Page 152 of The Vampire's Bride

I shake my head in frustration. “How can you not know?”

He takes a step forward, reaching out as if to comfort me, but I recoil. The hurt is still too raw. “My first wife only had amonth,” he admits. “The second had six weeks. And the third and fourth had a little over two months.”

Dread twists my stomach. “It’s been nearly three months. What must we do to break the curse?”

“If I could tell you, I would. But I cannot.”

“Is it the curse that keeps you from telling me?”

“Yes.”

Tears blur my vision as I struggle to make sense of it all. The man I love, the man who promised to protect me, is now the source of my doom. “Why did you keep this from me?”

He clenches his jaw. “I told my first two wives of my curse, but my tongue is bound so I could not tell them how to break it.” Valaric looks down at his hands. “They lived in a near constant state of fear after that. Worried of their fate, and I could do nothing to reassure them.”

He curls his hands into fists at his sides. “I was afraid that if I told you, you would pull away from me. I worried that this knowledge would devastate you as it did Lyra and Olena. And I couldn’t bear the thought of you living in fear, and to see you look at me the way you are now.”

His words are a painful reminder of the love that binds us even as it threatens to tear us apart. Valaric takes a step closer, the weight of his guilt and regret bleeding through our bond. “Juliet, please.”

“Can you at least tell me how you came to be cursed?”

His gaze drifts to the garden wall with a haunted look. “I lost everything the night I was turned. My brothers-in-arms. My village. My entire family.” His voice is thick with emotion. “I was consumed by hatred and rage, all I wanted was vengeance.”

His jaw tightens. “Vampires that are made… it takes time to learn and adapt to their new form. The ones who killed my people: they were older, stronger, faster than me. I neededsomething to give me an advantage. A way to ensure that they paid for what they had done.”

He looks down at his hands. “So I went to a blood witch. Never once did I stop to consider the true costs of the bargain. I had lost everything and everyone that I loved.” His eyes gloss over with unshed tears. “I was dead inside. All I wanted was revenge.”

“What happened?” I ask softly.

“The blood witch—Talindra—gave me a potion to walk in the sun for a day. It was all I needed to exact my vengeance. But after it was done, I owed her a favor. One she could call upon at any time.”

“What did she ask for?”

“Years… decades passed before she came to me.” He shakes his head. “Her mate was dying. I could have saved him with my blood, but it would have bound him to me, and she did not want that. So, she asked me to turn him.”

“Did you?”

“I warned her that not everyone survives the transformation. Many die in the attempt.” He sighs heavily. “But she did not listen and he did not survive. It broke my side of our bargain.”

“But you tried,” I say incredulously. “You warned her.”

“It doesn’t matter. She asked me to save him, but he died instead. It gave her power over me. For the past twenty years, she has summoned me five times to save someone and take them as my bride, as I did you.

“She uses her dark magic to create an enchanted rosebush—the one you noticed in the garden. And I have until the last petal falls to break the curse.” He curls his hands into fists at his sides. “So many have suffered because of my sins. Lyra and the others… I took them from their lives. Their families. Just as I did you.” He curls his hands into fists at his sides. “It should have been me who paid the price. Not anyone else.”

My anger begins to dissipate as I watch him fall apart. “You cannot blame yourself. You couldn’t have known what she would do to you.”

“Everyone knows not to make bargains with a blood witch,” he grits through his teeth. “I was so driven by the thought of revenge… I should have considered the risks.” He meets my gaze evenly. “Damar suggested something that I had considered before but dismissed. But now I realize it is the only way to keep you safe. There is no other choice. I must leave tomorrow night. I will find a way to—”

“No.” His words strike fear in my heart.

Whatever this is, it sounds dangerous. Sadness and betrayal still pulse through my veins, but they are tempered by an irrevocable truth. Valaric may have lied to me, but it does not change the fact that I am still his, just as he is mine.

He is the other half of my heart and my soul, and I cannot bear the thought of anything bad happening to him. “If you’re thinking of putting yourself in harm’s way, do not. It isn’t worth the risk.”

He frowns. “How can you say this when you have seen the cost of my curse?”

“Because I love you.” The words leave my mouth in a rush. “And I don’t want to lose you, Valaric.”

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