Page 76 of Underworld
My heart hurt when I thought about him, but it wasn’t abadkind of hurt.
I explained to her everything my mother had said about my Virtues, and she hummed in agreement.
“I guess that does make a fucked-up kind of sense,” she marveled. “The universe is whacked.”
I laughed. “Yeah. It is.”
She curled her legs under herself. “But, Hendrik, though. It bothers me how he just pretended as if nothing happened. Your Virtues weren’t the only ones who missed you, you know.”
I swallowed hard. “I know. He told me as much, that he’d let me go, accepted my death because Dark Mages don’t mourn like most species. Since they sacrifice their souls, once that final bell rings for them, that’s it. The end. But… even knowing that, he didn’t pull you back into his clan during the past year. He could have done that, made you use your soul and the magical energy that soul can offer for him and the clan.”
“He could havetried,” Olivia said, golden eyes blazing. Suppressed power emanated from her like a brewing thunderstorm, electric and full of deadly potential.
“Agreed,” I said softly. “He could have tried, but he didn’t. And I think part of that, at least, is because he knew what you meant to me.”
She looked away, the power fading, like a great bird drawing in its wings.
“Don’t you think so?”
“No.” She blew out a breath and met my gaze levelly. “I know so. He told me.”
I blinked.
Olivia lifted a brow. “Are you surprised?”
“Um… yeah? Are you saying that Hendriktoldyou he left you alone because of me?”
“Pretty much.” She sighed and picked up a discarded Twinkie wrapper, capturing a bit of filling left behind. After licking it off, she met my eyes once more. “You’d been gone for several weeks. We were barely holding it together here and if it wasn’t for Kaito and Hendrik, I don’t think your Virtueswouldhave held it together. And I was still scrambling and trying to figure out what was going on. I was having visions.”
“Yuri told me about that,” I said, glancing at the vampire still lightly snoring as she hung off the side of the bed. “What were they like?”
She blew out a breath. “It took me off guard at first.” She shoved the remnants of our junk food feast from her lap and clambered out of bed to pace. “I mean, it was so crazy. All of a sudden I hadallthis power and I didn’t what to do with it, how to make sense of it or even how to wield it. The visions were hitting me hard, showing me impossible things where you were alive. So when Dark Mage Badass himself shows up at my door, I was ready to freak the fuckout.”
I wasn’t about to tell Olivia that she was kind of doing thatnow, but… okay.
Finally, tearing her gaze from mine, Olivia looked away. “Hendrik is terrified, if you hadn’t noticed. Like, worse than Lucifer. He showed up at the door and I’m certain he’s going to tell me he’s come tocollectme. But… he doesn’t.”
I tilted my head. “So what did he want?”
She throws her hands down at her sides. “He tells me that I’m absolved of any responsibility to the clan. Just like that.”
“He absolved your duty to the clan? Why?” I asked, my eyebrows shooting up. It was one thing to leave Olivia alone, but she was still one of his mages. He should have been chomping at the bit for her power.
She took my hand and squeezed, staring into my eyes. “I’ve never seen him show emotion before, but he broke right there on my doorstep, Lily. He looked me in the eyes and said he was doing it for you, even if you never came back, even if it didn’t change anything,youhad changedhim.” She shook her head. “He did the right thing. I couldn’t believe it.”
Tears burned my eyes and I dashed my free hand across my cheek.
I’d cracked Hendrik’s shell, even if he wouldn’t admit it.
“So,” Olivia said on a sigh. “If you want the truth, I still think he’s acolossaldick, but… he has changed, and it’s because he cares about you.”
“And that’s it,” I said. “That’s why I’m able to forgive them, no matter what they’ve done. They gave up pieces of themselves, sacrificed for me, in ways they’d do for no other. I need them, but they need me, too.”
Olivia looked away, gaze drifting to the window. “You think Cole will come around, too?”
“Yes.”Please don’t let me be imagining things. Please don’t let this be just wishful thinking. “He’s a monster, Olivia. I know that.”
She took my hand, the quiet strength of her reaching out to calm me in a way I hadn’t known I needed.
