Page 57 of The Sorcerer of Shadowholde

Cutting the man’s head off had been satisfying, though it would never bring the old Renatus back.

Eventually he would have to give up his Consulship in Shadowholde. Even with the extended life spans of elves, they didn’t live forever.

Mortal ones, at least.

People would talk, they would wonder. They already questioned the mysterious High Consul, the stranger of Shadowholde. He would miss his palace, but it would be easy enough to start over somewhere else.

Renatus would go to a new city, use his compulsions to find a new position, a new palace, a new life. By then, Aurora and Petran would be very old. Vita…

Vita would be gone.

A sinking feeling formed in his stomach. Hunger? Her moon cycle a few days ago should have satiated that.

No, it was… something else.

The thought of Vita dead in a grave made every muscle in his body clench. Her brown skin turned pale, the life in her eyes gone forever. He swallowed hard, his throat burning in a way he hadn’t felt in a long while.

Tears? Were thosetearsin his eyes? He wiped them away quickly with a kerchief, surprised at himself. When was the last time he had cried?

His mind was so foggy, he couldn’t even remember.

It had been a long while.

Renatus sat at his desk, not moving a muscle, trying to still his stormy mind. What was this girl doing to him? And what was he doing to her?

CHAPTER 25

Vita

DESPITE THE GLIMMER OF hope, the cycle continued as usual.

It had been three days since Renatus had spent the night—since the blood bond—and Vita hadn’t caught more than a glimpse of him. She’d woken up the morning after and he was nowhere to be found, the stark emptiness of the room unsettling.

Something tugged at her, like a vine tangled around her heart, squeezing her, beckoning her to him. She’d found herself standing outside the door of his office on more than one occasion, her feet taking her there when she’d meant to go to the library or the dining hall. Each time, she’d considered knocking, needing his touch, his reassurance,anything at all, but each time she left before her fist could make contact with the wood.

At first it was merely frustrating, the way he disappeared for days anytime they interacted.

Now, Vita couldn’t deny that her chest clenched when she thought about Renatus and the game he was playing.

Always the cat while she was the helpless little mouse.

What was he so frightened of? It couldn’t be her. Did he think she would ask something of him, set an expectation if they were to continue being intimate?

Certainly, marriage had always been something on Vita’s mind, though it wasn’t the act itself, but the meaning behind it. The idea of someone dedicating themselves fully to her, well, it was a pleasant thought, one that made her heart flutter.

She knew Renatus had his other pets, his thralls, lovers like Aurora and Gaius, and she wouldn’t keep that from him. Strangely, it didn’t bother her, the way he took his pleasure from others. It would be hypocritical for her to say otherwise, with the thoughts she had of Verian.

All she wanted was a mutual understanding, an explanation, an agreement of sorts. Intimacy beyond sex, like the way his arms wrapped around her as she fell asleep, his fingers brushing her hair. Some sort of devotion, a breaking of the cycle of cat and mouse.

But there was something else, something he was hiding from her. A pain so strong it would have brought her to her knees if she hadn’t been lying in bed. An emotion he had dissolved in an instant, the moment of vulnerability replaced with the mysterious façade he always showed her.

What exactly had happened to this man to make him so broken, so scarred?

Vita ate silently in the dining hall, Aurora picking at her own plate from across the table. Her thoughts were so busy she almost didn’t notice the shiver of power coursing through her veins, creeping up on her like an animal in the night.

It had been weeks since her last surge, the one with Renatus at dinner. Many times, she’d go months between them, but they’d been occurring all too frequently as of late.

Though there was the familiar burn that coursed through her body, this time she felt light, as if she were a feather blowing in the wind. She pushed away with a jolt, knocking her chair over as she stood.

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