Stars emerged in her irises, sparkling brightly. A sign of her magic, stoked by the anger he could sense in her. She looked awfully like she wanted to hunt down the ones who had hurt him and deal with them herself. Perhaps she could help him. He had never imagined he would team up with a witch, but he couldn’t think of anyone he wanted by his side more than Lilian.
“I spent thirty years trying to track down the witches… unable to let it go. Grave reassigned me to the position I’m in now, and I know he did it to get me out of Hell… away from my mission of revenge.” Night smiled slowly. “By sending me to the mortal world, my brother unwittingly placed me in a position to fulfil that mission. I chanced upon a lead that brought me to the coven.”
“And you attacked it.” There was no judgement in her eyes as she said that, no anger or resentment, or fear and hatred.
“Only because I discovered the witch who had tried to take my head still lived there with the one who killed Franz… my commander… my mentor… my closest friend.” Night toyed with her fingers, avoiding her gaze, soul-deep aware this would change how she looked at him even when he didn’t want it to. “My attack on the coven was calculated and carried out carefully. I slipped in unnoticed and managed to reach the two responsible for what had happened. I injured one, but the other raised the alarm, and in the ensuing confusion both escaped. When I realised they had slipped through my grasp… my bloodlust. I fell into a rage. I was so furious that they had escaped again, after so long of trying to find them and being so convinced I would have my revenge… It was too much. Bloodlust seized me and it was all a nightmarish blur, and then I came around and… I saw what I had done.”
The halls of the house had been drenched in blood.
It had saturated every inch of his clothes and stained his skin.
“I won’t apologise for what I did… but there is a part of me that regrets it. I killed so many that night and for what? I never got my revenge.”
He lifted his gaze to meet hers.
“The witch who almost killed me is still out there.”
Chapter 21
Lilian finished the last scrap of the omelette she had made and pushed the empty plate away from her. She leaned her left elbow on the table, propping her chin up on her palm, and dragged the book she had set aside in front of her, and then her coffee. She sipped it as she flicked through the pages, pausing whenever she found a spell that intrigued her.
For most of the night and half the day, she had buried herself in the books Elissa had brought for her to read. That was a lie. For most of that time, she had been lost in thought, running over everything Night had told her. His emotions had been so evident as he had recounted the tale of how he had come to get the scar that ringed his neck, and despite his best efforts to hide it, she had seen how afraid just remembering what had happened made him. She couldn’t imagine the depth of the terror he had felt when he had almost lost his head, how afraid he had been of dying, and how desperate he must have been to live in order to survive the wound.
It was clear to her now that it had affected him deeply, setting him on a dark path that had consumed him and had coloured his view of all witches. He didn’t trust any of them. She hadn’t missed the way he had kept a wary eye on Elissa when she had delivered the stack of old spell books.
Lilian supposed that was another lie.
He did trusther.
Maybe he hadn’t back in the cell, when he had felt she had betrayed him, but she couldn’t really blame him for making presumptions and lashing out at her like that, even when it had hurt her. If a vampire had almost taken her head, she probably would have despised and not trusted any of his breed too.
He trusted her now though. Again. Her proof was the fact he had fallen asleep while she had been in his temporary quarters, leaving himself vulnerable to attack. If she had wanted to harm him, she could have done it.
She stared at the book in front of her, mulling over what he had told her. Her elders had told her the truth and he had attacked a coven, but it hadn’t been a cold, baseless act of violence, and she found it hard to blame him for what he had done. If someone had killed her beloved friend and tried to kill her, she would want revenge too, and she probably wouldn’t have stopped until she had gotten it either.
But he hadn’t gotten his revenge.
Did that gnaw at him? Was he still looking for the witches?
She idly sipped her coffee as she frowned at the page, something gnawing at her. What if someone was setting Night up and that was the reason her coven’s house in Germany had been attacked? But if they were, why would someone have told them Bastian had been seen in the area? Surely, if this whole thing had been a kind of trap, they would have told her elders that it was Night who had been there?
Lilian eased to her right, lifting her chin from her palm, and toyed with her lower lip as she thought about that. Her gaze locked on the stove opposite her and it blurred as she lost herself in thought.
“It really shouldn’t surprise me that you wandered off despite my request that you stay in the room with me.”
Lilian jumped and twisted on the chair, looking over her shoulder as that lush baritone invaded her thoughts.
Night leaned in the doorway, his arms folded across his chest, causing the dark silver-grey shirt to pull tight across his shoulders and biceps. He didn’t look impressed with her.
She huffed and went back to her coffee.
“I dozed off in the armchair and woke hungry. No one else is awake and you really shouldn’t be either.” She scowled at him as he rounded the table on her left, coming into view again. “You were supposed to be resting.”
“And I was… and then I skimmed the surface of waking and sensed you were gone.” His ice-blue eyes darted between hers, the worry in them hitting her hard.
“Sorry. I was careful.” Something she really felt she needed to be.
Antoine’s attitude towards her hadn’t changed one bit since she had helped Night recover from the poison. When Elissa had brought her the books, Antoine had come too, and had glared daggers at Lilian while helping Night into the shower. While Night had been showering, Antoine had issued a warning—if she hurt Night, he would deal with her.