Chapter 25 #2
Then clarity returned. Her body went rigid. She pushed away from him and crossed the carriage to the opposite bench. He watched the change overtake her, the way her gaze hardened, the warmth draining from her posture. The sudden distance left him cold, hollowed out.
“What is it?” he asked, his voice unsteady. “What have I done wrong?”
She shook her head, and though she tried to contain herself, the effort fractured. Her emotions pressed through the rigid mask she clung to, trembling at its edges.
“This… Us… We can’t, Inno.” A single tear betrayed her, sliding slowly down her cheek as though it had been weighing the cost of falling.
“Despite what I know we both feel, we can never give in to it. I know that you don’t understand it, but this love is cursed.
My father’s heart beats in your chest. I cannot choose you over him again…
” She lifted her hands, and even in the dim carriage light, he could see them shake, as if her own body resisted the truth she forced herself to speak.
He sank to his knees on the carriage floor, the movement instinctive, reverent, undone.
He looked up at her as though she were a vision that might vanish if he blinked.
“I have frightened you,” he said quietly.
“I did not mean to lose so much of myself tonight, but I could not help it, my God. I hunger for you in a way that is dangerous and consuming. I cannot pretend you do not mean to me what you do. Even knowing my confessions drive you from me, I cannot seem to quiet my tongue. Do not fight your love for me anymore. Please. Let me feel it. I grow feral the longer you hold it before me and deny it.”
The carriage lurched to a halt, and Inno’s head bowed. The distance between them felt deliberate. Final. He could not allow her to escape the truth of what passed between them. Not tonight.
After a moment, he descended from the carriage and offered his hand. He waited in pained silence as she spoke briefly to the valet. When she returned, her expression was solemn and closed. Before they began their climb of the front steps, Inno froze, hearing something unwelcome.
“Do not go inside yet.” His voice had taken on a darkness that caused fear to prickle Victoria’s skin.
“What is it?” Her heart pounded when she heard it too. The sound of someone inside the castle.
Innominatus immediately moved Victoria behind his back. The muffled sounds grew crisper. The snort of a horse.
Victoria’s face paled. “Around back, by the lab.” The lab where all her secrets were. She moved around Innominatus to go to the back, and he gripped her arm.
His head moved in a soft, almost imperceivable shake, reprimanding her as he moved in front of her and they made their way around the castle. Despite his size, he moved like a shadow, gone before she could focus too long on him.
As they made their way around to the back, Victoria gasped at the open laboratory door. A man walked out with several pieces of equipment in his hand. He looked familiar, but Victoria couldn’t place him.
“Remain—”
“They have my notebooks!” Victoria’s whisper was anything but quiet as she ran toward the man.
“Quiet,” Inno huffed.
“Put those back!” she shouted as she closed in on the man when he was only a few feet from loading them into the carriage.
“Look what we have here,” the man laughed when she stopped in front of him.
His laughter was far too comfortable, so she spun, not finding Inno. “Who are you? What are you doing with my things?”
Suddenly another man exited the laboratory door, pausing only a second when he spotted Victoria. It was one of her father’s old valets.
“What is—” she called but was cut off when the man behind her grabbed both her arms.
“Just the woman I was hoping to see,” the middle-aged man said as he approached.
“Makes this a lot easier. I know about it all. I knew something was going on when we didn’t see your father anymore.
I thought maybe one of his experiments had gone wrong, but then they said he was still working.
” The man moved in front of her until she was sandwiched between the two.
“My cousin installed a chain in here. Told me all about it. I know you had something to do with Alphonse’s disappearance.
I thought I’d find him chained up here. I know you’ve done something with him. ”
“Inno,” Victoria called out as she stared at the man in front of her.
Silence.
“Look, we are reasonable guys. Five hundred Reichsthalers and we will keep—”
A soft whoosh of air pushed the hair off Victoria’s face, and when she looked out ahead at the man, she saw only the castle. Her eyes dropped to the man lying on the ground with his neck snapped at an odd angle. The hands on her arms pushed her forward around the man.
“Let me go inside first.” Inno’s words brushed against the shell of her ear, and she realized it was his hands on her arms moving her forward.
