Page 98 of Gothikana

‘Fuck!’ He turned her around, taking a look at her hand. The jagged edge of a small piece of glass was lodged in the middle of her palm, dark red blood covering her fingers and dripping.

Corvina winced as he took the piece out, freeing a small gush of new blood.

He tore the edge of his cape, and wrapped it around her hand tightly, stemming the flow.

‘The glass could have slit your wrist,’ he said gruffly, his jaw clenching.

Corvina gave him a little smile through the pain. ‘Then I would have died in your arms while coming, and what a beautiful death it would’ve been.’

He gave her a glare as he finished wrapping her hand. ‘The night will get wilder here. You want to stay and see the show? Or get out of here for a bit?’

Corvina glanced back at the hall, her friends all busy either dancing or making out with someone, more and more people around the hall finding dark corners to engage in.

‘Take me somewhere else.’

‘Meet me outside.’

Corvina entered the throng to find Jade standing alone in a corner, watching her approach. She told her she was going for a walk with someone, and a fleeting look crossed her face before Jade smiled.

‘Come back soon.’

Corvina left the hall and went downstairs, slowly making her way through the crowd toward the front entrance, dodging a few hands that tried to grab her, finally emerging out into the night to her silver-eyed man in the crow mask.

He swung her up in his arms with a yelp from her. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Taking you to my lair.’ He gave her a roguish grin, a mysterious man in a dark cape, carrying her into the woods on the night of the Black Ball.

She recognised the path he took her down immediately.

‘Did you repair the piano?’ she asked him, wrapping her arms around his neck as he sturdily took her down the incline toward the ruins.

‘It’s a work in progress,’ he commented wryly. ‘I was more focused on getting the thesis done in time.’

‘Have you ever wanted to go out, teach somewhere else?’ Corvina mused.

He gave her a questioning look in the moonlight. ‘Why would I? Verenmore is mine. I want to slowly fix it and make it a safe haven for people like us, the ones with troubled pasts.’

‘What if someone disappears tonight?’ She worried at her lip.

‘Let’s cross that bridge when we get there, Corvina.’ He sighed, settling her higher in his arms.

Soon, a familiar crumbling wall came into view under the gorgeous moonlight, the eerie gargoyle-like sculptures, and the one-eyed tree their audience as he headed to their spot.

‘This is what you call your lair?’ Corvina chuckled, looking around the ruins and the empty gravestones under the moon.

Vad deposited her on the now mostly repaired piano, and she leaned back on her hands, watching him as he took his mask off, revealing that sculpted face and the streak of hair she loved. He took off her mask and put it on the side, going to his knees in front of her, his hands trapping her on the piano. Pulling her leg over his shoulder, he kissed her inner thigh.

‘Show me your mother’s bracelet,’ he told her, pressing light kisses to the soft skin.

Puzzled, Corvina showed him her left hand where the multi-crystal bracelet gleamed in the moonlight, warm against her skin.

He took her hand and placed something in her palm.

A ring.

Corvina’s heart stopped. She’d read too many romances not to recognise the similarities, and they scared the hell out of her.

‘Are you… are you proposing?’ she whispered, her anxiety climbing.

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