Page 65 of Blood Vows
And yet…she changed everything.
The first time her skin touched mine, I felt it.
A stillness. A softening of the storm that had lived beneath my flesh for decades. The darkness that had once clawed and raged within me went quiet, as though it knew her. As though it had been waiting for her.
I remember the exact moment it happened, when her trembling hand touched the marred half of my face. No fear. No hesitation. Only that unbearable tenderness that felt like sunlight breaking through my eternal night. It should have burned me.
Instead, it soothed me.
I was too stunned to even breathe. For the first time since I’d inherited this cursed power, the shadow didn’t pulse with hunger or fury. It fucking…purred. Like a beast lulled into submission by the voice of its master.
Her.
She had done what no one… no witch, no spell, no power-hungry immortal… Had ever managed. She tamed it.
Tamed me.
And it terrified me more than any blade ever could.
Because it meant the stories were true. The curse that bound my family, the power that could consume or obey, was ruled by emotion… By love. Only a fated bond could calm it, and for so long, I had believed myself beyond such things.
But she… this fragile, stubborn mortal… had proved me wrong.
Now every moment I spent away from her felt like punishment, every breath she took in my absence an ache I couldn’t soothe. She had become the pulse that replaced my own.
And I couldn’t let her go.
Not for anything.
Not even for her.
And not even for the dagger that had driven me for as long as I could remember. The irony wasn’t lost on me. For years, I had chased that blade, stained not only with my father’s madness but with my own blood. I had done so believing it held the key to my revenge and to reclaiming what was rightfully mine. But now, the only thing I craved was her and she was the one thing I could never truly possess.
Keeping her meant denying her the others.
Denying her the love she had found in my brothers.
The thought clawed at me like guilt given form.
I could see her smile when she spoke of them, the softness in her eyes when she remembered their names. They had loved her too. I had seen it, felt it through the echo that still tied us all.
And yet, I couldn’t bear the thought of her leaving.
So, I told myself that perhaps keeping her was its own form of justice. Perhaps, in taking her from them, I was exacting my revenge after all. But the truth?
It was bitter.
It was selfish.
And it would destroy us both.
Because no matter how tightly I held her, I could already feel it. The slow fracture of her heart every time she thought of them. The pain she hid behind her gentle smiles. The ache that grew between every kiss we shared. I was torn in two, and she was torn in more.
Between what I wanted… And what she deserved.
And yet, even knowing that, I couldn’t stop myself. Because letting her go wasn’t an option.Not anymore.
If the curse was ever meant to be broken, it wouldn’t be through blood or death. It would be through her. Through thelight she carried, the warmth she breathed into this cold, endless existence. But she didn’t belong to me. Not fully.Not yet.
