Page 17 of Foretold

I’m about to head back inside and talk to Bane and Pandora when, out of nowhere, Rave is standing in front of me, more darkness than male. Dressed in black from head to toe, his icy eyes are pinned on me, devouring my face like he’s been starved without me. Impenetrable smoke frames him, his wings out in their full force.

“I’m here for what’smine,” he growls.

Before I can say anything back, he zips behind me, his big hands encircling my waist.

And then I’m gone.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Astrid

He zips us to our old bedroom. I don’t fight him. It happens so quickly that I’m still processing what he has done when he lets go and steps back from me, his expression blank.

“You have no right to bring me here against my will,” I say quietly, my anger building with each long second that passes. Yes, I knew he would pull something like this, but that doesn’t mean I will make it easy on him. I try to zip out, but I can’t. “Take me back. Now!”

“I have every right,” he replies, cold eyes trailing over me. Whatever I felt from him, he’s damn good at shielding it. “You’remine, Astrid. You didn’t think I’d just let you walk away from me, did you? I gave you as much time as I could. I fucking tried, but it hurts being without you.”

Gritting my teeth, I try to escape again, but it doesn’t work.

“The room has been spelled,” he says, his eyes flashing with hurt before he masks it. “You can’t zip out of here. There is nothing and no one in this realm that can save you from me, Astrid. And it’s time you learned that.”

“What?” I growl, staring at the male before me like I’ve never seen him before. “You’re locking me in here until I forgive you? Because I’m telling you now, you’ll be waiting a long ass time for that to happen!”

“You’re not going anywhere until we’ve talked about what happened. You can’t just avoid me forever,” he replies, his tone gentling. “Can you do that? Just give me one day to hear me out, please.”

The ‘please’ gets me, but all I have to do is think about his lies for my guard to come back up again.

“You want to do this right now?” I ask, shadows at my fingertips.

He stares down at them, his jaw tightening. “Yes, because your anger is better than nothing, Princess. I’ll take whatever you want to throw at me. I don’t fucking care as long as you are here,” he rasps, taking a step closer to me. “Tell me how I fucked up. How I hid things from you, hid my son from you, and because of that, Vera was able to use it against you. Tell me how I didn’t trust you enough even when I should have. Tell me how I fucked up the best thing that has ever happened to me.”

I pick up the closest thing I can find, the glass centerpiece vase, and throw it at his head. Shadows incinerate it before it hits him, but the slight widening of his eyes lets me know he was surprised.

“You had a whole child, and you didn’t think to tell me. A child. A literal piece of you. And your truth-sayer is the mother of that child. How many times did I see you both talking or arguing? And I knew something was going on, but I fucking trusted you! I thought she was a clingy ex you had some history with, not the mother of your firstborn!” I yell at him, fists clenching. “I never wanted to fucking bond with you, and I should have trusted that instinct. Inevershould have let you charm me into changing my mind.”

His eyes flicker with pain, remorse, and everything else it’s too late to be feeling. “Astrid—”

“What would you do if this situation were reversed?” I ask, taking a deep breath to try and calm myself down. “If I had a child with August and kept that from you? If we had a house together that he lived in, and I visited him every morning. Because that’s where you were going, right? That’s why you went missing every day. You were with your child, and you should be with your child. But what you should not do is fucking lie about it all.”

“You’re right,” he admits, jaw tight as marble. His eyes flicker to black when he adds, “And don’t mention anything about you and August again. That’s not something that is ever going to happen.”

He takes another step closer, his hands out as if approaching a wild beast that might attack him at any moment. And to be fair, I just might. “I should have told you. There are no excuses. I knew you weren’t sure, and I didn’t want to push you further away by telling you about Vale. I’m so sorry, Astrid. The way you looked at me with pure pain in your eyes, and knowing I did that to you, it was fucking agony. I’d kill anyone who hurt you, but this time it was me. I never want to see that look on your beautiful face again.”

“Vera said you want him to be your heir and take the throne,” I say, pulling a chair out and sitting down on it, facing him. “I’m guessing that’s another reason you didn’t want to tell me because if we have a son…” I swallow, remembering the vision of Vale and thinking he wasourson, “… he won’t be the next king.”

The irony of this whole mess.

I bonded with him after having the vision of Vale. Without assuming he was my son, I probably would have held out.

You would have given in eventually. You love him.

“He’s my first-born son,” he says after a few long moments, then slides back against the door until he’s sitting on the floor, forearms resting on his knees. I’ve never seen him so defeated. “I know he’s not yours, but he’s mine. So, yes, of course, I want him as my heir. This was my plan before I met you, Astrid. I didn’t know if I’d ever find my mate. So yes, I had my life planned without factoring you into it. But things have changed now, and I want to make this work. I want you to be happy here with me.”

He’s finally being honest, but his words still cut me.

“If you had your life so well planned out, you should have left me alone and let me leave,” I reply, my voice deceptively calm.“But you wanted your power, too, didn’t you? And now you have it.”

“What I wantnowis you,” he replies, his brow furrowing. His ice-blue eyes look tortured. “Everything changed from the second I laid my eyes on you. Fuck the magic, Astrid. I just want you.”

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