Chapter 24 More Than Fate #2
“Fate is a fickle beast, Wyedari, one not even the strongest of us can hope to conquer. Perhaps that is why it is said those fated to us conquer our hearts instead, to save us from ourselves. And, if you care to know, I gave her your room… as I knew her scent reminded me of someone.” He finished it with a wink, that same devilish grin curving across his mouth, and it was the last thing I saw of him before Oblivion carried me from the room.
He didn’t look back at Walder, nor did he acknowledge anything else as he made for the exit, as though nothing remained there that required his focus.
Only me.
“You can’t just…” I tried again, my voice softer this time, less certain.
“Yes, I can,” he said, cutting me off, his tone absolute, leaving no space for argument as his grip remained unyielding.
He carried me straight into the elevator, saying nothing as we waited for it to reach the right floor, the silence between us thick and unrelenting.
But the moment we stepped out into the hallway, and he turned toward the room I had been given, something in me snapped, and I started to fight my way off his shoulder.
“Put me down!” I shouted, hitting his back, furious at being manhandled like this.
“Enough!” he snapped at the same moment a sharp slap landed, the sting blooming across my ass and stealing the breath from my lungs.
“Ow!” I cried out, the protest immediate.
“That hurt!”
“And the second one will hurt even more if you don’t behave,” he warned, his tone leaving no room for doubt. I huffed, still draped over his shoulder, but I didn’t test him again. Not when I knew he meant it.
What I did try to ignore, however, was the way his hand lingered.
His palm brushed over the sting he had just left behind as though soothing it, and I hated how much that affected me.
Hated the way his touch sent a rush of heat through me.
How it stirred something low in my stomach that had nothing to do with anger and everything to do with him.
Something he must have sensed, because the next second he turned his head, burying his face against me with a low, strained groan.
“Fuck!”
I didn’t fully understand what he meant by that, but I had a feeling it had everything to do with his restraint. Or more accurately, his lack of it, especially when I felt his mouth open against me before his teeth sank in, making me yelp again.
“Do you know what this ass does to me?” he hissed, the words rough and heated, but I didn’t get the chance to respond. Because the next moment, the door was kicked open with enough force to make me jump.
Seconds later, I was upright again, dragged from his shoulder as my feet hit the floor unevenly. I wobbled on my heels, the sudden shift throwing me off balance, and I would have fallen if his hands hadn’t remained firmly on my waist, steadying me.
His eyes burned into me, the intensity of his gaze forcing me to take a step back, his hands falling from my waist to his sides as though he had no choice but to let go.
“You ran from me,” he stated, and it wasn’t a question. It was an accusation, and I couldn’t help but flinch at the hurt in his tone.
“I told you, you were wrong. I am not your…”
He moved in an instant, cutting me off as his palm covered my mouth, silencing me completely.
“I suggest you do not finish that sentence,” he said, his voice low, dangerous,
“For I am a hair’s breadth away from snapping what little restraint I have left.” He lowered his hand when I murmured against it.
“I’m sorry,” I said, because it felt like the right thing to say, and because it was the truth, as I could see how much he was hurting.
However, it was the wrong thing.
He stepped back, shaking his head.
“Yes, you already said that!” he replied bitterly, the memory of me saying those same words before stepping into the portal still clearly weighing on him.
“I know you don’t want to hear it. Hell, I didn’t want to face it,” I admitted, and his head snapped back toward me.
“You could have fooled me.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” I shot back.
“It means you’ve fought this from the moment you realized what you are to me. You’ve held yourself back,” he said, his voice low but steady, though there was a tightness to it now, something restrained beneath the surface as his gaze fixed on me with unwavering certainty.
“I held myself back through fear. Don’t you understand that?” I shot back, my chest tightening as the words came faster, sharper than I intended.
“You think I wanted you to be wrong?”
“You think I didn’t …” I cut myself off abruptly, the rest catching in my throat as doubt and frustration tangled together. Each of them refused to form into something I could actually say out loud.
His expression darkened instantly, his jaw tightening as something more dangerous slipped into his eyes.
“Didn’t what?” he pressed, stepping closer, his voice dropping lower, more thoughtful now. As though he was forcing the truth out of me whether I wanted to give it or not.
“Tell me.”
