Page 145 of The Broken Aztec Princesses

“So, Kassie was right. You are blaming yourself for this whole thing,” he whispered in a wavering voice.

“I—It was my fault.”

A sob broke out from Adrien and he dropped to his knees, grasping my hands and looking up at me with so much anguish, I thought my heart would break in two.

“No, Vi. It w-wasn’t your fault. It was m-mine. The whole t-thing was my fault,” he managed to say through his tears. His eyes were filled with so much pain and self-hatred, his lips trembling as the tears continued to fall.

“What are you ta—”

“I told Tori to make you leave the p-pack grounds. It was all m-me. You two were always c-close, and I thought if anyone could do it, she could. It was all m-my idea. My fault. I made her take you to the mall, and I l-lost you and my little girl because of it.”

I pulled my hands from Adrien’s, and the look of pain on his face almost took the breath out of my lungs; he thought I was pulling away because I was mad at him. But I wasn’t. I never realized that Adrien was struggling and blaming himself this whole time, or I would have forced Dad to drag him into my room. I dropped to the ground and hugged him as my cousin fell apart in my arms. Anger surged within me at all the damage Nickolas had caused. He destroyed more than just two lives that day.

“It’s not your fault,” I whispered in his ear, making him sob as he gripped me tightly.

We sat on the floor of my bedroom until we stopped crying. I felt a peace I hadn’t felt in a long time when I was done, and I grabbed his face in my hands and made him look me in the eyes.

“We’re done with this blame game. Both of us. There’s only one person to blame for all of this, and he’s dead and burnt to a crisp. No more. We’re just letting him and Tezcatlipoca win.”

Adrien searched my face as I spoke. What he found, I didn’t know, but eventually he smiled.

“You’re not the same Violet, are you?” he asked, pushing my hair out of my face and cleaning up my face.

“No, but I’d like to think I’ll eventually be better than who I was. That’ll be the best ’fuck you’ to Nickolas, don’t you think?” I said, trying to smile. “He won’t break us.”

“And it has nothing to do with the hunk of a man that answered the door?” He raised a knowing eyebrow.

I did manage to smile at the mention of Chris, but I shook my head.

“No. He helped me, but at the end of the day, it’s all me.”

“You are so strong.” Adrien hugged me one more time, but I knew he was still going to ask. “But, you are going to dish out about Chris, and what he was doing in your room in the middle of the night, right?”

“He’s my guard. He’s supposed to be—”

“Violet,” he whined, making me laugh.

“It’s new.” I confided in him.

“Is he your sec—” He stopped when I shook my head.

“No. He’s not, but if he’ll have me, I want to be his chosen mate,” I admitted.

“That serious?”

“Yeah. I love him.” I had never been more sure of anything.

“I’m happy for you, Violet. You deserve the world.”

“I just want him.”

“Kassie is going to go tits-up when she finds out!” He stood and did a little jig.

Those two were always trying to one up each other on who had the better gossip.

“They don’t know yet, Adrien. I haven’t talked to any of them yet. Give me some time, yeah?” I asked.

I wanted to be sure Chris was in this thing all the way before I broke the news to my parents.

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