Chapter 22
Ifeel as if the world has been sucked out from underneath me.
All that remains is a deafening stillness that roots me to the forest floor—a rage that pulses in my head as if nothing exists but Saskia’s remaining heartbeats.
The. Vampire. Chose. Her.
He’s going to put his teeth right where my mouth should be.
He’s going to inject her with venom that will take her away from me sooner rather than later.
He’s currently touching what is mine.
And I’m going to rip that hand off his marble body for that.
I’m going to pull out his teeth one by one, then turn around and impale every inch of him with his own uprooted fangs.
I’m going to claw his eyeballs out of his sockets for daring to look at her and think of her as appetizing in such a sickening way, because she is mine to feast upon. Only mine.
Saskia’s sudden chuckle shoots through me like a lightning bolt. Well, at least I don’t have to sneak into the Blood Moon Palace anymore.
Of course she’d try to turn this into a positive, but that lethal rage only sinks deeper into me—so deep that I’d snap someone’s neck if they stepped too close to me right now.
Because this is it. All the time it took me to convince her to open up for me, all of her bravery spent traversing the catacombs…
they were all for fucking nothing. She won’t be able to search for the key while the Guardians are distracted with their Chosen Ones because she’ll be the distraction.
She’ll give her blood unwillingly and slowly, so slowly, slip away.
I’ve lost her before I even had her.
The realization seeps into my heart—of what she means to me. No matter what I said in the past, she’s not a means to an end, and she hasn’t been for a long time. She isn’t just a key.
The others would tell me to give it up. To shift back into a human and sever the connection between us so that I don’t subject myself to this kind of agony. Because it will be agony to listen to her thoughts as the Third Guardian takes her blood. It will destroy me.
But this is my destruction to bear. I told Saskia I wouldn’t leave her, so I’m not going to fucking leave her, even if there’s no hope for my kingdom anymore.
Closing my eyelids, I channel her mind deeper, like I’m pulling on a rope fistful by fistful until I’m as close to her as I can get. Until I can feel her determination to see the bright side of things battling against a chilling fear that spiderwebs over her thoughts like frost.
I’m here, I say firmly.
A new goal blooms through my monstrous bones when she grasps onto my words like a lifeline, one so hot and painful that I wince as it smothers the purpose my father planted in my heart ever since I was born.
But I don’t care about saving all of my people anymore. If all of them have to die for her to live, then so be it.
There’s only one objective worth fighting for now.
Her.