“You think I didn’t crave the way you looked at me?” I forced out, my voice softer now, though it trembled with the weight of it.
“Like I… I was your everything… like I was what you’ve been searching for?” My breath caught, but I pushed through it anyway.
“But believing I’m your fated doesn’t make it true,” I finished quietly, though the words still carried, even as something in my chest twisted painfully at the way he was looking at me.
He looked away at that, but I pushed on, forcing myself through the hardest part.
“Bo told me what happens… what would happen if you were wrong.”
“Yes, it seems he has been most helpful at coming between us,” he said angrily, bitterness creeping into his tone.
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” I shot back, frustration bleeding into my tone as I lifted my chin slightly.
“Like I shouldn’t know the things that could affect me… or you.”
“It was not his place,” he replied immediately, his voice firm, though something darker edged beneath it as his gaze hardened.
“No, you’re right,” I snapped, the words laced with resentment as I shook my head.
“It was yours… and you didn’t!” The accusation hung between us, heavy and undeniable.
“That’s because I know I’m not wrong when it comes to this Eliza… when it comes to you!” he shot back, his voice rising sharply, the force of it making me flinch before he caught himself. Regret flickered across his features almost instantly.
“I told you. I had proof,” I pushed, refusing to back down even as my pulse spiked.
“I looked in the mirror and…”
“And what you saw was exactly what Bo wanted you to see,” he cut in, stepping closer, his tone dropping again but losing none of its intensity.
“He was holding the mirror, not you, which makes it very easy to guide what it shows.” My mouth dropped at this before I started shaking my head in denial.
“That’s not what…”
“What?” he pressed, his voice tightening as he leaned in just enough to steal the space between us.
“You’re telling me he didn’t want you to come here? That he didn’t take that relic for a reason, that this hadn’t been the plan all along?”
“He was trying to save me,” I fired back, the words instinctive before I added to them,
“From… from you.”
The silence that followed felt different. He stilled, something unreadable passing through his expression, though the weight of his presence only seemed to deepen.
“The one who has only ever tried to protect you?” he asked, quieter now, but far more dangerous for it. Yet it wasn’t enough to prevent me from scoffing, although there was no humor in it.
“Protect me?” I repeated, disbelief lacing every word.
“Is that what you call that file I found?” His expression tightened at that, something flickering behind his eyes that hadn’t been there before.
“Knowing how I take my coffee or where I sit when drinking it is supposed to protect me?” I continued, my voice rising slightly as the frustration finally broke free.
“Knowing who I’ve dated, who I’ve spoken to, my grades from high school, every detail of my life?” He winced at that, his gaze softening finally when I continued,
“Do you know how that made me feel?”
He exhaled slowly.
“I can understand how intrusive that must have felt.”
“Intrusive?” I repeated.
“It was a complete violation of my privacy, my life and everyone in it!” I snapped before my voice faltered slightly, but I pushed on,
“Do you want to know what the worst part is?” I asked, my voice tightening despite my effort to keep it steady.
“If you had just asked me, I would have told you everything. But instead… you went behind my back.”
“What would you have me say, Eliza?” he replied, his tone quieter now but no less intense. His gaze fixed on me as if searching for something he couldn’t quite reach.
“How about that you were wrong?” I shot back, my frustration rising again.
“That you’re sorry? That you’ll let me go?”
At that, his head snapped up instantly.
“Never.” The word landed with absolute finality, cutting through the space between us like something solid.
“I cannot do that,” he continued, his voice steadier now, though something strained beneath it.
“I can apologize for what I have done, yes. I should have come to you first, talked to you about these things… I know that now.”
He exhaled slowly, dragging a hand through his hair as though trying to rein himself in.
“I am not used to dealing with mortals in an intimate way. I am heavy-handed, impulsive, arrogant and selfish. All of these things. But there is one thing I will never agree to, Eliza…” he said, lifting his gaze back to mine, something unshakable settling into it now,
“And that is letting you go. Because no matter what you think you believe, I know in the depths of my soul that I’m not wrong about the way I feel about you.” His eyes locked onto mine, holding me there as my breath caught in my throat.
“Siren or not…” He stepped closer, closing the distance between us inch by inch, his presence pressing against me before he declared,
“I have fallen in love with you.”