Page 57 of Donovan
I could see it in his stance, the way his fingers flexed around the trigger. If I didn’t stop this now, there would be no coming back.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
DECLAN/ DONOVAN
DECLAN
Donovan was trying so hard to reach Kit.
I could see it in the way he held himself, tense but open, his hands raised slightly, his voice steady even though I knew he had to be shaking inside.
Trying to explain, trying to reason with someone who had already made up his mind.
Kit’s hand never wavered on his gun. His fury rolled off him in waves, a wildfire ready to consume anything in its path. And Donovan?
He was standing in the middle of it, willing to get hurt if it meant keeping both of us alive. I clenched my fists. This was never going to end in our favor.
Kit wouldn’t stand down. Not for me. Not for Donovan. But Donovan wouldn’t let anything happen to him either. I knew that now.
He’d saved Kit’s life once. He cared about him. Even after everything, even when Kit was pointing a weapon at me like I was nothing more than a rabid animal.
If it came down to it, if I fought back, Donovan would be caught in the middle.
He’d have to choose, and I couldn’t do that to him. Not when I already knew how this would end.
I took a step back, my stomach twisting as I watched Donovan plead, watched him fight so hard to stop something that was already inevitable.
Then another step. Kit didn’t notice, but Donovan did.
His head snapped toward me, his brow furrowing. "Declan.”
I didn’t wait for him to finish. With one last look, I turned and vanished into the night.
A sharp inhale. Donovan realizing what I’d done. A curse. Him starting after me.
But I was faster, especially with this new body of mine. I ran, the cold air slicing through my lungs, the darkness swallowing me whole.
And even as I left him behind, even as I forced myself to keep going, the bond between us pulled tight, straining and stretching, like an open wound that would never quite heal.
I told myself I wasn’t leaving him. Not really. This was temporary. A brief step away, just long enough for Kit to lower his guard.
With me gone, he wouldn’t see Donovan as a threat anymore. Wouldn’t be forced into a fight he wasn’t ready for. Besides, I could use a little air. Time to think.
Time to figure out what the hell we were supposed to do next. The blood mark between us was permanent. That much I knew.
Donovan was bound to me as much as I was bound to him. No amount of time or distance could change that. But there were some things even a bond like this couldn’t guarantee.
Because if Kit somehow convinced him to go back, if he got into Donovan’s head, dredged up all the loyalty and history between them.
If Kit made Donovan believe that returning to the Guild was the right thing to do, I wasn’t sure I could stop him, and worse…I wasn’t sure I would.
Because I had never wanted to be the thing that dragged Donovan down. And if walking away was what it took to set him free, I would do it. Even if it killed me.
DONOVAN
Declan was gone.
One second, he was there, tense, coiled, ready to fight. The next, he was nothing but a whisper in the dark, slipping away before I could even open my mouth to stop him.
