Page 91 of Obsession

I’m not exactly surprised by the reaction. He’s been getting more agitated lately, especially after I showed him the marks on my back. Every mention of Jaegen is like another nail hammered, another brick piled. Contempt constructed piece by piece.

“What would you like to do?” I ask.

His shoulders fall as he takes me in. “I don’t know if…” Aris starts, then pauses, looking away.

This, more than anything, disturbs me. He always tells me what he’s feeling. He is never evasive.

“Aris?”

“I don’t know if I can stay here much longer,” he says finally, still not looking at me.

I gently reach for his jaw, turning his face in my direction. “Why is that?” I ask carefully.

“You are testing me,” says Aris, wounded. “Depending on what I will say, you will think I am resorting to how I used to be.”

“Shouldn’t I keep something like that in mind?” I say after a moment. I don’t like hurting him. Not anymore. Still, I will always be vigilant.

His mouth sets. “I am not the same.”

“Tell me the truth, then. That’s something you wouldn’t have done before.”

Aris pulls back, rallying himself. For a moment, the hand I had on his face stays in the air, waiting for his return. But he keeps his distance. Finally, my fingers curl one by one and I lower the hand back to my side.

His eyes dart to my hand before refocusing on my face, expression determined. “I don’t want to leave so I can conquer, if that’s what you want to know; I just want to leave. He controls us, and it drives me mad. I feel the walls closing in on me. My skin itches when I think of him watching.”

I look away, discomfort creeping in at the thought of Jaegen observing us being intimate. The thought has crossed my mine more than once. He said he’d give us space, but there’s no way to know if that’s true or not.

“And I know now…” he starts, redrawing my attention. His brows are furrowed, expression twisted with regret, and my heart begins to hammer.

“What are you saying?”

“I am trying to tell you that I want to leave.”

I pause, then murmur, “I thought that you were happy here.”

With me.

He grabs my hands. “I am. I am,” he says firmly. “I want you to come with me. You want to go, too, yet you’re afraid of him. But there’s no reason to be, Mary.”

My lips purse. It’s easy for him to discount Jaegen; his orifices don’t bleed when Jaegen gets annoyed. His mind cannot be read or controlled.

“Taking him out of account, we’ve been over this,” I say, nodding toward the drawn curtains and the woods beyond. “We wouldn’t know where to go, or what’s out there.”

“I will risk it.”

“You would risk me.”

Aris’ lips press together, annoyed. “No. I feel my power. I have kept it out of reach, as you asked me to, but it is there. If something were to happen, if I needed to protect you, you would be safe.”

He hasn’t mentioned this before, unsurprisingly. We don’t talk about his power; he knows it makes me nervous.

“And what if using it makes you remember yourself?”

Aris pauses, and says, “Then I will remember myself.”

I splutter, mouth falling open. “Sorry?”

“Surely, I will be different after my experiences here,” he says quickly, trying to save grace. “With you.”

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