Page 67 of Dove

We held like that for a moment as I wondered what had happened. Did he really believe me to be weak? To allow myself to feel vulnerable again after what happened to me?

“You love me?” The words were a choked whisper.

And that’s when I saw the disbelief in his eyes. He’d never been loved before. His parents were too heartless to give him that. He probably didn’t even think he needed it. Didn’t think it mattered because he’d never felt it for anyone. He’d never wanted emotions. Connections. Weakness. Until me.

And neither had I. I lived my life alone. Lost in my own darkness. Until I found my matching shadows in him.

“Yes.” I wrapped my arms around him. My heart simultaneously tightening and bursting with affection for him. “I love you.”

Maddox yanked me from the couch as I wrapped my legs around his waist. Both of us needing to be as close as possible.

“You love me.” He stared into my eyes as his hand came to fist my hair. “You killed for me. There’s no turning away now, my little dove. We’re bonded in blood. Forever.”

Blood? I closed my eyes, shutting him out. Processing what I’d done.

There was no regret. No remorse.

I thought I would feel like I was living with a dark stain on my soul. Like Maddox had finally tainted me. Broken me. But I didn’t.

Tessa has been right; anyone can kill under the right circumstances. I didn’t regret killing Tristan. He would’ve killed Maddox and me. He had orchestrated my kidnapping. And who knows what other terrible things he’d done.

I might love a demon, but he had loyalty. Maddox could love despite what he thought. Despite who he was and where he’d come from. Tristan couldn’t. Maddox had never lied about who he was. Tristan had hidden his true nature. In a world full of monsters, he was the worst one.

And our world was a better place without him.

“Forever.” I echoed, resting my forehead on his.

Our chests pressed together, our hearts beating in time. Finding a matching rhythm. Whatever it was in me that craved him. That craved his demon, reached out, and took it. Absorbed him into my very being as he consumed me.

There would be no going back. No second guessing. There was only him and I now.

I thought myself trapped in a cage. Forced. My wings clipped. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. I was trapped before him. Stuck inside myself. Trapped by the fear of who I truly was. Caged by society and what I was told to want.

Now I was finally free.

35

Maddox

“Va’ inmalora.” Go toward ruin.My father spit on Tristan’s lifeless body, where it still lay on the floor in my bedroom, before striding out. Not another glance for the nephew he’d raised beside us.

“Kincaid did this?” Leif asked as we stared down at the single bullet wound to his chest, inches from his heart. A perfect kill shot. I nodded as I tilted my head to look at the pattern the blood had made in his once-white shirt as it had poured from his body. The fabric was now stained dark red. The carpet would need to be replaced.

I wondered if that would be enough. Or if my little dove would never want to walk back in here. If this room would forever be tainted for her. Filled with the memories of her first kill. Her only kill if I could help it.

I didn’t want my life to mark her soul. I was born without one. I could kill easily, but she would feel the lingering remorse. She would wonder if there was something she could have done. Even knowing the monster he was. Knowing he would’ve killed me and taken her. Broken her beyond repair, she would still regret what had to be done.

Leif knelt beside the body, his forearms resting on his knees as his hands hung down. His face was contemplative as he stared at our cousin. I had already discarded him from my mind. Lost in a sea of men who deserved my vengeance.

But Leif still clung to pieces of his own soul. Pieces his mother tried to hold together. He would grieve the loss. Curse himself for not seeing the traitor among us. For not finding a way to help Tristan before it came to this. I didn’t envy his emotions or his position.

All I wanted to do was get through the formalities and rid my home of the body so I could go back to my little dove. Kincaid waited downstairs, unwilling to face the horror of what had been necessary. Bash had brought Tessa to try and calm her nerves. But I knew it would only be my touch that could truly release her from the stress of the night.

Leif rose again, turning to look at me. His eyes lingering on the blood spattered on my chest from my nearness to Tristan’s death. They’d been no time to change. I had only just recovered from Kincaid’s revelation that she loved me when the family had come bursting in.

“It appears I did underestimate her.” Leif said with a hint of pride in his voice. “She might be your greatest strength.”

Leif’s words struck deep into my bones, settling inside me. I thought Kincaid a weakness. My living, breathing grip on humanity. Light. So easily taken from me. Conveniently available to my enemies to crush. To extinguish.