Page 66 of Princess Avenged

He shrugs. “I’ve lost the only people I’ve ever truly loved.”

“What about Blade?—”

“I do love my brothers. All three of them. But that’s different. I know I’ll never lose them.”

I nod, trying to sift through what he’s telling me. “Are you saying you’ve been in love before?” An odd jealousy invades my belly, making me unsure I want to hear his answer.

“No. Not in love. Not like this.” He kisses my forehead. “You are definitely my first true love, darling.” His hand brushes over my ribs, and flames of desire lick inside me.

“My fear doesn’t make any sense.” One of his legs brushes mine. “I guess I was thinking about how much it hurt when I lost my family…”

I nod, and he looks to the side. My chest pinches, thinking of the horrific story he told me, of how his family’s house was consumed by fire, leaving him with horrible burns and all alone in the world.

“And my family weren’t my only loss—” His eyes widen as if he’s just remembered something, or someone. “At The Institute, there was a woman who looked after us for a while.” He pauses, drawing in a long breath as if the air is bringing his memories along with it.

“Nonie.” He says her name as if he just remembered it.

“Nonie was kind to all of us—at least when The Master wasn’t around—but she was particularly nice to me. As I grew, the scars from my burns ached, and the pain would wake me up at night. Nonie would sing to me. She’d bring me warm milk and stroke my hair, until I fell back asleep.”

“She sounds lovely. What…what happened to her?” Thinking of my own childhood abuse, I’m a little afraid to ask.

He looks away. “The Master caught her.”

“Caught her doing what?”

“Kindness and affection weren’t allowed. He was training us to be killers. Kindness was forbidden.”

“Oh.” Trepidation creeps up my spine, and I’m not sure I want to hear the end of this story. “Did he hurt her?”

“I don’t know what he did to her.” Flame’s eyes fill with sadness. “With hindsight, he must have hurt her. He must have punished her for showing me kindness, but at the time, I was only focussed on what she did to me.”

“What did she do? I’m so sorry.” It’s bad enough that their maker hurt them so much and so often.

He focuses on the water between us. “While The Master watched, Nonie beat me. In front of all the boys, she paddled my bare ass and my legs. She exposed my scars to everyone. She shamed me for them and beat me until I passed out from the pain.”

“Why?” I gasp. “Why did she punish you like that?”

His jaw hardens. “Because I left a gristly piece of meat on my plate at dinner.” His eyes narrow. “And after that, she never came again when I woke up at night.”

“You must have felt so betrayed.”

“It was a very long time ago. And shit. I just remembered another woman who left me before that. Just fucking disappeared. Winnie was her name, I think.” He shakes his head. “She was black, like Blade.”

I gasp. If Flame ever knew that Winnie was Blade’s mother, he’s forgotten.

I want to tell him, but his arms wrap around my waist, and he pulls me against him.

“I hadn’t thought about those women in years.” He looks into my eyes. “And I don’t want to think about either of them right now.”

He brushes against me, and I hook one leg around him, pressing our bodies more tightly together.

“What do you want to think about?” I ask.

“All the ways I’m going to fuck you in this forest.”

“Oh, you are, are you?” I push away from him, swimming toward shore.

He quickly catches up, leaps out of the water first, and then reaches down to pull me out too. My entire body is tingling, the cold air and water stimulating every cell, while anticipation lights them on fire.

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