Page 67 of A Debt of Darkness

Damn. This fucking hurts.

I break our kiss and Ivy knows something’s wrong.

“Did you want to know?”

I’m terrified. The only other time I’ve known terror like this was when I thought Matt was attacking her. She’s got my heart and future in her hands, and she’s the one with control. She was always the center of my world but my orbit’s never been so erratic.

Ivy’s eyes widen and their green is electric. She’s proud, delighted she’s earned the right to know. She beams and nods, pawing my chest as she leans forward.

I take her hand and my fingers play with hers. They brush over her ring—my ring—and I adjust it, transfixed.

“You’ve never taken this off.” I sigh. “Even when I locked you away, you didn’t take it off.”

She smiles and it’s perfect, breaking my heart.

“Do you like it?” I ask, trying to delay.

Ivy smiles. “I do but it feels big. Too big. For me.”

“It isn’t. It was bigger. No one needs a ruby the size of an egg, and one day, lea, I will give the remaining stones to you.”

Adorning the collar I’m having made for her.

“What are you hiding, Henry?”

“Promise not to take it off?” I ask. “No matter how bad this gets, Ivy. Please don’t take it off.”

She nods.

It’s good enough.

“Did you see anything unusual when I thought Matt was hurting you?”

Her eyes shoot open and her heart accelerates. Fuck, she saw something. She pretended she didn’t or convinced herself it was a mistake. Ivy’s known something was wrong and her human brain refused to accept what was right in front of it, choosing to remain blissfully ignorant.

“Henry?”

She’s shaking. The color drains from her face. She’s staring at me like I’m going to save her. She hopes I’ll save her. She thinks I’m her salvation.

“I’m the same person, Ivy. Still the same. Nothing is different.”

“I didn’t see anything.”

Ivy’s trying to deny what she needs to accept. For the first time, she’s faltering. She’s stepping back from something terrifying and my heart shatters, knowing I’m the thing she fears. I’d never hurt her, never harm her. I’d hope she’d trust me to feed from her, but I’d never risk her life.

Other pets, yes. Not her. Never her.

And clearly, she doesn’t.

“We both know you did, lea.”

She shakes her head. “I was panicking. I hadn’t had enough to eat. I was delirious.”

I tense as she repeats the lies she’s convinced herself are true. Ivy’s lived a lie to bring us together and now I must shatter it. Shatter her. I wanted to before. I craved the exquisite agony of breaking her down until she was mine to mold. I broke her. I destroyed her. And now I’d do anything to stop it from happening again.

“That isn’t true, Ivy.”

The silence is deafening. My heart that started beating for her stops and I don’t know what to do. I know what must be done. I know the path I need to walk. I need to find the courage to do it and to catch Ivy before she falls from my grasp.

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