Page 198 of The Dawn of the Cursed Queen

She smiled, and godsdamn, how did I not notice that it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen?

A low whistle cut through the room, and my heart stopped. I pulled her away from the door, and it cracked open to reveal Cameron on the other side.

“You know, if you two were so desperate to slip away for a quickie, you should probably have found a place that is a little more private. I mean, these doors aren’t exactly soundproof.”

SEVENTY-NINE

VINCENT

“Don’t forget your panties,” Cameron said to Camilla.

She grabbed the ruined scrap of material off the floor and gave me a small smile before turning and leaving the room, holding her head high as she brushed past Cameron.

“If I had a coin for every time I walked in on you ruining some woman’s panties, I could buy this fucking palace.”

“What do you want?” I asked, gritting my teeth.

“I can’t believe you’d make Camilla another notch on your bedpost when your goddess from Iassulyn is right downstairs. But then again, I don’t know you at all.”

“Cameron,” I said, his name a plea. “She can’t know.”

“Oh, she can’t?” Cameron pushed away from the door. The way he spoke and moved was so him, but I knew he had been changed on a fundamental level. The shadows in the room followed him, the light trying to hide.

That connection between us was forever severed, and not just because of my betrayal. The beast that inhabited his skin now owned him. I saw the flicker of red in his irises even now.

“You should probably shower before heading back to your evil goddess. Can’t walk around smelling like hot witch sex, now, can you? Nismera will execute her in front of everyone, but you know that already.”

Worry flared in my gut. “You can’t say anything.”

Cameron whistled. “Don’t tell me that the betrayer himself gives a shit about anyone but himself? Please, the Vincent I knew, or thought I did, died long ago. I now know you’re just as heartless as the bitch who made you.”

“I’m serious,” I sneered. “Nismera will cut her hands off and lock her in a dungeon to spite me.”

“Okay,” Cameron shrugged, “but I want something.”

I stepped forward, anger replacing worry. He would dare to use Camilla against me? “Are you blackmailing me?”

Cameron squared his shoulders without a flicker of fear. He seemed larger now, more filled out. I wondered if he had gained muscle in training or if it was another perk of dying and being reborn. “I’m taking a page out of your playbook. Doesn’t feel good, does it?”

“You can hate me all you want, Cameron, but you were right there with me when everything happened.”

“As if I had a choice. You knew as soon as he went after Xavier that I would choose him. Don’t act surprised or innocent.”

I did neither.

“That’s what you want? Xavier? Even if he is mindless?”

Cameron’s fist shot out, connecting with my jaw. The punch was hard enough to rock my head to the side.

“Watch what you say,” he said, a hint of a beastly snarl threaded through his words.

I rubbed at my jaw and snorted. “It’s the truth, and we both know it. What you want, you can no longer have. There is no way to turn them back.”

Red flared in his eyes, flooding his irises. “And whose fault is that?” he snapped, a hint of his fangs showing.

“Mine,” I said, and he reared back in shock, obviously not expecting me to say it. “It’s mine. Look, I don’t know where Xavier is.”

“But you know something?”

---