She glanced behind to see the other man lying on the ground in a similar position. She hadn’t even heard them drop. Not a sound. Victoria’s nerves skittered with awareness as Inno held on to her, only letting go to go inside and run through the house, returning once he confirmed it was empty.
“Oh my God,” Victoria muttered as she looked at the carriage and bodies. “What do we do with their bodies? They will be looking for them. Inno, grab them, there is a burn pile over there.” She pointed to a mound of old brush and ash. “Let me run in and grab a few chemicals to help the bodies burn.”
Inno carried the bodies to the pile but refused to stand near the fire. The two watched from the top of the hill, Victoria pressed against Inno’s side.
“You killed them so fast. I—I didn’t even hear you.” The realization of how terrifying Inno’s particular skill set was pressed in on her.
“And the solution you poured on them was equally impressive.” He grinned, clearly unbothered by the night’s turn of events. When he saw her scowling, he added, “I was there the whole time, I was never going to let them hurt you. I promise.”
She knew that. She also knew that, as she leaned against him, soaking in his warmth as they watched the bodies burn, that she loved him more than she could imagine. The ache in her chest only grew more painful.
“Every time I choose you, someone dies,” she muttered. “What if next time it’s you? Or me? I’m a murderer now as much as anyone.” The flames calmed, and they went inside through the front door.
“Victoria,” he begged once the door shut behind them. “We are perfect together. Tonight proves that.”
“What?” she cried, the sound raw and fraying.
“I just killed two men and burned them. How can you not understand that I cannot give what little I have left to you no matter how much I want to? If my father had lived, you would already be dead. By sparing you, I have already betrayed my lineage. Loving you would be a disrespect I cannot survive.” She flung her reticule toward the stairs, where it landed with a dull, accusing thud.
“You didn’t kill them, I did. You…got rid of them.”
“I killed the baron. How many people are going to have to die?” She pulled at her hair.
He stepped toward her, then stopped when her body locked in resistance.
The recoil lodged behind his ribs, sharp and breath stealing.
“I respect your father,” he said, the words pressing up from somewhere deep.
“He made you, and because of him my heart beats. Perhaps that is why it beats so fiercely for you, because it already carried his love for you before it ever learned my own. I am not asking you to dishonor him. I am asking you to stop dishonoring yourself. You know as well as I do that this love will never die. Why do you fight it? I have proven I will be good! I will be obedient! I will never hurt you!” His chest heaved, his voice rising for the first time in this life.
He saw the fear flash across her eyes before she turned from it.
She rushed past him into the hallway, stopping at the first parlor. He followed, halting only when his arm brushed hers, drawing her close without thinking. For a moment, she allowed it, her gaze lifting to his. Then she tore free, shoving him away.
“Victoria.” He had known blades that cut less deeply than the look she gave him before turning aside. He needed one thing. Just one. He knew, with a certainty that bordered on madness, that if he kissed her, she would no longer be able to smother the fire burning behind her eyes for him.
She turned, tears blurring her dark eyes.
He reached for her, turning her gently but firmly until she faced him, their closeness vibrating with heat and tension.
“You will never understand how deeply I love you.” His body stilled.
He leaned closer, his voice a whisper that brushed her lips.
“And why, Victoria, could you not let yourself?”
Her eyes moved over his face, her breath shallow.
He could no longer hear what she said. He saw only the want in her gaze, the way her mouth parted.
Just as he braced for her to flee, agony flickered across her features and her chin tipped.
She moved slowly, so slowly, as though time itself resisted her. Her lips grazed his.
His breath caught painfully in his throat.
He did not move. Did not breathe. Fear held him still as she lightly pressed her lips to his, as if she’d been incapable of living another second without pressing her mouth to his.
Her lips were as soft as a cloud in heaven and as sinful as the fire in the depths of hell.
His hand shook at her waist as she pressed closer, her body yielding to his.
Only after savoring the contact for a single breath did he respond, returning the kiss with a softness that matched hers.
When they parted, she inhaled sharply, pressing her nose to his, her eyes still closed. Something inside her broke loose. Her lips returned to his, hungrier now, her hands framing his face as she kissed him with sudden urgency.