentle longing. My body wilts against his, soft against the hard planes of his chest.
It’s so easy to lose myself in his kiss.
Sliding my arms around his neck, I toy with his hair, moaning a little as his tongue lashes against me.
Thiago breaks the kiss first, breathing hard as he rests his forehead against mine. I canfeelhis smile. “You always distract me.”
“Idistractyou?” I draw back and punch him in the arm.
Capturing my wrist, he laughs. “Yes. You do. What was I saying?”
