Page 70 of Cruel Crown

Sighing, I moved away. It was always that first step you took after a beating that was the hardest. It seemed like the world was on your shoulders, but after taking one step and feeling the fire in your lungs, it made it all that much easier later.

“Never tell me what I can or cannot do,” I said calmly.

“Oh, but your father could? And now Damian too?”

I flinched.

“You speak of things you don’t understand. This is what happens if I stay. Me by myself in this castle, and whoever attacked me will be back, and when you come back, you’ll find my body if you’re lucky. Or I go, suck up the pain, and don’t give anyone an inch to attack me again.”

The pain spread through my chest as I forced myself to sit up. It was something I was familiar with that I got used to breathing fire. My lungs burned, but I did my best to get through these next few steps because falling was easy, but picking yourself up when you touched the ground, that was the hardest of all. Once you got going, each step was just a reminder that if you set your mind to something, you could endure it all.

Gideon got up, shaking his head pissed, his jaw taut, his eye promising retribution.

“If you’re going to do this, I’m going to be by your side at all times.”

“You can’t,” I said through gritted teeth as I took another step, the pain starting to feel numbing.

Gideon got to my side, stopping when he was right in front of me. He blocked my path so I wouldn’t be able to go further.

“Petal, by now, you should know I’d do anything to keep you at my side. I’d even sell my soul to the devil, and I have.”

I took a sharp breath, and I felt the pain spread through my lungs.

“You didn’t,” I said in disbelief. The only devil here was Damian, and for Gideon to stay here with me, he would have to have given him something in return. Damian wouldn’t have allowed any less.

“Everything,” Gideon said as he looked down at me. “I gave him every last bit of insurance I had and turned it in to him.”

He was an idiot. I didn’t know if I wanted to kiss him or kill him myself. His insurance was the only reason he has survived as long as he did, and now he’d handed it all to Damian.

“You are foolish,” I spat, looking into his eyes.

He grinned at me, and it was full of wicked madness.

“Why would I need all of that when I have you all at my back now?”

He had a point, but like hell if I would let him know.

“If I could hit you right now, I would.”

His smile got bigger, and his eyes went soft. “Come here,” he said before he gently grabbed my waist and pulled me close to his chest. Our lips were almost touching when the door opened.

Once again, I craned my neck and I could see Bas walking in, and behind him was Roman.

Roman was one of the doctors I trusted. He was tall and olive-skinned, with black hair that was pulled back in a ponytail, gauges on his earlobes, snake bites, and square glasses. He was not too muscular but also not too thin; he was a contradiction.

He looked at me and shook his head. “Must you always ignore everything I tell you?”

His voice was a little hoarse due to the time he got captured in a third-world country. The torture he received had damaged his windpipes. The vaccine he had created would have done some major damage to big pharma.

“Make me better so I can go camping,” I told him.

He shook his head and mocked me.

“You’re new,” he said as he looked at Gideon. Roman spent most of his time in the lab along with the other scientist. They had their own headquarters since their training wasn’t as rigorous and most of them liked to keep to themselves.

“I’m her man,” he said as he tried to mark his territory once more.

“He’s a new member,” I said.

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