Page 90 of Crown of Death
His eyes burn with anger, but also something…else. But his lips remain pressed into a thinline.
“I need you to be very clear with me, Cyrus,” I say, my volume lessening just slightly. “You want something from me. You want me to be someone. I see it in your eyes every time you look at me. I feel it every time you’ve touched me. You’re waiting to see if I’m…I don’t know. And it’s confusing the hell out of me. Because…” I hesitate, feeling the energy drain out of me. “Because there is something growing between us. And I can’t deny the ache in my chest anymore. I can’t handle the idea of the possible coming separation. So, I need you to tell me, exactly, who you want me tobe.”
“I want you to be my wife!” Cyrus bellows, his eyes flaring brilliant. He swings an arm through the air with an exclamation. “I want tofinallynot be alone. I want to finally, finally be together oncemore.”
Everything in me stills. Stops racing. Stops raging with confusion anddesire.
“Wife?” Iquestion.
The both of us finally slow. Just staring at oneanother.
As the honest truth begins to comeout.
“I have been hoping, hoping against all hope,” Cyrus breathes, the intake rough and jagged, “that you areher.”
My hands shake. I grip the white blankets below to try and tame it. But it doesn’t help the trembling. “What…what is that supposed tomean?”
The fight seems to seep out of Cyrus. His shoulders sag. His head hangs forward and the breath seeps out of hischest.
“It means,” he says, “that I have never, ever kissed another woman besides my wife.” He takes a step forward, and then another. “It means, that for 286 years, I have been alone. It means, that for 286 years, I have searched for her.” He drops to his knees at the foot of the bed, his eyes fixed on mine. “It means, that for the past twenty-seven days, I have prayed that you will beher.”
My body is very cold. Surely my heart has stopped. It isn’t pushing blood through my bodyanymore.
I shake my head, as emotions fill my eyes. “I don’tunderstand.”
His head drops and he shakes hishead.
“I loved my wife, more than anything in this world,” he says. “But I did not realize it until after I achieved immortality. I did not realize it until after I took her free will and turned her against herchoice.”
He grips the edge of the bed, as if holding on for dear life. As if he might fall straight down to hell if he were to letgo.
“I cursed myself then, not only with the craving of blood,” he says. “But I cursed myself to lose that which I valued most.” He takes one deep, ragged breath. “After only eighty-nine years of immortality together, my wife grew sick. She was frail. There wasn’t enough blood in the world to sate her thirst. And after only weeks of this, shedied.”
He trembles, quaking. As if the story he tells will wreckhim.
“But then, fifty-one years later, a descendant of Malachi died. And just a week after she Resurrected, she came to the castle. She said my name. And she knew. Everything. Everything of our past. Of our lives together. It was my wife, reborn. Once more returned tome.”
The bed trembles from his grip, as hequakes.
And I grow colder. I’m frozen. Rooted as if I have turned tostone.
“But once more, after one hundred and fifty-three years, she grew ill again.” His words are quiet. As if he can barely breathe. “Once more, the love of my very long, immortal life,died.”
Cyrus’ words echo around my head, as if bouncing against the hard inside of my skull. Knocking, hard, saying,hello? Can you hear me? Are youthere?
“Over and over and over again, my wife would be reborn somewhere in the Royal bloodline. Around the globe. Always with a different face. Always awakening to remembrance after Resurrecting. And she would always die again and again in myarms.”
The dancers at the House of Valdez. The story they told of that Queen. It was the story of Cyrus’ wife. It was the reason he reacted in such a violentway.
My hands shake. But slowly, I raise them, looking down atthem.
Edmond Valdez made a call to KingCyrus.
I understand that doesn’t mean she’s anything but human, but I’m asking you to consider the fact that this man is here guarding her. That has to mean something. And considering it’s the House of Conrath? From what I hear, he and their leader have some…interestinghistory.
“For centuries, longer, I have made sure to keep close tabs on all of the male Royals, and any offspring they may produce. So that is the reason I flew from across the world to meet you,Logan.”
When he says my name, my body loses strength. I can barely keep myself sittingupright.