Page 87 of Nocte

“Wait,” the creature commands as we near the door, my fae and I. “Make it wait outside. I need to speak with you, boy.”

I look at her. I look at my fingers gripping tightly to the little fae. Her hands are pink from the pressure. Pink from the blood flow necessary to supply those tiny, grasping fingers. Blood flow stilted from how tightly I grip her. How hard. I let her go, and the world will fall away.

I let her go, and she might slip away. No. Never.

I keep her close. Keep her near me. Always, I will keep her near me.

“I don’t think this is a conversation you want it to hear,” the vamryre warns.

Don’t care to listen. Don’t care to hear his lies.

I start to leave.

“Wait! Just hear me out. Oh, well fine then, have it your way. Do you know what that thing beside you even is? Because I do. I can smell its gross corruption. Its corrupted you already, you do realize? Broken thing. Disturbing thing.” It eyes my fae and sighs in pity. It eyes me and sighs in disgust.

Stupid, arrogant vamryre. It thinks it knows everything. It thinks it knows what my fae is.

But he doesn’t.

I do.

“She is… freedom,” I say in a rush, spinning to face him fully. Growling to prove a point. “She is freedom from him, and she is mine. Touch her and I will kill you. Touch her and I will rip you limb from limb?—”

“I know,” the other vamryre says softly. “I know, because that is what it does. Corrupts and bends others to its will. Don’t you see? You mean nothing to it. To this creature you are a means to an end. It already has you under her spell.”

Under her spell. Where I would rather be than anywhere else. Under her spell, away from Cassius. Under her spell, and able to feel. To fuck and taste and enjoy andfeel.

Under her spell…

Where I need to be. Where I will stay.

Under her spell?

“So be it,” I say. Then I drag her away, my fearful, startled fae. She heard every word that worthless creature said. She isn’t smart enough, like me, to discount it. She took in his lies, and they fester in her mind. They toy with her. Corrupt her sense of self.

That stupid vamryre will ruin everything. Everything.

He’ll make her think she is dirty and unworthy, and she will hide from me.

She will leave me.

Only I can leave her—not the other way around.

She can never leave me.

I will never let her leave me.

CHAPTER33

Niamh

For every crime, there is a punishment, whether you intend to sin or not. For every transgression, a price must be paid in return. Retribution. A sin for a sin.

It seems only fitting that in exchange for one day—one beautiful, flawless, perfect, incredible day—I must suffer the ultimate price. The ultimate pain.

Retribution at its most extreme.

Caspian is turning against me. My savior. Mine. The only one to take a price from me and give what I wanted in exchange. He’ll leave me, I know he will.