Page 53 of Realm of Wind and Vines
He lets out a smug chuckle, clearly very pleased with himself. “Yes, you did. My staff could barely sleep because of all the noise.”
“That’s not true! He gagged me, so there’s no way we were loud enough to disturb anyone.”
“Good for you, living out your wicked little fantasies.” His smirk is positively villainous. “But I was referring to how the bed kept banging against the wall.”
Mortification crashes over me. I feel like my entire face is on fire.
“Uhm, well, that’s…” I stammer before drawing my eyebrows down and instead huffing, “Well, it’s your fault anyway, so you don’t get to complain.”
He arches an eyebrow at me. “How could it possibly be my fault that your hate sex is noisy?”
“It’s your fault that we’re having hate sex.”
“Oh dear. I’m flattered that both of you find me so irresistibly hot that you had to release your frustrations by fucking each other instead.”
I shoot him a scowl. “I meant that it’s your fault that he hates me.”
“That isn’t my fault.”
“Yes, it is. If you hadn’t rigged the game by cursing that final portal, I would never have been forced to make Draven hate me.”
“You made a choice.”
“Because the choice was either to let him die or to make him hate me!”
“It was still your own choice.”
“It doesn’t matter! If we could’ve just stepped through that portal when we reached it, none of this would’ve happened. But you made sure that if I stepped through the portal, the person who loves me would die. And that’s?—”
“I was bluffing!” The words rip out of him, suddenly full of desperation.
Jerking back, I blink at him in stunned surprise. He lifts a hand as if to rake it through his hair. But then halfway up, he seems to remember that he is still wearing that spiky black crown on his head, because he freezes with his hand in the air like that. Dropping his hand back down, he just turns back to meet my gaze instead and heaves a deep sigh.
“I was bluffing,” he repeats, his voice softer this time.
“What?” I breathe.
Some of that desperation flickers in his eyes again for a second. “How could I have set that kind of restriction on a portal? Grey only has portal magic. I only have nightmare magic.Neither of us has the magical capacity to set a curse that could determine which specific person loves another person who steps through a portal. Let alone kill that person instantly from what could’ve been halfway across the continent for all we know. It’s not possible to set that kind of restriction on a portal!”
I just stare at him, my heart beating painfully in my chest. Those massive waves of dark despair threaten to crash over me. And I know, without a doubt, that if I let them hit me right now, I will drown. Fully and irrevocably. So I block everything out. I block out all the horrible implications of this new information. I can think about it later. Later when I’m alone. Later when I don’t need to function properly.
“So I was bluffing when I carved that message into the branch above the portal,” Orion continues. “I wasbluffing, God damn it. I thought you had figured that out. When you stepped through the portal and back onto the sands of the arena, I thought you had seen through my deception.” Regret washes across his beautiful features for a moment as he motions towards where Draven is standing in the shadows farther down the street. “I never thought that you would…”
“Make my fated mate and one true love permanently hate me?” I finish for him, the words tasting like blood and iron in my mouth.
“Yeah.” He heaves another sigh and slides his gaze back to me. “That was ruthless.”
I give him an annoyed look.
“That wasn’t an admonishment. It was a compliment.” That hint of regret is gone from his face. Instead, there is something almost like respect in his eyes. “Not everyone is able to make those kinds of brutal decisions. Especially under pressure.” He lets out a small huff of both amusement and approval. “Maybe you really will win this war.”
“Maybewereally will win this war,” I correct, holding his gaze.
He scoffs.
Silence falls over the street for a few seconds. Since it’s the middle of the night, all the windows are dark. Only the silver light from the moon illuminates the deserted street around us.
“This is…” Orion begins, but then trails off. Clearing his throat, he tries again. “Did you know that this is the first time that I’ve been part of a… group?”
