Page 37 of Blood of Ancients

Ravinica noticed. Her pace slowed, face turning. “Grim? Are you all right?”

Her voice drowned away.

I recalled my first berserk rage following my fathers’ deaths. The first sign of my curse—either emerging then because of that awful situation, or erupting for the first time, buried up until then beneath my skin and bone.

The wholesale slaughter that followed.

My teeth ripping into flesh. My bloodied nails turning into flaying claws, eviscerating, killing, and killing some more.

The field of blood and gore and entrails. The screams morphing into wails and cries for mothers.

The methodical way I made sure each and every one of them was dead, but not before they suffered.

“Grim?” Ravinica eked, stealing me from my dismal thoughts, slowing our walk to a complete stop. “Love?”

Her hand tightened on mine.

I blinked away the memory, the redness from my eyes. The sadness and rage. Shaking my head furiously, I cleared my throat. “Sorry.”

“Where . . . did you go?”

“Bad memory. That’s all.”

She said nothing.

I said, “Come on. Let’s eat. I’m starving.”

The dining hall was close. I could hear a clamor inside, around a few bends that opened up into a vast cave.

I didn’t particularly want to be surrounded by others at the moment. Not when I was feeling vulnerable and lost in my thoughts.

But Ravinica made me stronger. She firmly held my hand, staying by my side.

The first to ever stay by my side. My queen.

Our walk was barely a crawl. I resisted moving forward. Ravinica didn’t rush me.

“I sought refuge once before,” I said abruptly. My thoughts didn’t feel like my own.

“Really?” she asked softly. Not prying, but curious.

“As a boy. In the woods, after . . . my fathers.”

“Right,” she said, not forcing me to say more—not forcing me to continue reliving that fateful day that changed me forever. The day that made me who I was today, and would always be.

Ravinica had done her best to change me, and change I had. However, the visceral truths of me could never shift. My storycould never change. All I could do was add chapters and hope to craft a new story with my silver-haired goddess and her mates.

“I won’t seek refuge again,” I said sternly, staring forward and backward into the past simultaneously.

Ravinica rubbed my tense shoulder. “You’ll never have to, love. Not with me around. I swear it.”

I nodded, decisively. “I know it, Vini. In my bones, I know it.”

I started walking a little easier. She did the most to fortify me, and I’d forever be thankful for her friendship and love.

“Is that how you came here, Grim?” she asked, her voice still soft. “Escaping your refuge, coming out of hibernation?”

There was a sad smile on her face, and I matched it with one of my own. When my smile faltered, I told her the rest of the tale she didn’t know about, quick as I could.

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