Page 83 of Inevitably Yves

“You will not win,” he says, wrapping his hands around my throat. “I will have your head.”

His nails dig into my skin, and then he does the one thing I knew he would do. As he holds my gaze, he projects my darkest memories in his eyes.

I’m forced to watch all the years I struggled, the night he tempted me away from my vows, the loneliness. Then I see Marcello, young and beautiful, and my own hands taking his head. His blood covers my lap as I sob in pain, but what Hadrian doesn’t know is that I’ve already faced it.

“I forgive myself,” I choke out. “I forgive Marcello.”

Hadrian snarls, forcing me to watch visions of him fucking Damiano. I try to block it, but he’s too powerful. Even as the images fill my mind, I feel Dami’s detachment, his longing and desire for only me. Even then, he loved me.

“He never loved you,” I manage. “Always me. Still me.”

Hadrian swings on Damiano, shooting an arm out and knocking my love across the room. I know what he’s doing. He’s forcing Damiano to feel the pain of our separation, to relive the night he sent him away. I know it because I feel it too.

I can see Damiano’s pained expression as Hadrian takes him back to that night so long ago and forces him to believe that I don’t love him. I sense the waves of compulsion that manipulated Damiano. Present Hadrian, realizing we can see his truth and what he did, tries to shut it down, but he connected us and we won’t let it go.

“I never loved you another minute after I saw Lorenzo’s face,” I whisper, drawing myself upright. “It was immediate because it was fated.”

“Shut up, Cillian.” Hadrian twists his hand around Damiano’s neck, both of us forced to relive Hadrian exploiting my body in front of Dami. “You loved the way I fucked you. No one else could do it the way I could.”

I laugh darkly. “You’re so wrong about that, and you know it. The moment Lorenzo touched me, you didn’t even exist anymore.”

“Lies,” he grits out.

“And even after you sent him away, every time you touched me, I imagined it was my beautiful Enzo. Every time.”

Hadrian shakes his head.

“Even after I pushed you into the ocean, after you tore us apart, I went on to find such amazing love.” I walk toward him, shielded by the love of my family. “Look at what I created, Hadrian. I am the vampire you only wish you had been.”

He twists around, still clutching Damiano, but turning his gaze on me. “You are a traitor. I will kill everything you love and then keep you and fuck you for a hundred years before I take your head.”

“That is the only way you could ever touch me again. Isn’t that sad? You are my maker, yet you destroyed my love and loyalty for you. Do you know what my coven would do for me?”

“Burn the motherfucking world down,” Thorn says.

“Anything he asked of us,” Midnight says next.

“Sacrifice ourselves if necessary,” Syn adds.

“Fight until death,” Eros says.

“Face his maker,” Raphael says.

Hadrian simmers with rage, which only provokes my own at all the loss I’ve endured because of him, but instead of projecting it, I choose love. It’s the one tool Hadrian doesn’t have.

“And Damiano,” I say. “He would defy you just to love me.”

Hadrian’s gaze hardens.

“As for me,” I continue. “I will destroy you just to love him. You are weak, Maker, I can feel it. Your magic is rotting in the face of the love surrounding me. You can’t heal. I see it now. You can’t heal without me. Why? Did you make another deal with a demon?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he says. “I may be weak, but I am still stronger than any of you.”

“If he gets your blood, he’ll regenerate,” the Admiral yells out of nowhere.

“Ah, isn’t that interesting,” I muse.

“Traitor,” Hadrian shouts, flicking his hand again and drawing claw marks across the Admiral’s face without even touching him. “You will die next.”

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