Page 73 of The Blood Crown

She still remembered the feel, thescentof his shadows soothing her as he'd taken her to the safety of Ravenstone.

"I tried to stay away," he murmured like an apology. "I told myself that once you went into stasis and had control over your magick, I would take you back." He hesitated, and she could feel the ratchet of his heartbeat beneath her. "At first I hated thatyou were forced to stay here against your will—but then I found myself grateful for the fact that I had an excuse to keep you.” He swallowed hard. “And then I watched you slowly come to life before me, like maybe you could find your place here with us. And you looked at me like—like I wasn’t somethingother.”

He exhaled a ragged breath. “I think—deep down—I knew we were Bound, but it wasn’t until I tasted your blood that I was certain.” His gaze drifted to the side of her neck, drawing a flush across her skin. "And long before that I found myself . . . falling in love with you. Hating myself for how selfish it made me. So I decided to take it to my grave rather than burden you with that choice—with the knowledge of what awaits me."

His eyes met hers as she finally let out a breath. “That’s why you told me there was no future for us," she said softly. "That you had nothing to offer me."

Ven's face paled as she threw his words back at him.

“I couldn't tether you to my fate." His voice was soft, pleading. "I knew even before we left Eisenea that I would have to let you go . . . but then you asked to return, and I never could have denied you. I told myself that it was everything you wanted," he murmured. "That you would go back to your existence, and I could attempt to go back to the life I’d had here. Without you.”

He’d been as heartbroken as she’d felt that night. Torn between the duty to her family and her own happiness here.

“So you found a way for me to go back to my old life,” she whispered. “You freed me."

He barked out a harsh laugh. “You wouldneverhave been free of me. It nearly drove me mad to leave you in the human realm—to watch you go back to that life,” he bit out. “It wasn’t out of altruism that I found a way for you to exist there." The words were bitter, as if he hated himself for them. "It was a way for me to keep a foothold in your world.”

His gaze lifted to hers, unflinching. “I was noble enough to let you go back to your life—tohim—but I’m well aware of human lifespans.” His eyes flashed dangerously. “I knew eventuallyhewould die, and you would continue on. And maybe—” he whispered coldly, “just maybe, you would return. Whether it was in fifty years or two hundred—I didn’t care.” His words were sharp as the edge of a blade as he breathed, “Because I would wait. And I would endure."

The ruthlessness of the blood that ran through his veins was evident right now. A crimson storm raging behind his eyes—a sliver of the male who had claimed her, had killed for her—rising to the surface.

"I knew I could never offer you a happy future—not with the destiny that hangs over my head. But maybe I could witness your happiness from afar . . . if you found someone else." His voice dropped to a low rumble, the fire in his eyes banking to embers. “But even once Lanthius sealed the wards—when I knew you were safe—Icouldn’t. Fucking. Leave.”

Just as there had been something tugging her feet toward the mirror. Back to him.

Heavy silence blanketed the small space between them before she finally whispered, “And if I hadn’t come back?”

She met his gaze, the black of his pupils receding and letting the red surface again, the fierceness from before softening as he replied, “I would have died just trying to be near you once more.”

Her heart thundered at the confession, smothering the anger that still burned there.

“One day,” Ven uttered, “whether it is by my hand or some other lucky bastard’s—my father will die, and the crown will pass to me.” Despair darkened his eyes. “And when that happens, I fear that I will not even recognize myself.”

When. Notif.

She sucked in a sharp breath. The image of Ven sitting in his father’s monstrous throne—blood trailing down his temples from the jagged iron . . .

“That is not your fate,” she commanded, hands gripping his biceps. He may have given over to whatever he believed his future to be, but she knewhim. She knew that he couldneverbecome that.

His eyes lifted to hers, shattered. “It is a curse that will hound me for the rest of my life, Aurelia,” he finally rasped.

And that was the crux of it.

Ven believed himself doomed to be his father. And he believed her doomed to live out his mother’s fate.

A fate bound to his.

Undeniable.Irrefutable.

Ven’s voice was hushed when he finally spoke again. “My scars are bared to you.” He lifted his palms in surrender. “You’ve seen what I am. The kind of blood that runs through my veins . . . You know the fate that awaits me.”

True, she’d glimpsed the part of him that came from his father. The lengths he would go to protect the people he loved . . . But that had never frightened her. Because shesawthat part of him, and recognized it in herself.

The family that he had made for himself at Ravenstone. The kind of male and leader he had chosen to be. The warmth and loyalty and love that surrounded them in the homehehad created.Thosewere the true markers of who Ven was.

She cupped his face between her hands, forcing him to meet her eyes. “You aremorethan that—you are nothim.”

“If dozens of males had stepped forward to challenge my claim to you—hundreds—I would have killed them all," he growled. "Without question. Without remorse.”

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