Chapter 62 Azalea
Azalea
There’s so much pain striking her features. I want so badly to reach out to her. To tell her the whole truth. To hold her close to me. To mourn the loss we both had that day. To fill in the gaps I know she’s unaware of.
But I can’t. I’m still bound and gagged against this skyforsaken chair, and Dianthus is enjoying every second of the torment she’s inflicting on us too much to release me.
“Anything to say for yourself?” Dianthus sneers before flicking her wrist and lifting the magical gag she had on me.
“Wildflower, please—”
“Don’t.” Azalea covers her hand over her mouth. She pales considerably and for a moment, I wonder if she’s going to be sick. “Don’t call me that. I just… I need time.”
Azalea shakes her head before standing from the table. She’s pacing back and forth when she finally looks back at Dianthus. She hasn’t looked at me since she asked me that awful question.
What did you do? It’s a question that has agonized me for the last century, relentlessly plaguing my mind.
I’ve had to live with the consequence of my actions from my choices, but at least she didn’t have to know.
At least she didn’t have to remember. That was my single consolation prize.
And Dianthus ripped it right from my hands.
I’m sure it makes me an awful person, but even with the pain and suffering, I wouldn’t change the decision I made. I never could.
“The curse isn’t broken, correct?” Azalea directs her question at Dianthus, who nods her head. “So, am I still stuck here or within the castle grounds or can I leave?”
My eyes dart to Dianthus, whose lips tilt in the cruelest of smirks. “You can leave. I can release your binding to the castle.”
My heart shatters. Every fear I’ve been burying deep in my gut is brought to life. Now that she remembers everything, now that she knows who I truly am, now that she can see every damaged side of me, she’s going to leave.
I can’t blame her, though. Dianthus is right. I was a monster long before I was trapped in that castle. Why would she ever choose to stay with me now that she has had that harsh reality all but thrust upon her?
Azalea is facing the windows, looking out into the black abyss swallowing the forest. Her back is to Dianthus, which means I can only see her profile. I watch as a kind of recognition flashes across her face, before she hardens it back to stone and spins around to face Dianthus.
“What will you do to him if I leave?”
Dianthus shoots me a derisive wink over her shoulder. “Oh, I’m sure I’ll find something fun for us to do.”
“Don’t kill him.” Her words come out steady and cold enough to send a chill down my spine. Dianthus cocks her head to the side, her jade eyes studying Azalea thoughtfully.
“Alright, I’ll bite. Why not?” she muses.
“Because I want him to live with the truth of what he’s done.”
“Azalea, please.” My voice is hoarse. “You don’t know the full truth.”
She looks at me, and I wish her eyes were filled with the hatred she once stared at me with across the dining room table. That was better than the utter betrayal lining her irises now.
“I don’t want to know your truth,” she says coldly, looking away from me.
I deserve this. I deserve worse than this. I sit back in the chair I’m still bound to, accepting my fate. Dianthus hops off of her perch on the table and begins to round the corner of it, heading toward me without having to cross past Azalea.
I try not to flinch with each grating clack of her heels as she draws nearer. I know the kind of torment she can unleash on a man, and I know just how badly she’s been waiting to do that to me.
“What were the parameters of the curse exactly? How can I be free to go if we’re still bound together by the curse?”
“Technically…” Dianthus draws out the word.
I can feel her towering over me from behind, but I can’t turn enough to see her.
“Braxton, being as desperate as he was, allowed me the wonderful gift to change the parameters of the curse as I saw fit, and within reason. However, he never clarified what ‘within reason’ meant, so I’m sure I can draft up something that will be…
mutually beneficial.” Dianthus begins drumming the tips of her pointed plum nails against the top of my skull.
“And you won’t kill him?” Azalea reiterates her question, but her face remains stoic, making it impossible to read her.
Dianthus places her hand over her heart as if she’s taking an oath. “I shall not kill him. But… he’s so pretty tied up. I could think of a lot of things I could do to him like this. Are you sure you don’t want to stick around for at least some of the fun?”
Azalea stiffens, shaking her head. As much as I wish to explain what happened to her, I care more about her getting out of here before Dianthus changes her mind. She’s so close to freedom, so why is she still here?
“And what if I told you, I wanted to take him with me?” Azalea inquires.
My eyes widen in surprise as she takes a couple of steps away from the window. Her hands are clasped behind her back, and I see her gesturing slightly with one of them, but I’m not sure what she’s trying to tell me.
I can practically hear the swish of Dianthus’ hair as she looks back at Azalea. “This isn’t some kind of negotiation,” the witch snarls, her lip curling.
“But what if—”
“Listen here, you little bitch,” Dianthus interjects, slashing her hand through the air.
“We agreed that if he didn’t break the curse in time, he would be mine for the rest of my days, which I have a lot of those left.
Technically, he hasn’t used up his last chance yet, but when you leave here, I’ll make you forget all about him, so the curse will be as good as broken.
Unfortunately, you will not be keeping him. ”
“But he still has one more chance, right? So, you can’t keep him here.”
My brows pull together as I try to figure out what she’s getting at and why the fuck she won’t just leave and save herself. I’m not worth this. I’m not worth saving. But she is.
Dianthus grips my shoulders and yanks me so that my chair is pressed against her body.
“You’d better watch what you say. You’re in my domain, and I’m being kind enough to let you leave fully in-tact. If I were you, I would take that opportunity and run.”
Azalea takes another step forward, “I’m going to have to pass on that opportunity, unfortunately.” Azalea sneers as her golden eyes track up and down Dianthus’s long frame. “Oh, and Dianthus?”
Azalea brings her fingers to her lips, releasing a shrill whistle.
In a matter of seconds, a giant white creature comes bursting through the window, spraying small shards of glass along the floor and table.
I never thought I would be so excited to see Luna.
A menacing snarl rumbles in her throat. In two quick strides, she moves in front of Azalea, teeth barred and hackles raised.
“Get your hands off my fucking husband.”